A Cognitive Approach To Coherence In Poetic Discourses

Poetry is well-known to be a special literature variety, whose coherence is always difficult to interpret by simply combining the linguistic symbols, for there is always giant difference between the literal meaning of a poem and the poem's theme. This phenomenon is just what Frost described as the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. Of those few studies concerned with discourse coherence in poetry, most are centered with the explicit cohesive ties. However, poetry is generally believed to be a special discourse lacking cohesive ties, whose coherence is implicit and cannot simply be construed by linguistic symbols. Therefore, more cognitive efforts are needed to secure coherence in poetic discourseConceptual Integration Theory (CIT), proposed by Fauconnier and Turner, is based on the Mental Space Theory, which focuses on the cognitive process of the construal of on-line meaning, and has been proved to be theoretically powerful. This thesis is conducted to interpret coherence in some of Pound's image poetry within the framework of CIT with intent to explore the cognitive mechanism behind coherence in poetic discourse, in hope to shed some light on the construction of a comprehensive and systematic theory for discourse coherence.,As a poem is an independent and auto-governed image system, its coherence is not usually represented in the linguistic symbols and cannot be traced down directly. On the contrary, coherence in poetry hides behind words and only by exploring the working mechanism underlying the process of image creation and arrangement can it be brought to the readers. This thesis firstly turns to the four network models for interpreting and illustrating the process of how coherence in poetic discourses is achieved. Simplex network, single-scope network, double-scope network and mirror network are respectively applied into analyzing coherence in poetic discourse, which is a tentative effort to explore the cognitive mechanism behind coherence in poetic discourse and an attempt to testify the explanatory power of CIT to coherence in poetic discourse. Then, this thesis concludes that coherence in poetic discourse is a dynamic process of how images in the discourse are used to build two or more input spaces, a generic space and one blending space to create the creative meaning. In addition, images are found to play an important role in constructing coherence, which is thought to be the distinct feature of mechanism behind coherence in poetic discourse. On the other hand, this thesis proposes that cognitive mechanism behind coherence in poetic discourses varies in each poem according to the way images are blended and then tries to analyze how four representative mechanisms behind coherence in poetry: mechanism of image superposition, mechanism of image juxtaposition, mechanism of image radiation and mechanism of image leap, are realized in poetic discourses within the framework of CIT. In this way, the conclusion can be drawn that CIT is effective in explaining coherence in poetic discourse and mechanism behind coherence in poetic discourse is in essence a dynamic interaction among images.Though this thesis is far from being perfect and there is room for further improvement, it is of great theoretical value and practical significance. Firstly, it testifies the power of CIT in interpreting coherence in poetic discourse, which open up a broader the prospect for of the theory. Secondly, the introduction of the CIT to discourse analysis should definitely bring new enrichment for researches in discourse coherence and therefore relieve coherence of its mystifying aura.