A C+R Approach To The Cognitive Mechanism Of Zeugma

Zeugma is a kind of language phenomena which mainly appear in the literature works. As a figure of speech, its conventional collocation and witty, humorous effects attract the attention of scholars at home and abroad. The previous studies mainly focus on the abundant descriptions and analyses of its classification, definition, pragmatic effects and translation strategies, etc. In recent years, more and more linguists have already tried to make use of different linguistic theories to probe into the interpretation of zeugma, which lies a solid and affluent foundation for the future studies on this subject. However, in general, the study on zeugma from the perspective of cognition is limited, and the interpretation of cognitive mechanism of meaning construction of zeugma is not perfect. Therefore, based on the previous studies on zeugma, this thesis will integrate Relevance Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory, and utilize the integrated model to study the cognitive mechanism of zeugma.First of all, this thesis introduces the definition, classifications, functions of zeugma and studies on zeugma at home and abroad, and collects over thirty zeugma expressions from the different Western literature works, some rhetorical books and periodicals. Then the research contents about Conceptual Integration Theory and Relevance Theory are presented in detail, and these two theories are respectively used to interpret zeugma. Both Relevance Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory are two theories of studying meaning construction. They both regard meaning construction of zeugma as a dynamic inferential process of cognition, but they have their own defects. For example, Relevance Theory only provides a general principle but not revealing the dynamical cognitive mechanism of meaning construction. At the same time, Conceptual Integration Theory can be used to analyze the cognitive mechanism of meaning construction by means of cross-space mappings and projection, but it lacks a general principle to guide the cognitive mechanism. However, their own defects can be supplemented by each other. At last, based on the possibility and necessity, this thesis summarizes the defects of the two and proposes the complementaries of comprehending zeugma. Thereby, the integrated C+R model is put forward to verify its explanatory power by means of qualitative method.From this study, the findings are summarized in the following way: some factors play the important and indispensable roles in the process of interpreting the cognitive mechanism of meaning construction of zeugma, such as, principles of relevance, inference, cognitive context in prominence, cross-space mapping, emergent structure, context verification, etc. In specific, firstly, under the framework of CIT, the cognitive mechanism of meaning construction of zeugma is understood by the construction of mental spaces and cross-space mappings and blending of the concepts; secondly, under the framework of RT, the interpretation of zeugma is an inferential process in which the hearer seeks for the optimal relevance through constructing a series of contextual assumptions; thirdly, this thesis summaries the defects and the complementaries of these two theories and proposes C+R model to interpret the generation mechanism of zeugma, that is, under the guidance of relevance, the reader selects the optimal relevance from cognitive context which is stimulated by the manifest information in Input1. Then through cross-space mapping and selective projection, modulation space solves the semantic conflict between Input1 and Input2. At last, after context verification, the meaning interpretation of zeugma is finished. This integrated research has more thorough explanation than the former theories. Meanwhile, this study also provides a new perspective for the explanation of cognitive mechanism of zeugma. Furthermore, this study can give some theoretical guidance for teaching rhetoric and English vocabularies.