Study Of Verbal Humor In English Versions From The Perspective Of Conceptual Integration Theory ——A Case Study Of Mr.Ma And Son

Humor is ubiquitous in daily life,especially in everyday communication.It can bring not only laughter but also relieve stress.The inner cognitive mechanism of verbal humor has attracted scholars’ attention.Conceptual integration theory reflects the process of combining,perfecting,and expanding through the mapping between mental space networks,forming a new framework.The analysis of mental space networks mapping of verbal humor can be interpreted that the formation and process of verbal humor can better understand the effect.As one of Lao She’s early classic works,Mr.Ma and Son marks the formation of Lao She’s humorous style and guides readers to reflect on laughter through the description of the characters’ absurd behaviors.This paper selects 301 pieces of verbal humor in his humorous novel Mr.Ma and Son,which forms the research corpus.They have been classified and integrated from three dimensions of situational verbal humor,language humor,and cultural verbal humor,which applies the four networks of conceptual integration theory to analyze the mapping relationship and find out the mapping process of verbal humor in the English translation of Mr.Ma and Son and the selection factors of the mapping space in its dynamic generation process.The main findings of this paper are:（1）The frequency of using mirror networks and double-scope networks is relatively high among the four networks in both versions of Mr.Ma and Son.Lao She prefers to exploit metaphorical rhetorical devices to express verbal humor.And there are 102 sentences containing figurative verbal humor,and the employment of a mirror network and double-scope network can better assist the generation of figurative verbal humor.（2）When analyzing the verbal humor among the research corpus from the perspective of Conceptual Integration Theory,the analysis of situational verbal humor should be based on the understanding of the specific characters and scenes.When cultural verbal humor is examined,it is necessary to understand the cultural background and cultural information hidden in verbal humor.（3）In applying the four sub-networks to generate and analyze verbal humor,it can be found that there are differences in the process of Chinese and English humor generation,and the use of sub-network space won’t be fixed and equivalent.Due to the differences in culture and language between China and other English-Speaking countries,the Double-scope network generation process that mainly occurs in Chinese humor is transformed into a Single-scope network after being translated into English.During the study of humor generation,the various factors of cultures,society,history and language should be concentrated on.Only by paying attention to these factors can the similarities between Chinese and English humor be fully discovered.In conclusion,conceptual integration theory demonstrates the meaning construction of verbal humor and explains the dynamic generation and realization of humorous effects.