scholarly journals What is the Impact of Multimodality and Intersubjectivity on the English Humour?

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (52) ◽  
pp. 83-92
Author(s):  
Joanna Jabłońska-Hood

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The purpose of my article is to demonstrate how the terms of multimodality and intersubjectivity function within the areana of English humour, specifically in reference to a chosen sitcom. To this means I shall employ the cognitive apparatus of conceptual integration theory, aka blending. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The presented research problem centres around the notions of intersubjectivity, i.e. the human ability to display a shared perception of reality with regard to members of their own community, as well as multimodality, i.e. the use of more than one sense for the purpose of meaning rendition. Both phenomena are studied here with regard to the English humour, whose explanation is based on a cognitive linguistic method of blending. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Having explained the term ‘English humour’, I then clarify intersubjectivity, multimodality and cognitive integration, which will serve here as the tools for the purpose of my humour analysis. Therein I intend to show how they interlink and how their roles influence the comprehension of English humour. RESEARCH RESULTS: The result of this argumentation is constituted by the fact that intersubjectivity and multimodality together with blending can greatly enhance the comprehension of the amusing contents within English comedy. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The analysis confirms that conceptual integration theory, as enriched by intersubjectivity and multimodality, provides a humour researcher with a concrete apparatus for measuring humour effects. However, further research is advocated into the process of blending, as accompanied by intersubjectivity and multimodality, with recourse to English humour as well as other types of humour, e.g. the Polish comedy, in order to provide contrastive evidence for these tools and their usefulness or effectiveness.

Semiotica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (220) ◽  
pp. 123-153
Author(s):  
Andrea Rocci ◽  
Sabrina Mazzali-Lurati ◽  
Chiara Pollaroli

AbstractThe aim of this article is to contribute to the theoretical development of multimodal metonymy and the argumentative and rhetorical role that the trope can fulfil in multimodal advertising campaigns. A model for the analysis of multimodal tropes in page-based advertising messages is developed by drawing insights from different disciplines. This model involves the identification of the elementary and layout components of the message, the description of its multimodal structure (in terms of the visual structure and the contribution of the verbal component), the reconstruction of its meaning operation, and the reconstruction of its enthymematic structure. In particular, the meaning operation is reconstructed by the employment of Conceptual Integration Theory, which we have slightly revised in order to better account for metonymical mappings. The enthymematic structure is reconstructed following the Argumentum Model of Topics, a model of argument schemes that enables one to make explicit the contextual and the logical dimensions of arguments. Based on the tenets of the two frameworks, we claim that multimodal metonymy condenses and gives access to a complex chain of connections, which mirrors the argumentation the audience is invited to infer. This argumentation is based on causal schemes of reasoning. This claim results in the in-depth analysis of both a billboard belonging to an anti-AIDS campaign and a social campaign by Greenpeace against the use of environmental-damaging paper for toy packages by Mattel.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Hidalgo Downing ◽  
Blanca Kraljevic Mujic

This article presents a study of ongoing global and local changing practices by exploring the interaction between multimodal metaphor and narrative in advertising discourse. Thus, we make use of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Integration Theory to compare how social changes and continuities are represented and re-contextualized in advertising discourse, across time, genres and cultures. Changes in time and across genres are addressed through the analysis of printed ads from 2000-2002 and internet ads from 2001-2009. Second, we compare the interaction between transformation and magic metaphors and storytelling frames in both genres and periods. Finally, we pay particular attention to the variation in a global brand campaign (Coca-Cola) in three different cultures, thus revealing competing changes in global and local social practices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Jabłońska-Hood

Conceptual integration theory (henceforth CIT), aka conceptual blending, was devised by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) as a model for meaning construction and interpretation. It is based on the notion of a mental space, which originated in Fauconnier's early research (1998). Mental spaces are structures that constitute information pertaining to a particular concept (Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 40). Interestingly, mental spaces can be linked together and blended so as to produce a novel quality not previously present. In this manner, conceptual integration serves the purpose of a theoretical model which throws light on creativity in language use. In my paper, I will apply CIT to British humour in order to use its multiway blending together with its dynamic, online running of the blended contents for the purpose of comedy elucidation. It is crucial to observe that British humour is a complex phenomenon which pertains to many different levels of interpretation, i.e. a linguistic, cultural or a discourse one. CIT possesses a well suited cognitive apparatus which can encompass the complexity of British humour with all its layers. The primary goal of the article is to analyse a selected scene from a sitcom entitled Miranda in order to show the validity of the theory in respect of humour studies. In particular, I will undertake to demonstrate that CIT, with a special emphasis on its principles such as compression and the emergent structure of the blend can deal with many processes that accumulate within British humour and result in laughter. Simultaneously, I will try to demonstrate that frame-shifting, as proposed by Coulson (2015: pp. 167-190), can be of help to CIT in humour explanation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roslyn M Frank

<p>In recent years the relationship between language change and biological evolution has captured the attention of investigators operating in different disciplines, particularly evolutionary biology, AI and A-Life (Zeimke 2001, Hull 2001), as well as linguistics (Croft 2000; Sinha 1999), with each group often bringing radically different conceptualizations of the object under study, namely, “language” itself, to the debate.&nbsp;Over the centuries, meanings associated with the expression “language” have been influenced by mappings of conceptual frames and inputs from the biological sciences onto the entity referred to as “language”. At the same time the prestige of the “science of linguistics” created a feedback mechanism by which the referentiality of “language”, at each stage, was mapped back into the field of evolutionary biology along with the emergent structure(s) of the resulting “blend”. While significant energy has been spent on identifying ways in which biological evolution has been linked to concepts of language evolution (Dörries 2002), little attention has been directed to the nature of the conceptual integration networks that have been produced in the process. This paper examines the way conceptual integration theory can be brought to bear on the “blends” that have been created, focusing primarily on examples drawn from 19th century debates concerning the “language-species-organism analogy” in the emerging field of comparative-historical philology.</p><p>In recent years the relationship between language change and biological evolution has captured the attention of investigators operating in different disciplines, particularly evolutionary biology, AI and A-Life (Zeimke 2001, Hull 2001), as well as linguistics (Croft 2000; Sinha 1999), with each group often bringing radically different conceptualizations of the object under study, namely, “language” itself, to the debate. Over the centuries, meanings associated with the expression “language” have been influenced by mappings of conceptual frames and inputs from the biological sciences onto the entity referred to as “language”. At the same time the prestige of the “science of linguistics” created a feedback mechanism by which the referentiality of “language”, at each stage, was mapped back into the field of evolutionary biology along with the emergent structure(s) of the resulting “blend”. While significant energy has been spent on identifying ways in which biological evolution has been linked to concepts of language evolution (Dörries 2002), little attention has been directed to the nature of the conceptual integration networks that have been produced in the process. This paper examines the way conceptual integration theory can be brought to bear on the “blends” that have been created, focusing primarily on examples drawn from 19th century debates concerning the “language-species-organism analogy” in the emerging field of comparative-historical philology. The document includes Supplemental Materials: Resource Guide and Commentaries.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Dynel

AbstractThe primary objective of this article is to discuss humorous pictorial advertisements contingent on non-verbal (visual) and verbal components, with the heuristic apparatus provided by Fauconnier and Turner's conceptual integration theory. A postulate is advanced that humour-orientated blending can be viewed in the light of the incongruity-resolution model (Suls, 1972, 1983), the prevailing framework of humour interpretation in linguistics and psychology. Nevertheless, a proviso is made that special emphasis must be placed on the mechanism of bisociation, i.e. oscillation between incompatible frames of reference (Koestler, 1964), after the resolution stage, which is in accordance with the conceptual integration account. Additionally, a preliminary attempt is made at differentiating humorous blends from non-humorous ones. Finally, a discussion of examples aims to testify to the widespread and multifarious applicability of the incongruity-resolution blending approach in the analysis of humorous advertisements. It is shown how humorously incongruous blends and advertising meta-blends interweave.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
George Ouma Ogal ◽  
Moses Gatambuki Gathigia ◽  
Joseph Nyehita Maitaria

Political campaigns are emotive activities that rely on language to attract the attention of the public. In fact, electioneering periods in Kenya are heavily laced with idiomatic expressions such that one would be required to use the interrelatedness between language and cognition to understand the utterances of a speaker. It is against this backdrop that the present study analyzes the cognitive processes of the idiom minji na ndengũ (peas and green grams) vis-à-vis the canonized form. The idiom minji na ndengũ (peas and green grams) drew a lot of attention during the Kenyan official electioneering period (May and October, 2017) and was extensively used in both the print and social media platforms. The study is anchored in three objectives: to categorize the idiom minji na ndengũ (peas and green grams) in terms of compositionality; to establish the vital relation between the blended idiom and the canonical form; and to interpret the blend using the Conceptual Integration Theory. The study employed the descriptive research design. The study purposively sampled the blended idiom minji na ndengũ (peas and green grams) which is a blended form of the idiom two horse race. Using content analysis, the study classifies and presents a diagrammatic conceptual interpretation of new knowledge based on metaphorical mappings to illustrate the emergent structure. A general finding of this study is that political campaigns create new meanings using deliberately blended idioms of war to improve figurative competencies. Further, one needs to immerse themselves in pragmatic inference in order to reveal the meaning of a blended idiomatic expression. The findings of this study imply that whenever the provisions of grammar prove deficient in unpacking certain messages, cognitive linguists, idiom theorists and researchers should apply the postulates of Cognitive Linguistics. The study concludes that blended idioms of political campaigns achieve creativity and novelty. Further, the comprehension of blended expressions requires the understanding of pragmatic inferences of the local context. The study recommends that for a better understanding of blended idiomatic expressions, one should consider the local contexts expressed in language.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (XIX) ◽  
pp. 245-255
Author(s):  
Michał Góral ◽  
Juani Guerra

The aim of this paper is to map cognitive dynamics of meaning constructionin Spanish language as articulated in Ortega y Gasset’s philosophical essay Ladeshumanización del arte / The Dehumanization of Art [1925]. We will focus on howthe human element is conceptualized, i.e., created and understood by the author. Ourmethod is based on the application of cognitive models of conceptual analysis foundin Cognitive Linguistics known as Idealized Cognitive Models – ICMs [Lakoff & Johnson1980] like Image Schema, Metaphor, Metonymy, and their developments as conceptualblends in Conceptual Integration Theory – CIT [Fauconnier & Turner 2002].The high philosophical complexity of this text’s nuclear conceptual structure HUMANand DEHUMANIZATION makes it necessary to initially map them from theoreticallyestablished cognitive approaches to language organization. In this paper we developsuch analysis as groundwork for a subsequent study involving a more dynamicist viewof their emergent meanings in the framework of Biopoetics [Guerra 2013, 2016].


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-103
Author(s):  
Sandeep Kumar SHARMA ◽  
Sweta SINHA

Metaphorical expressions are one of the most indispensable aspects of human language, thought and action. Their meanings are figurative, which in other words means that they carry literal meanings, which are in direct opposition to the intended or primary meanings. Metaphors are not only limited to being used in figurative writing and speaking but they are also pervasively used in everyday language. Irony, sarcasm, jokes, puns and other such metaphorical expressions rampantly occur in our everyday speech. This paper examines the abstract notion of sarcasm with special reference to Hindi language within the framework of conceptual integration theory. A corpus of five thousand sentences has been procured from Indian Language Technology Proliferation and Deployment Centre (TDIL) for the present study. The findings of the existing paper aim to provide a theoretical understanding of how Hindi sarcasm is perceived among the native speakers.


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