Conceptual Blending in Jokes

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 13 University of Hamburg (Institut fr Anglistik und Amerikanistik) course: Highlights in Cognitive Linguistics language: English abstract: The emerging ability for blending different mental spaces so argue Fauconnier and Turner (2002: V) allowed humans to gain the upper hand over competing species from the Upper Paleolithic onwards since this ability gave them the imagination required to invent new concepts tools and means of communication (among them language). On the basis of this discovery and the initially developed Mental Space theory Fauconnier and Turner advanced a striking theory called the Conceptual Blending theory. [...] Therefore in this term paper I focus entirely on jokes which I attempt to interpret by means of the Blending theory. To investigate cognitive processes involved in joke comprehension I have interviewed four English native speakers with the intention of finding whether all of them are able to explain why the joke is funny and which incompatible elements are responsible for its humorous effect. Taking into account the participants'' answers I have tried to define the input spaces (by naming their constituents) and the blended space. Additionally the participants'' answers were evaluated with regard to the role of background knowledge which is necessary in order to comprehend the joke. Finally I examined whether the Conceptual Blending theory might be applicable for the analysis of joke processing and comprehension in general and what difficulties can arise during the creation of the input spaces and the blend. Thus in the following sections I will first introduce important information on conceptual blending and then analyze selected jokes according to the Conceptual Blending theory taking into consideration the interviewees'' explanations of the jokes. Central to Conceptual Blending theory is the notion of the conce