心智哲学视角下的言语讽刺研究.docVIP

三 峡 大 学 硕 士 学 位 论 文 Chapter I Introduction Background of the Present Study Sarcasm, as a dispensable part in communication, can be found in various cultures. As a special language phenomenon, it appears everywhere and plays an important role in our daily life. It is an interdisciplinary subject connected with a wide range of learning. It has drawn the attention of many scholars both at home and abroad since the ancient times. Much has been said and written about sarcasm and its role in communication. Sarcasm has been a common concern of rhetoricians, linguists as well as pragmaticists for a long time. Scholars interested in sarcasm have developed a variety of approaches toward its definition or characterization, production and comprehension. Up to now, a great deal of research has been done from the viewpoint of rhetoric, psychology, pragmatics, linguistics and other aspects. However, few scholars in the studies set foot in disclosing the generation and interpretation mechanisms of sarcasm. Even if there does exist, these cursory studies merely take the only limited scope of sarcasm expressions. It is far more enough for the research on sarcasm and there is few research on cognitive linguistics. If sarcasm is just seen as a pragmatic and rhetorical phenomenon, the nature of sarcasm can not be fully explained. The recognition, use and understanding are an extremely complicated psychological and cognitive process. Research on sarcasm can not be restricted in the field of language, and we should explore more space in other fields. Philosophy-of-mind, as a new area, has a powerful explanation. It is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness, and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. However, from the perspective of Philosophy-of-mind, due attention has not been paid to sarcasm. Therefore, it is quite necessary to attempt to give a tentative account of why sa