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Cognitive-Pragmatic Approach to Oxymoron within Autonomy-Dependency Framework

Author: XiongQiuFeng
Tutor: MaBaoJin
School: Henan University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: Autonomy-Dependency framework surface oxymoron deep oxymoron pragmatic effects
CLC: H315
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 168
Quote: 4
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Abstract

Oxymoron combines seemingly contradictory linguistic lexis to incubate a marvelous and thought-provoking rhetorical effect. Oxymoron, an extraordinary rhetorical device, bears philosophical subtleties and embodies human cognition to the law of the unity of Oppositeness. Oxymoron reflects the social contradiction, psychical conflict and conflict within a substance itself, which make it reasonable for an unexpected oxymoron to be expected. Compared with the studies of metaphor, metonymy, and irony, oxymoron is less focused. Hardly can we find profound systematic studies on oxymoron. There are even disagreements in the academic world on the basic concepts of oxymoron. These points are what this thesis focuses on, and the explorations of the internal relation between the contradictory components of oxymoron and its generative process are the main concerns of this thesis.Under the guidance of Autonomy-Dependency framework, linguistic data are carefully collected and selected, and then classified into groups to serve a precise and responsible analysis. The thesis gets the following hypotheses:1. Oxymoron is not only a figure of speech but also a cognitive mode generated by long-time human experience of understanding the nature and struggling against the world.2. The internal logical relation within oxymoron is not contradictory but a blend of Oppositeness, which is actually in accordance with people’s mode of thinking. The seemingly contradictory relation mainly exists at a semantic level.3. According to the semantic relation between the contradictory components, oxymoron can be classified into surface oxymoron and deep oxymoron. Surface oxymoron refers to oxymoron whose components are of apparently contradictory relation. Deep oxymoron refers to oxymoron whose components are not apparently contradictory to each other, while on the other hand the modifier’s antonym is the connotation of the modified. However, we can not simply say that the modifier whose antonym is the connotation of the modified can form oxymoron phrases with the modified freely. This generative process has to be confined.4. A modifier can form oxymoron phrases with one or more modified. When one modifier forms oxymoron phrases with more than one modified, the modified should belong to the same category and at the same time connote the modifier’s antonym. The relation among the modified of the same category is one of prototypical to peripheral.5. The generative processes of irony and oxymoron are similar in that both of them are at lexical level and they both have something to do with their antonyms, so we can find some similarities in their generative processes. The difference is that irony is one-side-focused which stresses the implicit expressions while oxymoron is two-side-focused which emphasizes both the explicit expressions and the implicit expressions.In the process of discussion, we make several case studies with the purpose of making abstract and complex problems easy to understand. This thesis includes five chapters:Chapter One is an introduction. It gives an overall talk about the thesis, including the need for the study, significance of the study, research method and the macro structure of the thesis.Chapter Two is a literary review of the thesis, including a theoretical review, a review and comment on relevant studies made both at home and abroad, a discussion on existing problems, and an explanation on main concepts.Chapter Three is the core of the thesis. This part analyses the internal relation within an oxymoron, explains Professor Xu Shenghuan’s Autonomy-Dependency theoretical framework in detail, and proposes a new model to explain the generative process of oxymoron under the guidance of Autonomy-Dependency framework.Chapter Four is conducted from a pragmatic, psychological and aesthetic point of view. It makes use of the Principle of Psychical Distance and other psychological factors to discuss the pragmatic effects created by oxymoron.Chapter Five is the conclusion, including a summary of the major findings and problems already solved, and the limitations and suggestions for further study.

Cognitive-Pragmatic Approach to Oxymoron within Autonomy-Dependency Framework

Abstract

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