Puns and Blending: the Case of Print Advertisements

In this paper, the connection between metaphor, metonymy, blending and humour is discussed against an analysis of puns in print advertisements featuring both visual and verbal elements. The analysis is based on the theory of conceptual blending (Fauconnier and Turner 1994, 1996 etc.) and on analyses of humour within that framework made by Coulson (1996, 2001, in press), but it also draws on observations made by Pollio (1996), Attardo (1994) and Nerhardt (1977) concerning incongruity and humour. The issues being addressed are: (i) whether Pollio's observations can explain the difference between metaphorical and humorous blends, (ii) in what ways conventional metaphors can serve as inputs to humorous blends and (iii) assuming that humour is a graded phenomenon, how degrees of humour in metaphorical and non-metaphorical blends can be explained. In this analysis, the interplay between these mechanisms is handled within the framework of blending theory and Pollio's findings are to some extent applied, showing that the degree of humour is partly related to the type of incongruity between the two spaces. The presence of visual elements and the amount of elaboration in the blended space also seem to be of importance to the degree of humour in metaphorical blends. 1. Blending, metaphor and humour Some interesting cognitive linguistic analyses of humour have been made by Coulson according to the theory of blending or conceptual integration (1996, in press) and in terms of the related process of frame-shifting (2001). In this paper, the focus will be on conceptual blending and the way it is manifested in relation to puns in print advertisements. However, before dealing with humour, we will briefly discuss the basic elements of blending and see how it relates to the