Professor Paul van den Hoven from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, was invited to present his recent work on the cognitive processing of cartoons at the National Key Research Center for Linguistics & Applied Linguistics on March 31, 2014.
In his talk, Professor Paul van den Hoven first introduced the definition of cartoons, and the problems and difficulties in deconstructions of cartoons that make them theoretically challenging genres. Then he introduced Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT) as the theoretical framework for the construction of the proposed model to explain: 1) why some editorial cartoons evoke rather elaborate argumentative interpretations while others evoke merely an articulated evaluative opinion; 2) why readers differe substantially in the argumentative elaborateness interpreting one and the same cartoon; and 3) why quite often readers who cannot come up with a satisfying interpretation of a cartoon are able to formulate quite well what lack of foreknowledge causes their problems. According to CIT, a semiotic object is minimally a blend, and therefore it is an instruction to mentally reconstruct it as integration network so as to reveal its meaning.
Professor Paul van den Hoven, with his colleague Dr. Joost Schilperoord, proposed a model including four prototypical types of (de)blending and accompanying network structures: 1) simplex (de)blending, in which all elements in the spaces are mapped in an identity relation; 2) mirror (de)blending, in which all elements in the spaces are mapped according to the generic space in an similarity relation; 3) single scope (de)blending, in which all elements in the spaces are mapped according to the generic space in an analogy relation, the presentation space being the point of departure; and 4) double scope (de)blending, in which all elements in the spaces are mapped according to the generic space in an partial analogy relation, none of the other spaces being uniquely the point of departure. Professor Paul van den Hoven demonstrated the applicability of the model with examples of cartoons on topics from Chinese football, and US-Cuba relations.
At the end of the talk, Professor van den Hoven discussed with attendants on issues such as definitions of concepts in the model and elements involved in the interpretation process of cartoons. The talk presents a new perspective to the participants on how to study the discourse of cartoon.
