Blending the Incongruity-Resolution Model and the Conceptual Integration Theory: The Case of Blends in Pictorial Advertising

Abstract

AbstractThe primary objective of this article is to discuss humorous pictorial advertisements contingent on non-verbal (visual) and verbal components, with the heuristic apparatus provided by Fauconnier and Turner's conceptual integration theory. A postulate is advanced that humour-orientated blending can be viewed in the light of the incongruity-resolution model (Suls, 1972, 1983), the prevailing framework of humour interpretation in linguistics and psychology. Nevertheless, a proviso is made that special emphasis must be placed on the mechanism of bisociation, i.e. oscillation between incompatible frames of reference (Koestler, 1964), after the resolution stage, which is in accordance with the conceptual integration account. Additionally, a preliminary attempt is made at differentiating humorous blends from non-humorous ones. Finally, a discussion of examples aims to testify to the widespread and multifarious applicability of the incongruity-resolution blending approach in the analysis of humorous advertisements. It is shown how humorously incongruous blends and advertising meta-blends interweave.