Cover not available

In:The Conversation Frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction
Edited by Esther Pascual and Sergeiy Sandler
[Human Cognitive Processing 55] 2016
► pp. 63–86

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Real, imaginary, or fictive?

Philosophical dialogues in an early Daoist text and its pictorial version

ORCiD logo with link | Zhejiang University, China
Published online: 1 November 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.55.04xia
This chapter explores a critical yet still unanswered question in fictive interaction research, namely, the relationship between reality, fiction, and fictivity, through examining conversational imagery in a foundational Daoist text, Zhuangzi, and its comic book rendition. This text is the earliest surviving Chinese text to use abundant imagined dialogues between realistic and fantastic characters to present the philosopher’s views. The philosopher thereby fictively talks to himself through these characters in a kind of ventriloquism (Cooren 2010, 2012), the reader becoming a bystander of this fictive conversation. Hence, readers understand the moral of the narrative through reality, fiction, and fictivity. I argue that these ontological categories constitute a continuum and may appear embedded into one another in a conceptual blending net-work.
References (57)
References
Bergen, B. (2005). Mental simulation in literal and figurative language understanding. In S. Coulson & B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (Eds.), The literal and nonliteral in language and thought (pp. 255–278). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012). Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blondell, R. (2002). The play of character in Plato’s dialogues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowery, A.S. (2007). Know thyself: Socrates as storyteller. In G.A. Scott (Ed.), Philosophy in dialogue: Plato’s many devices (pp. 82–110). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brandt, L. (2008). A semiotic approach to fictive interaction as a representational strategy in communicative meaning construction. In T. Oakley & A. Hougaard (Eds.), Mental spaces in discourse and interaction (pp. 109–148). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2013). The communicative mind: A linguistic exploration of conceptual integration and meaning construction. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carroll, L. [1865] (1998). Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and through the looking glass (The centenary edn.). In H. Houghton (Ed.), London: Penguin Books Limited.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, P. (1996). Zhongguo gudai yuyanshi [A history of fables in ancient China], (Updated edn.). Changsha: Hunan Education Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Classe, O. (2000). Encyclopedia of literary translation into English, Vol. 2. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn PublishersGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012). Communication theory at the center: Ventriloquism and the communicative constitution of reality. Journal of Communication, 62(1), 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1994). Conversationalisation of public discourse and the authority of the consumer. In R. Keat, N. Whitely, & N. Abercrombie (Eds.), The authority of the consumer (pp. 253–268). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (1994). Conceptual projection and middle spaces. UCSD Cognitive Science Technical Report 9401.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1998). Conceptual integration networks. Cognitive Science, 2(1), 133–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fung, Y. [1948] (1997). A short history of Chinese philosophy. In D. Bodde (Ed.), New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1964). Chuang-Tsŭ: A new selected translation with an exposition of the philosophy of Kuo Hsiang (2nd edn.). New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1983). A history of Chinese philosophy, volume 1: The period of the philosophers (from the beginnings to circa 100 BC). D. Bodde (Trans.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1963). Behaviour in public places: Notes on the social organisation of gatherings. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldhill, S. (2008). The end of dialogue in antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guo, Q. [1894] (2013). Zhuangzi jishi [Collected Commentaries on Zhuangzi]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hartmann, C. (1986). Yü-yen. In W.H. Nienhauser, Jr. (Ed.), The Indiana companion to traditional Chinese literature, Vol. 1 (pp. 946–949). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harvard-Yenching Institute. (1956). Zhuangzi yinde [A concordance to Zhuangzi]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herman, V. (1999). Deictic projection and conceptual blending in epistolarity. Poetics Today, 20(3), 523–541.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, J. (2013). Sixiang men: Xianqin zhuzi jiedu zending ben [The gate of ideas: Interpreting pre-Qin philosophers] (Updated edn.). Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ilie, C. (1999). Question-response argumentation in talk shows. Journal of Pragmatics, 31(8), 975–999. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R.W. (2001). Discourse in cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 12(2), 143–188. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008). Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2013). Interactive cognition: Toward a unified account of structure, processing, and discourse. International Journal of Cognitive Linguistics, 3(2), 95–125.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, X. (2015). Textual Issues in the Zhuangzi. In X. Liu (Ed.), Dao companion to Daoist philosophy (pp. 129–157). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Long, A. (2008). Plato’s dialogues and a common rationale for dialogue form. In S. Goldhill (Ed.), The end of dialogue in antiquity (pp. 45–59). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lu, X. (1981). Han wenxueshi gangyao [Outline of the History of Chinese Literature]. Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1998). Rhetoric in ancient China, fifth to third century, B.C.E.: A comparison with classical Greek rhetoric. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mair, V.H. (1986). Chuang Tzu. In W.H. Nienhauser, Jr. (Ed.), The Indiana companion to traditional Chinese literature, Vol. 2 (pp. 20–26). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1994). Wandering on the way: Early Taoist tales and parables of Chuang Tzu. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mel’čuk, I. (2016). Language: From meaning to text. Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pascual, E. (2002). Imaginary trialogues: Conceptual blending and fictive interaction in criminal courts. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2006a). Fictive interaction within the sentence: A communicative type of fictivity in grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 17(2), 245–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2006b). Questions in legal monologues: Fictive interaction as argumentative strategy in a murder trial. Text & Talk, 26(3), 383–402. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roth, H. (2008). Zhuangzi. In E.N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. [[URL]]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Streeck, J. (2002). Grammars, words, and embodied meanings. Journal of Communication, 52(3), 581–596. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, L. [1996] (2000). Fictive motion in language and ‘ception’. In Toward a cognitive semantics: Concept structuring systems (pp. 99–175). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsai, Ch. [1986] (2013). Zhuangzi speaks. B. Bruya (Trans.). Beijing: Modern Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turner, M. (2002). The cognitive study of art, language, and literature. Poetics Today, 23(1), 9–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2014). The origin of ideas: Blending, creativity and the human spark. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vis, K. (2011). Subjectivity in news discourse: A corpus linguistic analysis of informalization. PhD Dissertation, VU Amsterdam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vis, K., Sanders, J., & Spooren, W. (2012). Diachronic changes in subjectivity and stance: A corpus linguistic study of Dutch news texts. Discourse, Context and Media, 1, 95–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, B. (2013). The philosophy of Chuang Tzu (2nd edn.). Beijing: Peking University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, R. (Trans.). (1999). Zhuangzi. Changsha: Hunan People’s Publishing House and Beijing: Foreign Language Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watson, B. [1968] (2013). The complete works of Zhuangzi. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1983). Foreword. In V.H. Mair (Ed.), Experimental essays on Chuang-Tzu (pp. ix–xiv). Honolulu: University of Hawaii PressGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wu, K. (1988). Goblet Words, Dwelling Words, Opalescent Words – Philosophical Methodology of Chuang Tzu. Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 15(1), 1–8. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ye, Ch. [1979] (2004). Zhuangzi yuyan yanjiu [A study on fables in the Zhuangzi]. Taipei: Wenshizhe Publishing House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, M. [1948] (2007). Zhuangzi xinshi [A new interpretation of the Zhuangzi]. Beijing: New World Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (9)

Cited by nine other publications

Huang, Guangzhe
2024. Reframing Zhuangzi through recontextualization. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción 70:1-2 ► pp. 251 ff. DOI logo
Xiang, Mingjian, Esther Pascual & Bosen Ma
2022. Who’s speaking for whom?. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 23:1 ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Yu, Hailing
2021. One page, two stories: intersemiotic dissonance in a comic adaptation ofJourney to the West. Social Semiotics 31:4 ► pp. 529 ff. DOI logo
Fonseca, Paula, Esther Pascual & Todd Oakley
2020. “Hi, Mr. President!”. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 18:1 ► pp. 180 ff. DOI logo
Xiang, Mingjian & Bosen Ma
2020. Chapter 12. How can I persuade you without making self-assertions?. In Language, Culture and Identity – Signs of Life [Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts, 13], ► pp. 249 ff. DOI logo
Pascual, Esther & Emilia Królak
2018. The‘listen to characters thinking’novel. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 16:2 ► pp. 399 ff. DOI logo
Oakley, Todd
2017. Multimodal rhetoric: Fictive interaction strategies in political discourse. Linguistics Vanguard 3:s1 DOI logo
Sandler, Sergeiy & Esther Pascual
2017. In the Beginning There Was Conversation: Fictive Direct Speech in the Hebrew Bible. SSRN Electronic Journal DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Fictive questions in the Zhuangzi [Figurative Thought and Language, 18], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue