从语用学角度分析《生活大爆炸》中的言语幽默

论文总字数：31220字

摘 要

幽默是一种普遍存在的语言现象，能够为生活增添乐趣，促进人际交往。近年来，越来越多的学者运用语用学的理论对幽默现象进行分析，让我们可以从一个全新的角度来理解幽默。本文将从语用学的角度，基于合作原则和礼貌原则的理论，对《生活大爆炸》的言语幽默进行分析。作者希望可以通过本文的研究，一方面可以让观众更好地欣赏幽默，培养幽默感；另一方面也希望能对日后的英语教学工作带来一定的启发，并在一定程度上能提高跨文化交际能力。

关键词：幽默；语用原则；跨文化交际；教学工作；《生活大爆炸》

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………2
3. Verbal humor in violation of the principles of pragmatics …......…...7

3.1 Verbal humor in violation of the the Cooperative Principle…………….7

3.2 Verbal humor in violation of the Politeness principle ..............................11

4. Inspiration from The Big Bang Theory and Practical application……11

4.1 Correct attitude towards intercultural communication ………………….11

4.2 Inspiration for future teaching work...............................................12

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..13

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...14

1. Introduction

1.1 The Significance of the research

In daily conversations, there is a lot of inadvertent humor. Humor can be seen as a tool for daily communication. In the language communication, for the smooth communication and communication between the speaker and the listener, they often abide by the cooperative principle in some conversations consciously or unconsciously. As the unique language art in human society, humor often violates the cooperative principle in the conversation to create punch lines.Many scholars at home and abroad have used various methods to conduct extensive research and in-depth analysis on the generation and effect of humor from different angles. Among them, the most influential is Grice"s theory of the Cooperative Principle and Leech"s Politeness Principle.

The Big Bang Theory has been playing for 12 seasons since its launch in 2007. With its unique humorous language and specific cultural background, it has won the love of countless audiences. The play tells the story of the funny life of four physical geniuses and a restaurant waitress. Because of geniuses’ eccentric personality and Penny"s ignorance of scientific knowledge, their conversations often violate the principle of cooperation and politeness, and produce a series of verbal humor. This year, The Big Bang Theory will usher in its final season. At this time, choosing it as the research object of the thesis can make the subject matter more complete.

The writer hopes that the audience can have a deeper understanding of the humorous expression in the sitcom through the study of verbal humor in The Big Bang Theory from the perspective of pragmatics. At the same time, it can also give inspiration to the future English teaching work by analyzing the personality of geniuses with distinctive characteristics such as Sheldon. Finally, we can improve intercultural communication ability to a certain extent by combining with the collision and blending of multiculturalism in the drama.

1.2 The organization of the thesis

This thesis is composed of five chapters:

Chapter 1 includes a brief introduction to the thesis,gives significance of the study first of all, then list the structure of the thesis.

Chapter 2 is a comprehensive literature review, in order to complete the research results, firstly reviews the previous research on humor, then summarizes the theory of pragmatic principles, later analyzes the research value and direction of sitcom, and finally provides the author"s research perspective.

Chapter 3 analyzes the verbal humor produced by the violation of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle in The Big Bang Theory from the perspective of pragmatics.

Chapter 4 gives inspirations for future English teaching work and shares correct attitudes towards intercultural communication ability.

Chapter 5 summarizes the whole thesis. Firstly, presents the major findings and precious inspiration,then points out the limitations. Finally, ends up with some suggestions for further study.

1. Literature Review

2.1 Studies on humor

Humor is everywhere in life. As an important way to adjust the atmosphere and alleviate embarrassment, humor has always been regarded as an important social means. So, what exactly is humor?

Humor is described as interesting or ridiculous and meaningful. It comes from Latin, the original meaning is "body fluid." In ancient Greece, a doctor named Hippocrates believed that human body fluids have blood, mucus, yellow bile, black bile, etc., and their composition is different. The dramatist Joan was born. His two works, Different Personality and Everyone Has Everything, are known for their humor. In his satirical comedy masterpiece Volbonne, his character is defined according to temperament.

In 1906, Wang Guowei published the book The Spirit of Quzi Literature. The book refers to the word "humor" and translates it into "Ou Muya". He believes that "Ou Muya" is an open-minded and optimism attitude of life, but he did not discuss it then and later. In 1924, Lin Yutang wrote articles in the Supplement to the Morning News, setting "humor" as the Chinese translation of "humor". Therefore, in the strict sense, the first Chinese translation of the word humor should be Wang Guowei, and humor has entered China for 100 years.Since the 1920s, Lin Yutang and Lu Xun, the flag-bearer of the Chinese New Literature Movement, have used humor to carry out the political, ideological and cultural struggles against imperialism and feudalism, explored humor theory and created a high-pitched, humorous and allegorical essays,and Lin Yutang himself is also known as humor master.

According to whether language is involved, Bergson divides humor into situational humor and verbal humor.Situational humor, also called nonverbal humor, is oriented from the visual or physical stimuli in certain humorous situation,such as a fun picture, a clown show, or an interesting book.Verbal humor, also named linguistic humor, refers to humor created by linguistic system with the assist of the situational context. Verbal humor is very common in our everyday conversation.

2.2 Introduction of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory

Sitcom, the abbreviation of situation comedy. Situation comedy usually allows the main characters to live their lives in a fixed number of attractions, and each episode has a different theme, allowing the audience to blend in and feel the joy of everyday life.Sitcom is usually an indoor play. Generally, there is no need for location.There are some basic formulas normally. Usually a bunch of friends get together. There are love and friendship in it ,and almost all are happy ending . In the early days, one people or a few people played in a small garden, many people sat there watching, laughing while watching, laughing while watching, and later invented the TV, the laughter was added as a later stage.

The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom directed by Mark Szentowski. Since the launch in 2007, The Big Bang Theory has gone through 12 seasons. At the same time, it has won numerous awards, such as People"s Choice Awards, Best Actor Award and Most Popular Comedy TV Awards, etc.The protagonists Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter are good friends. Their IQ is absolutely superior, they know almost everything about physics, especially in quantum physics. But when they return to their daily lives, the two talented boys are otaku who only love to read comics, and they almost don’t know anything about interpersonal relationships. However, the appearance of penny changed all this. Penny works in a fast food restaurant. She is a cheerful and friendly person. She is completely different from Leonard and Sheldon. Leonard and Sheldon have two good friends. Howard Wolowitz, a physical engineer who sees himself as a playboy, likes to take some outdated means to pick up a girl. Many times his tricks make the other person feel sick. Rajesh Koothrappali is an astronomer from India.He can"t talk when he is present in the opposite sex. He can only communicate with girls freely after getting drunk. The punch lines in The Big Bang Theory is precisely because of the differences in personality and academics between them.

Most of the previous researches have analyzed the verbal humor in The Big Bang Theory from the pragmatics perspective . In addition to this aspect, this thesis will also choose a unique perspective,by combining with its derivative drama, Young Sheldon, to think about how to educate a few talented children like Sheldon from the writer"s future work direction .

2.3 Theoretical basis:Cooperative Principle and Politeness principle

The "Cooperative Principle" was proposed by the famous American language philosopher Herbert Paul Grice in a speech at Harvard University in 1967. Grice believes that in the process of people"s communication, both sides of the dialogue seem to follow a certain principle intentionally or unintentionally in order to cooperate effectively to complete the communicative task. Therefore, H.P.Grice proposed the Cooperative Principle of the conversation.Grice believes that the Cooperative Principle that people follow in their conversations include four categories, each of which includes a criterion and some sub-criteria,

A.The Maxim of Quantity

(a)Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange)

(b)Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

B.The Maxim of Quality

(a)Do not say what you believe to be false

(b)Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

C.The Maxim of Relation

Be relevant

D.The Maxim of Manner

(a)Avoid obscurity

(b)Avoid ambiguity

(c)Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)

(d)Be orderly

(Grice 1975)

In actual verbal communication, people violate the cooperative principle deliberately to meet their needs instead of following it. Grice refers to this kind of illocutionary meaning that is created by the apparent deliberate violation of the Cooperative Principle as special conversational meaning. Special conversational meaning explains how the hearer understands the meaning of the speaker through the superficial meaning of the speaker"s discourse, thereby expressing another meaning, and humor is often produced at this time.

In 1983, the famous British scholar Leech explained the important role of politeness in language communication in the book Principles of Pragmatics. He first proposed the Politeness Principle, and believed that the Politeness Principle and the Cooperative Principle are followed by communication. Leech divides the Politeness Principle into six categories, each of which includes one criterion and two sub-criteria.

A .Tact Maxim

(a) Minimize cost to other

(b) Maximize benefit to other

B.Generosity Maxim

(a) Minimize benefit to self

(b) Maximize cost to self

C.Approbation Maxim

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