A Pragmatic Analysis of English Humor 英语幽默的语用分析.doc

英语幽默的语用分析A Pragmatic Analysis of English HumorAbstractHumor, specific to human beings, is the seasoning of our daily life and an indispensable part of human speech. It not only plays an important role in the improvement of the interpersonal relationships in social activities of many kinds, but also becomes the symbol of personal wit, glamour and education. For a long time, humor has attracted the attention and interest of scholars in many fields. The researches can range from traditional fields such as psychology, physiology and philosophy to broader ones such as anthropology, pedagogy, aesthetics, sociology, etc. With the rapid development of linguistics, pragmatics provides a new perspective for humor studies. However, the researches made on the humorous language from a pragmatic point of view are comparatively limited in sum. Besides, the majority of them just apply one of pragmatic theories to the humor studies, for example, cooperative principle. Based on the seven main-stream pragmatic theories, this thesis makes a comparatively all-round research on the verbal humors occurring in English conversations.Through the analysis of lots of examples of English humor within the framework of pragmatic theories formed by cooperative principle, politeness principle, face theory, relevance theory, deixis, presupposition and speech act theories, this thesis is much devoted to the exploration of the pragmatic apparatuses for humor production and interpretation. It is found that humorous effects might be produced when CP or PP maxims are violated, when the speaker’s or hearer’s face should be protected, when the rule of deictic egocentricity is violated and deictic projection emerges, when the presupposition is cancelled, or when speech act is misunderstood. Relevance theory, on the other hand, provides a useful apparatus for the interpretation of some English humors.Verbal humor can serve people’s psychological, emotional, social and communicative needs. A good understanding of the meaning and working mechanism of humors will contribute to the effective foreign language teaching. In addition, it helps a lot in the social and interpersonal communication. Key words: English humor, pragmatic apparatuses, functions, application摘 要幽默是人类日常生活的调味品，也是人类言语必不可少的一部分。

它不仅在多种社会交往中起着改善人际关系的作用，而且已成为个人智慧，魅力和教育的象征一直以来，幽默引起了许多领域中的学者的关注和兴趣对幽默的研究已经从心理学、生理学和哲学等传统研究领域扩展到人类学、教育学、美学、社会学等更加广阔的领域和新兴学科中随着语言学在理论上突飞猛进的发展,语用学为幽默研究提供了更新的视角然而，到目前为止，从语用学角度对幽默语言进行的研究数量有限此外，它们大多数只是将语用学的某一个理论（如合作原则）应用于幽默研究本文基于七个主流语用学理论，对出现在英语会话中的言语幽默进行了较为全面的研究通过在由合作原则、礼貌原则、面子理论、关联理论、指示语、语用前提以及言语行为理论等构筑的语用学理论框架中对大量的英语幽默语料的分析，本文探讨了幽默生成和理解的语用机制本文研究发现，当合作原则和礼貌原则的准则被违反，当说话人和听话人的面子需要保护，当指示的自我中心法则被违反并由此产生指示映射现象，当语用前提被取消，或者当言语行为被误解时，就有可能产生幽默效果而关联理论则为部分英语幽默的阐释提供了有用的理论机制言语幽默可以满足人们在心理、情感、社会和交际的需求对幽默的含义及其发生机制的正确理解有助于我们进行有效的外语教学。

同时对社会和人际交往也起到一定的推动作用关键词：英语幽默；语用机制；功能；应用iContentsAcknowledgements iAbstract in English iiAbstract in Chinese ivChapter 1 Introduction 11.1 Definitions of Humor 11.2 Classifications of Humors 21.3 Significance of the Present Research 31.4 Framework of the Thesis 4Chapter 2 Literature Review 62.1 Traditional Theories on Humor 62.1.1 Superiority Theory 62.1.2 Release Theory 72.1.3 Incongruity Theory 82.2 Modern Linguistic Theories on Humor 92.2.1 Script-based Semantic Theory of Humor 92.2.2 General Theory of Verbal Humor 102.2.3 Audience-based Theory of Verbal Humor 10Chapter 3 Pragmatic Apparatuses for Humor Production and Interpretation 113.1 Cooperative Principle and its Violation 113.1.1 Cooperative Principle 113.1.2 Humors Created by Flouting the Cooperative Principle 123.1.2.1 Flouting the Quantity Maxim 123.1.2.2 Flouting the Quality Maxim 153.1.2.3 Flouting the Relation Maxim 153.1.2.4 Flouting the Manner Maxim 163.2 Politeness Principle and its Violation 193.2.1 Politeness Principle 193.2.2 Humors Created by Flouting the Politeness Principle 213.3 Face Theory and its Application 233.3.1 Face Theory 233.3.2 Application of Face Theory in Humor Production 243.3.2.1 Saving the Speaker's Face by Humor 253.3.2.2 Saving the Hearer's Face by Humor 273.4 Relevance Theory and Humor Interpretation 293.4.1 Relevance Theory 293.4.2 Humor Interpretation Guided by Relevance Theory 303.5 Deictic Egocentricity and Deictic Projection 343.5.1 Deictic Egocentricity 343.5.2 Deictic Projection and Humor Creation 353.6 Presupposition and its Cancellation 363.6.1 Presupposition 363.6.2 Cancellation of the Presupposition 373.7 Speech Acts and Their Misunderstanding 383.7.1 Speech Acts 383.7.2 Misunderstanding of Speech Acts and Humor Creation 39Chapter 4 Pragmatic Functions of Humors 424.1 Psychological and Affective Functions 424.2 Social and Interpersonal Functions 42Chapter 5 Practical Application of Humors 455.1 Pedagogical Application 455.1.1 Pedagogical Significance in EFL Teaching 455.1.2 Pedagogical Su。