英汉幽默的差异及其原因的对比分析_英语论文

Analysis of the Differences between Chinese and English Humor and the Causes

摘要

幽默在人们的生活中有着非常重要的作用。正因为幽默的重要作用，它在各方面都被广泛应用。然而，由于两种文化的不同文化背景，中国幽默和西方幽默存在差异。那么在交流过程中就可能会出现交际障碍和产生不必要的误解。本篇论文旨在对中英语言中的幽默表达的不同进行研究。基于这一点，首先要对幽默有基本了解和分析，致力于找出中西方幽默的差异，进而结合跨文化交际的例子分析导致这些不同的原因。

关键词：幽默；中西文化；差异和原因

Abstract

Humor plays a significant role in people’s life. It is just because of its functions that humor is widely used in many aspects. However, due to different backgrounds of the two cultures, Chinese humor is different from western humor. Then there may be communication barriers and unnecessary misunderstanding. This thesis is to make a study of the different expression of humor. According to this point, basic understanding and analysis should be gained about humor. This thesis mainly attempts to probe into the differences of humor between China and west and the causes of these differences at the same time by analyzing the common examples of cultural communication.

Keywords:  humor; Chinese and Western culture; differences and causes

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Comparison between Chinese and English Humor 4

3.1 Differences in topics 4

3.2 Differences in interlocutors 5

3.3 Differences in functions 6

3.4 Differences in expression forms 8

4. Causes of Differences between Chinese and English Humor 9

4.1 Differences in social and historical backgrounds 9

4.2 Differences in religious influence 10

4.3 Differences in individualism and collectivism 10

4.4 Differences in hierarchy concepts 11

4.5 Differences in ways of thinking 12

5. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14