Abstract

Throughout history，humorous language has been a major form to express humor in our daily life. The cause of humor has always been the topic of Chinese and foreign scholars to explore. After introducing some relevant knowledge of English Humor and Pragmatics, this thesis will use Cooperative principle, Conversational Implicature and Politeness Principle to analyze how English verbal humor emerges. This thesis thinks when some of the maxims of Cooperative Principle or the maxims of Politeness principle are violated, conversational implicature will occur, thus the application of pragmatic principles to the analysis of English verbal humor will make the readers have a better understanding of English humor.

Key Words: English Verbal Humor  Cooperative Principle  Conversational Implicature  Politeness Principle

摘 要

从古至今，言语幽默一直是我们日常生活中表达幽默的一种主要方式。幽默的产生原因也一直是中外学者探讨的话题之一。
本文在介绍幽默和语用学的相关知识的基础上,运用语用学中的合作原则、会话含义理论和礼貌原则来分析英语言语幽默的产生机制。本文认为合作原则的某些准则或礼貌原则的某些准则被违反时，会话含义就会产生幽默效果。运用语用学相关知识可以帮助人们深入的分析幽默的产生，从而更加深刻地理解言语幽默。
 
关键词： 英语言语幽默  合作原则  会话含义  礼貌原则

1 Introduction
With the development of our society, humor is more and more considered as a necessary part in our daily life. It is an art, culture and the reflection of our humans’ civilization and wisdom. It represents the profound understanding of people in their real life. It always comes with a concise and vivid linguistic form and has a deep meaning which will make people rejoice, laugh and enlighten. Humor not only owns the characteristic of linguistic utility, it can also reflect the features and law of English language from many aspects. On one side its formation is the internal law of the language and on the other side it depends on the using of language in the context.
This thesis attempts to look into English humor from the perspective of pragmatics. With the application of some pragmatics principles to the analysis of English humor, namely, conversational implicature, cooperative principle and politeness principle, the thesis aims to help English learners to understand English humor well and then begin to appreciate English humor.