Abstract

Humor is a widely attested and intuitively grasped aspect of human society, which has long been studied by researchers from the fields of psychology, aesthetics, linguistics, biology, philosophy etc.. Verbal humor as a branch of humor has vivid features related to pragmatics, but it is comparatively rarely studied. Considering the practical application and the popularity of pragmatics, the author would focus her study on English verbal humor in TV series. The author adopts the most popular American sitcom The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) as the corpus, for it is full of humorous conversations.
This paper consists of four parts: the first part is an overview of humor, including the definition, classification and linguistic study of humor; the second part interprets Grice’s Cooperative Principle (CP) and conversational implicature; the third part analyzes the focal point — the mechanism of verbal humor in TBBT in terms of the violation of CP; and the last part reveals the significance and the implications of the study.
This paper points out that the study of mechanism of verbal humor within the framework of the Cooperative Principle could have a profound effect. First, the generation of verbal humor lies in accordance with the generation of conversational implicature; to a large extent, verbal humor achieved in conversation is usually based on violating the maxims of CP. Second, verbal humor is of great significance in daily life and cross-cultural communication. A good appreciation and proper usage of the verbal humor could script the harmonious interpersonal relationships, build an intimate friendship among people, and even enhance our cross-cultural communication skills.

Key words: humor; verbal humor; Cooperative Principle; The Big Bang Theory

摘  要

幽默是人类社会交往中一种喜闻乐见的形式，吸引了诸多学者从不同领域对其进行研究，其中包括心理学、美学、语言学、生物学以及物理学等。言语幽默作为幽默的一种表现形式却得到较少的青睐。鉴于语用学研究的普遍性及实用性，本文作者以英语中的言语幽默为研究对象，并借用美剧进行举例分析。作者选取《生活大爆炸》作为研究语料，因其广受好评，并含有大量幽默对话（有利于对言语幽默的研究）。
本篇论文从以下四个方面对言语幽默进行研究：第一部分会引入对幽默的介绍，其中包括对其定义、分类的阐述，以及语言学对幽默的研究；第二部分阐述格莱斯合作原则及会话含义；第三部分将以《生活大爆炸》中的对话为例，主要从违反合作原则角度分析言语幽默的制笑机制；最后一部分论述言语幽默的应用以及该研究的意义。
本文通过研究得出结论，运用格莱斯的合作原则来探究言语幽默的制笑机制具有一定的实践意义。首先，该研究发现许多言语幽默的产生与会话含义的产生相一致；并且，在很大程度上，言语幽默的产生有赖于合作原则的违反。其次，幽默的言语对现实生活同样具有一定意义。对言语幽默的熟练应用有利于构建和谐的人际关系，建立良好的友谊；同时，该研究有利于加强跨文化交际的能力。

关键词:幽默；言语幽默；合作原则；《生活大爆炸》