英语专业毕业论文-美国情景喜剧《老友记》中幽默的语用分析.doc

pragmatic analysis on the humor of the american situation comedy friends abstract: humor is a kind of essential sauce to peoples life. firstly this thesis puts forward the concept of humor, and briefly illustration of pragmatic theories will be involved in the thesis. then it analyses some of humorous lines from “friends” as examples combined with pragmatic theories. through comprehensive summary and analysis, it aims at guiding students to grasp related pragmatic theories in english study correctly and improving english learners comprehension to english humor.key words: friends; humor; relevance theory; cooperative principle; face-saving theory美国情景喜剧老友记中幽默的语用分析 摘 要：幽默是人们生活中必不可少的一种调味料，本论文首先提出幽默的概念及将要涉及的语用学理论，并简单阐述，再以美国著名情景喜剧老友记中的部分幽默台词为例结合理论进行分析，通过全面地归纳和分析，本文旨在正确指导英语学习中对相关语用理论的掌握，从而更好地学习和运用英语，提高英语学习者对英语幽默的理解。关键词：老友记；幽默；关联理论；合作原则；面子理论contentsintroduction1 brief introduction of friends 1.1 essential information 1.2 bare bones of plot 1.3 lingual characteristic2 definition of humor3 related pragmatic theory 3.1 relevance theory 3.2 cooperative principle 3.3 face-saving theory4 analysis of the lines 4.1 relevance theory 4.1.1 pun 4.1.2 idiom 4.2 cooperative principle 4.2.1 irony 4.3 face-saving theoryconclusionnotesbibliographypragmatic analysis on the humor of the american situation comedy friendsintroductionhumor can release the mental pressure, adjust the relationship among people, also can defend the psychological injury. f. kohl once said “the american would rather to acknowledge committed the treason, the murder, the arson, to install the artificial tooth, to wear the wig, even would not rather to acknowledge their sense of humor is deficient1”. the american situation comedy friends made the glorious viewing rate and obtained the high praise of global audience, also can explain that the american paid attention to the sense of humor continuously. this situation comedy telecasted 10 years and still be popular in world-wide. it took many charming amusing lines to the audience in each part. these lines are worth analyzing and concluding, we can understand the humorous effects better after combining the pragmatic theory.1 brief introduction of friendsfriends is an american situation comedy that has many faithful audiences. if someone just watches an episode, he will love these wonderful plots and humorous dialogues. the following will introduce essential information, bare bones of plot and lingual characteristic of friends.1.1 essential informationfriends is a humorous situation comedy, which broadcasted since 1994 by nbc television station and had broadcasted ten years continuously. it produced by warner brothers company. since friends was broadcasted, it was one of the most famous tv play in nbc television network. complete tv play altogether had 237 volumes. once it settled the record of fifty-three million viewing rate in 1996. 1.2 bare bones of plotthe story mainly described a series of stories about six good friends life. they lived in new york from acquaintances to afterward go through ten year together. ross(paleontologist) and monica(chef) are judean brother and sister who live in manhattan. opposite their apartment, lives chandler(director of a company) and joy(third-grade actor have italy lineage). chandler is rosss university roommate and the best friend. except for these four people eccentric phoebe(chiropractor) also live there. she was monicas roommate. five person gather frequently in monicas big apartment or at the downstairs central park(a cafe) at leisure time.at the first volume of start, monicas good friend in high school, rachel runs away from wedding to the central park, and meets monica by chance, also meets ross who unrequited loved her. because of passels, rachel lives in monicas house with everybodys help. six friends start the life which they never experienced before.1.3 lingual characteristicfriends displays american unique humorous style fully. pun, idiom, irony and ambiguity frequently used in the lines, and they can help to achieve the humorous effect. for the vast english learners, analyze how the humor of friends produced and applied, not only can boost grasp of related pragmatic theory in english study but also be able to deepen understanding of the english humor.2 definition of humorhumor was transliterated by lin yutang from english in 30s 20th century. its a kind of linguistic art and a form of linguistic communication, which appears frequently in peoples daily dialogue.it means a sentiment that can make people smile. in daily life, people always laugh out loudly because of somebody or something and the main cause is humor. in 1985, nash provided a definition of humor: “humor is humanitys unique nature2”. but a famous writer george bernard shaw proposed in his collected works: “we can not make the definition of humor; it is an element to make people laugh”. it is not difficult to see that the humor is particular and important from this. it can play a promotive role in the process of peoples exchange of information or emotion.3 related pragmatic theory this thesis will involve relevance theory, cooperative principle and face-saving theory. the following will introduce the origin, development and basic concept about these theories separately. 3.1 relevance theorysperber and wilson the contemporary pragmatic expert put forward relevance theory. it claimed that “humanitys cognition takes the connection as guide, the humanity only pays attention to that information that with related.3”. it discusses the cognitional effect of linguistic communication from the angle of cognition and pay attention to the exposition of the cognitional psychological process about language understanding.this theory belongs to the cognitive science. it is a process providing concept and procedure for the pragmatic inference and it is a dialectical method to gain the pragmatic meaning. this is a kind of very beneficial attempt to overcome the former pragmatic theorys haphazardly, make it become a rigorous and systematical linguistic science gradually.3.2 cooperative principlethe linguist grice proposed the famous cooperative principle. according to this principle, the cooperation conversation carries on, the participant must make own contribution according to the recognized goal or direction of the conversation.the cooperative principle mainly includes: “maxim of quantity”, which means the words should contain the content that the conversation needs, and the words should not contain the information which surpass the need of the conversation. “maxim of quality”, which means the words should be unfeigned, and the participant shouldnt say false words with insufficient evidence. “maxim of relation”, which means the words, must be connected to the subject. “maxim of manner”, which means the words must be clear, obvious, terse, and avoid using obscure words4.3.3 face-saving theorythe word “face” firstly introduced into the west by a chinese anthropologist, named hu xianjin. the western socialists began to analyze this phenomenon from the 1950s. it was erving goffman who first explained this word. he believed that “face” was connected with some emotional concepts, such as embarrass, shy and losing face. later two linguists brown and levinson presented specifically the “face-saving theory”. they divided “face” into two kinds: negative face and positive face. negative face means that a person does not want others to enforce their ideas upon his/her or to interfere in his/her behavior. positive face is the hope that a person wants others to agree with him/her or to praise him/her5. 4 analysis of the linesfriends has many humorous lines, and the following will combine the pragmatic theories to analyze some of the lines.4.1 relevance theorythe relevance theory considers that the communication is a kind of process that expresses reasoning6, and it is a cognitive process of hearer distinguishes speakers intent. according to the cognitive principle, humans cognition will cause to maximize the connection. once it generates irrelevant or redundant connection, it will become the trigger of humor possibly. and after the peoples understanding of this unreasonable connection they will unable to bear laugh.take the lines in the first seasons first volume (the one where monica gets a new roommate)of friends as example.joey: strip joint! cmon, youre single! have some hormones!ross: i dont want to be single, okay? i justi just-i just wanna be married again!(rachel enters in a wet wedding dress and starts to search the room.)chandler: and i just want a million dollars! (he extends his hand hopefully.)in this example, joy comforts ross who just divorced with his homosexual wife, and encourages him to attend the striptease party and look for some pleasures. but ross is still very depressed, and he just hope to regain his marriage. at the same time when he says “i just wanna be married again!”, rachel in a wet wedding dress appears in their front, this kind of unexpected connection, making chandler get the conclusion that if he utters his wish, his wish will come true immediately, therefore he extends his hand hopefully and says “i just want a million dollars!”. this incredible behavior caused by the non-correlated connection lets the audiences cannot help laughing.in the second volume(the one with the sonogram at the end) first season, rachel who runs away from wedding want to return the engagement ring to her finance, but she discovers she lost the ring, therefore she asks “has anybody seen my engagement ring?” actually the question under this linguistic situation is easy to understand, but phoebe replies with her head not hold up “yeah, its beautiful.” the reason is that phoebe thinks when a woman asks whether others see her ring, certainly because the woman wants to shows off. this reply does not conform to the situation, so it brings the humorous effect.friends also has a volume that rachel falls ill, and she asks joy who is in the ward to take the towel to her, at that time when joy takes the towel out of rosss coat he brings a box out carelessly, as a result he kneels down on one leg to picks up the box and opens it curiously. in the box is rosss engagement ring. at the same time, rachel calls joy, then joy turns around, and faces rachel with the open box in his hand, rachel feels very surprise when she notices the ring, then she says “well”, but joy is actually scared.this scene is composed of many coincidences. in fact joy doesnt want to propose to rachel, but his a series of unintentional action-kneels down on one leg and holds the box with the ring, which looks like steps of propose, rachels final reply and joys expression make audiences mood reach climax.lets take the dialogue between joy and chandler as example. because some people say that chandler does not have a little sympathy, so he seeks help to his good friend joy, hoping joy can say something very pitiful and make he cry. therefore joy wants to describe a lame puppy to arouse chandlers sympathy, but this is not enough, because chandler only feels unhappy, but does not want to cry. so joy adds that lame puppy prays for rescue to him and tells chandler other puppies bully it. but chandler only cares that the puppy can speak, and he considers that finding a puppy which can speak is a very exciting thing, because he can take this rare puppy to make money, so chandler says “cry? i find a puppy which can speak, i will get rich!”in this example, chandler gets an irrelevant connection to joys description. the information means getting rich in his mind. vagarious chandler lets the audiences realize his extraordinary humorous charm again.4.1.1 punpun uses polysemy to implicate two or more significances and different semantic connection, or uses homophony to go on many gradations of semantic hint. humor always originates from it. polysemy is a very important characteristic of english. except a few proper nouns, the major part of english vocabulary has multi-meaning7. and when the relevance theory applied in peoples daily life, the hearer catches on the inappropriate meaning of the words with multifocal meanings which used by the speaker in communication frequently displays. this inappropriate relation settles the foundation for the pun and humor.in the first volume (the one with ross new girlfriend) second season:monica: even mary tyler moore wouldve been better.ross: i like it. i do, i think its a ten.monica: thank you. my hair is very amused.“ten” means best in american slang, but simultaneously ross also represents her hair to have that kind of comedic atmosphere in ten(a comedy movie). here also uses pun to make humor.in the 24th volume (the one with barry and mindys wedding) second season:joey: yeah, theres just one thing that might be kind of a problem. see, i, uh, had to kiss this guy.chandler: cause he was just so darn cute.joey: no, as part of the audition. see, im up for this part of this guy, who the main guy kisses.ross: well, hey. youre an actor, i say you just suck it up and do it. (rachel looks at him in disbelief) or you just do it.“suck up” means weakness and flatter in american slang. at the beginning joy and chandler discuss the question about kiss; therefore the pun in rosss words is self-evident.in the 18th volume first season, several good friends are playing cards together. ross think that he has a good hand and cannot help to smug and complacent, so he says “well, you better hop outta the shower, causei gotta flush.” ross uses the pun technique here, because in playing cards terminology “flush” expresses all cards of one suit, so ross both not only shows off his flush to everybody, but also laughs at other people by victor posture, but he does not know that rachels cards are better “well, well, well, hop back in bucko, cause i got four sixes!” its unexpectedly four six. embarrassed ross tickles all the audiences.pun also has a major characteristic that it can achieve the humorous effect by using the ambiguity. sometimes people exchange with others in order to seek humor, using the indirect way to express it, or using the ambiguity of words to achieve thinking off setting poor alignment, it is also because the ambiguity of pun, sometimes people cannot distinguish the difference between pun and ambiguity clearly. in linguistics and pragmatics, there are some people treat ambiguity as pragmatic ambivalence, like shen jiaxuan(1985), shi anshi (1994)8.take the lines in the ninth volume (the one where underdog gets away) first season as example.joey: ooh, you smell great tonight. whatre you wearing?girl: (provocatively) nothing.in this volume, joy wants to flirt with a manikin, so he fawningly praises the manikins body smell very nice, asking her “whatre you wearing?” joy uses “wear” to express “apply, wipe (perfume, cosmetic and so on)”, but the manikin teases him intentionally, so she replies “nothing.” it means “i have on nothing.” this uses another meaning of wear “to put on (clothes and so on)”. using pun to make the dialog which seems cross questions and crooked answers constructs the humorous effect.again take the dialog in the 18th volume first season as example. chandler: rach, rach, we gotta settle.rachel: settle what?chandler: the.jamestown colony of virginia. you see, king george is giving us the land, so.when playing cards, rachel is lost, but she prepares to leave the table-board even she does not pay money for the winner, so chandler says that she can leave only after clearing the account, but rachel can not understand chandlers meaning, therefore chandler starts to display his personality, using another meaning “settle down” of “settle” to satirizes rachel. “jamestown” mentioned in the dialog is britains first overseas settlement in north america. on may 14th, 1607, one hundred and five englishmen arrived virginia and established jamestown, then it started the history of us. according to the british kings name, these colonizers named the locality river poured into atlantic as james river, and the settlement called jamestown. afterward the us won the war of independence, and at that time britain reigning king was” king george”, so chandler says that “king george is giving us the land, so.” it means rachel must pay money for the winner too. however, this is really a past comprehension joke by using polysemy. facing this tease, rachel is still unable to understand it. perhaps only those audiences who know the history and culture of american will laugh .4.1.2 idiomlanguage is the carrier of cultural and the phrase is also the lingual elite. phrase has extensive meaning, and it generally refers to those phrases or clauses that commonly used in the same place, formed constant connection and have the specific form. its inclusive significance often cannot be extrapolated from some single word of the phrase. english phrase generally has three obvious semantic characteristics: a single linguistic unit, structural institutionalization and irreplaceability9. phrase is vivid, full of humor and wit, and it bears the national cultural characteristic and local color. it can produce many humorous effects frequently.take a dialog between rachel、monica and phoebe in the 18th volume (the one with all the poker) first season as example.rachel: (opening mail) can you believe what a jerk ross was being?monica: yeah, i know. he can get really competitive.phoebe: ha. ha, ha.monica: what?phoebe: oh, hello, kettle? this is monica. youre black.if you want to understand the humor in this dialog, firstly you must understand this sentence “its like the pot calling the kettle black”. because many cookers are made of iron and all of them are black. therefore this sentence means when you taunts others, actually so do yourself, probably said that “same here”.in this dialog, at first rachel says ross is insufferable, monica repeats in agreement immediately, but phoebe bursts out laughing, then she satirizes monica and says “oh, hello, kettle? this is monica. youre black.” audiences can realize the humor of this vivi