黄淑玲教育教学论文

1、英语幽默的语言特点及语用功能分析摘 要 幽默在我们生活中无处不在，它在人们的交际中起着调节人际关系和丰富精神文化生活的作用。一则小小的幽默能让人们忘记烦恼和疲劳，享受无尽的语言魅力。幽默指人类交际过程中能引人发笑的话语，动作或表情等等，是一种能激发起人心中某种情感的智慧。它源于生活又高于生活,因此常会以生活中的会话形式出现，这就使它带有鲜明的语言特色。幽默存在不同的社会文化中，研究英语幽默的语言特色以及它的语用功能具有实际意义。 本文一共分为六个部分。论文第一部分到第三部分简单介绍了英语幽默，当前比较普遍的英语幽默的类别以及对英语幽默研究的历史及现状。随后，文章第四部分和第五部分对英语幽默的语

2、言特点语用学及其研究的各个方面作了概括性的介绍，重点从语音学、形态学、词汇学、句法学和修辞学等方面对英语幽默的语言特点进行了分析，为后面的分析做进一步铺垫。文章在核心章节，采用了大量包含有幽默效果的会话作为例子，并逐一用语用学的观点分析。其中，又将会话含义的产生在幽默语言中发挥的作用作为重点分析对象，分析了多种修辞手段与幽默效果的产生之间的联系。这些修辞手法除了包含其他同类分析中比较常见的双关、讽刺以外，还特别分析了委婉语和拟人。最后，论文进行了总结。 论文研究英语幽默的语言特色以及它的语用功能有助于读者在生活中更好地赏析英语幽默并运用英语幽默去促进友谊，维持人际关系，创造和谐氛围。关键词 英

3、语幽默；语言特色；语用功能Abstract Humor exists everywhere in our life. In peoples communication, it plays a very important role in adjusting interpersonal relationships and making our cultural life rich. A very little humor can let people forget their troubles and fatigue; as a result, it can help people apprec

4、iate the endless charm of the language. Humor refers to the discourse, action, or facial-expression which is capable of amusing people in the process of their communication. It is a kind of wisdom stimulating peoples internal feelings. It comes from our daily life and to some degree it exceeds life.

5、 So humorous remarks are often in the form of conversations in life and thus it has distinctive linguistic characteristics. Humor exists in different cultures, so the study of English humor is of great practical importance.This paper can be divided into six parts. The first three parts make a brief

6、introduction to the English humor, some popular classifications of humor and the history and present circumstances of English humor research. Thereafter, main aspects of pragmatics are generally introduced in the fourth and fifth part. Focusing on phonetics, morphological, vocabulary, syntax and fig

7、ures of speech, this thesis makes a detailed analysis of the features of English humor, which serves as a foundation for the following analysis. In the core part of this thesis, plenty of humorous conversations are used as examples, and their pragmatic effects are analyzed one by one. In this part,

8、the most importance is attached to conversational implicature, and it is also connected with some rhetorical devices, for example, irony, pun, euphemism, personification and so on. Finally, this thesis makes a natural conclusion. The study of language features and its pragmatic functions of humorous

9、 English helps readers better appreciate the English humor in life and use English humor to promote friendship, maintain relationships and create harmonious atmosphere.Keywords English Humor; language features; pragmatic functions Analyses on the Language Features and the Pragmatic Functions of Engl

10、ish Humor1 Introduction Humor is a central part of all cultures, languages, idiolects, and most registers of speech. And not only is humor a pervasive phenomenon fulfilling vital roles in all kinds of human communication, it also forms a quantitatively relevant part of our conversation. Humor is sti

11、ll considered to be a marginal field of academic research, although humor phenomena can be the material for linguistic, psychological, anthropological, ethnological, etc. While humor theories, on the other hand, can provide insights also into other phenomena of linguistic, psychological, etc. Morrea

12、l summarizes this importance in the prediction that “to understand our laughter is to go a long way toward understanding our humanity.”(Chen Xiaoying, 1989)2 The Language Features of HumorThis section narrows down the scope from humor in general to verbal humor in particular. Verbal humor in this ch

13、apter refers to all forms of text oriented humor both written and spoken, i.e. humor in which language is necessarily involved, in contrast to purely visual (cartoon without words), tactile (tickling), and situational, etc. forms of humor.As mentioned, humor call be conveyed in many forms, but langu

14、age skill is the most apparent and most common phenomena used to be implicated in humor. Even the casual observer will recognize a close connection between humor and language. “Humor may play of lexical ambiguity(as in puns), or make use of linguistic ill-formed-ness or stigmatized forms, dialect fe

15、atures, etc(as in ridicule using mimicry), or may use linguistic arguments (that is, logically fallacious lines of reasoning whose apparent sense is derived from linguistic factors like ambiguity, metaphor, idioms, formal similarities) etc.” For instance, someone asks:“What comes after advanced calc

16、ulus?” Answer: “False teeth.” Our familiarity with the phrase “advanced calculus” leads us to expect some remark about higher mathematics. What we get instead is a remark about oral prosthetics. Among the reasons for generating humor, language exists on the surface level. Listeners who view the spee

17、ch patterns of another person as unusual or different may laugh at them. Grammatical errors or differences can be the humorous material. Figures of speech, which are of endless variety and come in all sizes and shapes, can be recognized wherever words or phrases are used differently from their usual

18、 and ordinary sense. All these language features of humor “are not only for flowery or picturesque oratory, as one might imagine, but are also used in everyday normal conversation by blue collars and the big brass alike; and good writers and speakers are continually bringing us new ones to apply to

19、current situations.”(Picheptsov G Language and Humor, 2003) In discussing the language features of humor, a number of types of humor and humor-related phenomena will be explored in this chapter. It does not attempt to analyses example after example, where one can work indefinitely without much incre

20、ase in insight. Understanding these approaches to make us laugh will increase our appreciation of humor. Plus, it could facilitate our ability to add good humor to individual and group communication.2.1 Phonological ApproachEnglish language is widely used elsewhere in the world, but people who speak

21、 the same language pronounce differently. Here is a joke generated by the fact that the student cannot tell the difference between /I/ and /I: /. Joke: A teacher was giving an English lesson to a class of adults who had recently come to live in Australia. After placing some everyday objects on the t

22、able, she asked various members of the class to give her the pen, the book, the ruler and so on. Then she turned to an Italian student and said, “Give me the keys,” The man looked surprised, so she repeated, “Give me the keys.” The Italian student shrugged his shoulders. Then, throwing his arms arou

23、nd the teachers neck, he kissed her on both cheeks.The phonological features that are related to English humor include.2.2 Morphological ApproachWordformation, in its restricted sense, refers to the processes of word variations signaling lexical relationships. One of the language features of English

24、 humor is to coin new words in virtue of the word-formation system. The coinage seems to tally with the morphological principle but in fact the new words call be found inexistence in the real language. On the one hand, they do make sense; on the other hand, they bring surprise. e.g.(1)He is a great

25、dancer. He one-steps in the morning, two-steps in the afternoon and sidesteps his wife in the evening. Conversion, a very productive way of producing new words in English, is the derivational whereby an item is adapted or convened to a new word class without the addition of an affix. In this joke, t

26、he noun phrase “onestep”, and “twostep” has been transformed into verb phrase, describing the dance steps. “Side-step”, which means deception, usually in the form of evasive excuses, has a double meaning together with the previous noun phrases, implying he is really “a great dancer.”(2)Nowadays peop

27、le can be divided into three classes-the Haves, the Have-nots， and the Have-Not-Paid-For-What-They-Haves. All the verb phrases are transformed into nouns to show a clear distinction between the rich and the poor.2.3 Lexical Approach2.3.1Lexical PolysemyPolysemy is the cases in which a single verb ha

28、s multiple senses which are related to one another in some predictable way. There are essentially two cases of polysemy relevant to this point. The first is that a verb can have a sense which derives from the interaction of its base sense with the semantics of a complement. The second kind of comple

29、mentary polysemy occurs when the primary semantic relationship between the semantic arguments is different in the different senses of a verb. In most cases of this kind of polysemy, the verb also appears in a distinct syntactic pattern for each sense. e.g.(1) A high-school girl, seated next to a fam

30、ous astronomer at a dinner party, struck up a conversation with him by asking: “What do you do in life?” “I study astronomy.” He replied. “Dear me.” said the girl. “I finished astronomy last year.” The joke is generated by the word-“study”, which can be “a process of gaining knowledge of a subject,

31、especially from books or investigation of a subject” or means “giving ones time and attention to learning about something especially by reading, attending a university”. One word with two meanings in the conversation makes a pun.(2) “If you eat our sweet tom, you will smile from ear to ear.” “Ear” i

32、s the organ of hearing. It has another meaning the “seedbearing part of a cereal, e.g. wheat, barley, etc”. “Smile from ear to ear” means smile broadly, showing that one is very pleased or happy.2.3.2 Phrasal PolysemyIn English, many idioms and phrases cannot be understood according to the literal m

33、eaning of words, they usually have certain connotations. So in many contexts, the understandings of phrases can be cause humors. e.g.(1) Dentist talks to talkative patient: “Open your mouth and shut up.” From the literal meaning of the sentence, “open your mouth” and “shut up” are contradict with ea

34、ch other. But “shut up” has another meaning: talk no more. Here the dentist used the antonyms and polysemy of the phrases to express his criticism to the wordy customer.(2) “Fourth floor.” The passenger shouted to the elevator impolitely. “Here you are, son.” “Why did you call me son?”“I brought you

35、 up, didnt I?”“Bring up” have two meanings: “raise rear or educate somebody” or “bring somebody to the upper place”. Because of the impoliteness of the passenger, the elevator used the two meanings of a same phrase to give a lesson to him.2.4 Syntactic Approach2.4.1 OrderWords, word groups and phras

36、es cannot occur at random to form a meaningful utterance. They have to follow certain rules of ordering. The violation of certain order will also achieve humorous effect. (Grice，H.P. 1975) e.g. Doctor: “Could you pay for all operation if I thought one was necessary?” Patient: “Would you find one nec

37、essary if I couldnt pay for it?” From the example, we can see that what the doctor and patient say are totally different things. As for the reasons, as for as I am concerned, the patient didnt obey some certain rules, so resulting in his misunderstanding of the doctors meaning.2.4.2 Structural Ambig

38、uityThe ambiguity can also be found in the structure of a sentence. It refers to the fact that some constituents of the sentence can be explained in different ways according to their syntactic function. The incongruity makes humor available. (Rogers, Wall, and Murphy. 1 977) e.g.(1) “There is a man

39、outside with a wooden leg named Smith.” Whats the name of his other leg?” The participle phrase “named Smith”, which has been a modifier of “man”, isimproperly placed after “leg”, implying its function as a postattribute to “leg”.(2) “Papa, is this a camels hair brush?” “Yes, my child, this is a cam

40、els hair brush.” “Oh, papa, it must take him a terrible long time to brush himself.” “Camels hair brush”, which is a noun phrase with the possessive genitive camel and the noun “hair” as its attribute. It is thought by the son the brush is used to brush the hair of a camel while in the fathers opini

41、on “a camels hair brush” is a picture painted by camel hair paint brush. (3) A kindergarten teacher, wishing to test the general knowledge of her class, laid a 50-cent piece on her desk and asked. “Can anyone tell me what this is?” A small boy in the first row leaned forward, examined the coin, and

42、promptly answered “Tails”.The syntactic function of “this” contributes as a pronoun substitute for “a 50-cent coin”. While it can be also understood as the specific object the speaker refers to. So the boy thought it is the side of a coin without the head of a person in it, turned upwards after bein

43、g tossed. 2.4.3 Sentence FragmentFragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. It does not contain even one independent clause. Such sentence fragment is usually considered to be not correct in the grammatical sense

44、. But if used properly, it can achieve humorous effect. e.g.(1)indeed substantially sure to result in the case of a celebrated person, a benefactor of the human race. Like me. (From Was Shakespeare Famous?)(2)and I became a printers apprentice, on board and clothes, and when the clothes failed I got

45、 a hymnbook in place of them. This is for summer wear, probably. (From Was Shakespeare Famous?)3 Functions of English Humor Humor has been adored by people from all walks of life since its debut as an aesthetic concept in the English language in the late 17th and the early 18th century. Linguistic h

46、umor, like any other pragmatic topic, may function quite differently according to the context of many kinds. (Bai Suzhi, 1993) Here, the context involves participants, settings and topics. Based on it, the functions of humor can be classified into three categories: emotional functions; cognitive fun

47、ctions; social & interpersonal functions. The following will make a detailed account.3.1 Humor and EmotionHumor changes how we feel emotionally by helping us to experience mirth. While labeling it humor, Mark Twain once described the mirthful experience in the following way: “Humor is the great thin

48、g, the saving thing, after a11. The minute it crops up, our entire harnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.”（Mark Twain，2001）The need to change from “one viewpoint to its direct opposite” becomes essential in designing jokes that produce l

49、aughter. On the emotional impact of attitudemixing, Monroe, in Argument of Laughter, states All of us practice a mental compart mentalism: We sort out the facts of our environment into different mental compartments, and decide that a particular attitude and emotion is appropriate to each. The linkin

50、g of disparate may mean the shattering of this orderly system. We then have an attitudemixing or universechanging.” Mirth can be a powerful experience for elimination unhealthy feelings. We have all experienced the joy of a humorous experience, and know the pleasure of that feeling. As we experience

51、 the emotional sensation of mirth, other feelings such as depression, anxiety, and anger are, at least temporarily, eliminated. That is, one cannot experience mirth and at the same time experience such powerful emotions as irritation, resentment, or upset. In fact, the experience of mirth not only e

52、liminates these emotions, but as Mark Twain realized, mirth replaces these emotions or gives “mirth” to a “sunny spirit” such as the lighter experience of joy, pleasure, and happiness, etc.( Saran, 1988) John Moreau says in taking Laughter Seriously “Somehow laughter is connected with emotions-we la

53、ugh, with glee, with scorn, with giddiness, etc. But just what is this connection? Laughter often involves major physiological disturbances. There is an interpretation of breathing and the loss of muscle tone; in heavy laughter there may be a loss of muscle control.”（John Moreau）3.2 Cognitive Functi

54、ons of English humorWe may have such experience as the reactions of the different hearers to the same joke context may diverse greatly. When someone tells a joke, the reaction of the audience varies with the funny joke and how it is told. We have all seen scenes like the following:It is lunchtime an

55、d Jack is relating a funny story to his co-workers. When he gets to the punch line, A is overcome with uncontrollable laughter, B just smiles, and C and D look puzzled. “Thats a great story,” says B, “but i already heard it when i was driving to work. I laughed so hard that i almost ran off the road

56、.”Suddenly C has a flash of insight and begins to laugh. “Oh, now i get it!” “Open the doors” he exclaims, repeating a phrase from the punch line. D still looks confused, so B patiently explains the joke to D, pointing out that some of the words had an additional meaning of which D was unaware. “Do

57、you get it now?” B asks. “Oh, yes,” D says nodding with understanding, but not pleasure. This scene illustrates several observable facts about the audiences response to humor. First, humor is the experience of incongruity. In ones environment the incongruity may be experienced when someone falls dow

58、n in a situation when they are not expected to fall down, or the incongruity can be between concepts, thoughts, or ideas often illustrated by the punch line of a joke. Second, as James Thurber has stated, “Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.” We commonly say, “It was funny at the time.” Later with distance we can appreciate the humor. This occurs frequently when people are experiencing a crisis, and at some later time the crisis situation is perceived as humorous. The pleasure is felt at the instant the person “gets the joke”. This is usually when perceiving the