关联理论视域下《老友记》中言语幽默认知解读

1、毕业设计（论文）题目 关联理论视域下老友记中言语幽默的认知解读2012年6月GRADUATION THESIS(Grade 2008)A RELEVANCE-THEORETICAL APPROACHTO VERBAL HUMOR IN FRIENDS关联理论视域下老友记中言语幽默的认知解读摘要幽默在社会交际中可以化解矛盾，增进友情，平添生活乐趣。“从幽默借助的主要 交流媒介区分，幽默可以分为非言语幽默和言语幽默。非言语幽默指那些不需要借助语 言工具向人们传递幽默信息的幽默手段。言语幽默是同幽默发出者、接受者、应用的语 言形式，以及相关的语境密不可分。”本文主要对美国情景喜剧老友记中的言语幽 默

2、进行研究。回顾以往对情景喜剧中幽默所做的研究，我们发现这些研究大多局限于语篇分析， 外语教学、跨文化研究等领域。Sperber和Wilson在关联性:交际与认知中提出关联 理论，该理论为幽默的理解提供了一个崭新的视角。本文尝试以Sperber和Wilson提出 的关联理论为框架，同时以情景喜剧老友记的剧本台词为语料来源，对曾风靡整个 美国的情景喜剧老友记中的言语幽默进行分析和解读，通过对其幽默策略的分析， 研究幽默的产生机制。研究方法主要是描述性研究。本文主要包括三个部分：第一部分 介绍关联理论的一些重要概念，包括认知环境与互明，明示推理及关联原则。这些概念 的阐述对理解本文的分析有重要作用。

3、第二部分介绍理解和分析幽默产生策略的方法， 这部分是第三部分的一个重要铺垫，只有理解了幽默产生的策略，才能理解第三部分的 分析过程。第三部分详细描述了幽默产生的过程，同时总结出了幽默产生的分析模式。关键词：关联理论；言语幽默；幽默策略；幽默效果A RELEVANCE-THEORETICAL APPROACH TOVERBAL HUMOR IN FRIENDSABSTRACTThe humor in social communication can resolve conflicts, promote friendship, and add the enjoyment to life. From

4、 the standpoint of the main communication medium, humor can be divided into non-verbal humor and verbal humor. Non-verbal humor means people transfer humor without languages. Verbal humor is concerned with the forms of language that the sender and recipient used, and context of communication. In thi

5、s paper, the research aims at analyzing the verbal humor in the U.S. sitcom Friends .Reviewing the past studies of the sitcom humor, we found that these studies are mostly confined to textual analysis, foreign language teaching, cross-cultural and other fields. Sperber and Wilson, in Relevance: Comm

6、unication and Cognition, put forward the relevance theory. They provide a new perspective for the understanding of humor. This paper base on the theory and take the transcript of sitcom Friends as the data sources to analysis the verbal humor in the sitcom Friends which had swept throughout the Unit

7、ed States. This paper mainly takes descriptive method and deals with the following three parts: The first part introduces the important concepts of relevance theory, including Cognitive Environment and Mutual Manifestness, Ostensive -nferential, and the principle of relevance. The interpretation of

8、these concepts for the understanding of the text analysis process is extremely important. The second part introduces the way to understand and analysis the strategy of humor production. This part is essentially a foreshadowing of the third part, only understanding the humor strategy, can we understa

9、nd the analysis instance. The third part is the most important part, which focuses to elaborate humor production process, and sums up the analysis mode of humor production.Key words : Relevance Theory; verbal humor; humor strategy; humorous effectContents TOC o 1-5 h z HYPERLINK l bookmark10 o Curre

10、nt Document Introduction1Relevance Theory3 HYPERLINK l bookmark12 o Current Document Definition of Relevance Theory3 HYPERLINK l bookmark14 o Current Document Principle of Relevance3 HYPERLINK l bookmark16 o Current Document Cognitive Environment and Mutual Manifestness4 HYPERLINK l bookmark18 o Cur

11、rent Document Ostensive -inferential4 HYPERLINK l bookmark20 o Current Document Relevance Theory Account of Humor Production Strategies5 HYPERLINK l bookmark22 o Current Document Suspense of Conversational Background5 HYPERLINK l bookmark24 o Current Document Deliberate Twisting of the Context5 HYPE

12、RLINK l bookmark26 o Current Document Cognitive Environment5Surplus of Information6 HYPERLINK l bookmark28 o Current Document A Relevance-Theoretical Analysis of Humor in “Friends”.7 HYPERLINK l bookmark30 o Current Document 3.1Creating Humor by Suspense of Conversational Background7 HYPERLINK l boo

13、kmark32 o Current Document Creating Humor by Deliberate Twisting of the Context8Creating Humor by Inconsistent Cognitive Environment8Creating Humor by Surplus of Information9 HYPERLINK l bookmark34 o Current Document Conclusion11 HYPERLINK l bookmark36 o Current Document Bibliography12Acknowledgemen

14、ts13IntroductionHumor as a general phenomenon in communication has been loved by the people. No one can ignore the power of humor, because it can give us a sense of joy and happiness in our frustration. As a way of entertainment, humor makes the life more colorful.Humor research has been sought afte

15、r by scholars in various fields, including aesthetics, philosophy, and sociology. The study of humor can be traced back to the time of Aristotle(384-322 B.CJand Freud(1856-1939).Notable studies on humor have been undertaken by Aristotle in The Poetics and Freud in Jokes and Their Relations to the Un

16、conscious.As a television program, sitcom especially American sitcom has been sweeping the world. One of the most representatives is the Friends. The humor effect in comedy is achieved through verbal and non-verbal forms of humor. At present, the study of humor in the sitcom is still relatively less

17、. In the past, scholars often use the principle of cooperation to interpret the humor, but the use of relevance theory is very few to analyze sitcomThis paper will from the perspective of relevance theory, study the verbal humor in the sitcom Friends. Relevance Theory was put forward by Sperber and

18、Wilson (1986, 1995) in the book Relevance: Communication and Cognition. In this book, Sperber and Wilson proposed a new approach to the study of human communication. This method is based on the general view of human cognition, which means human attention and thinking is unconscious tending to releva

19、nt information. Communication is to draw someones attention, hence it is implied that the information communicated is relevant. Sperber and Wilson suggest that all human ostensive communication is a “ostensive-inferential” cognitive process. Relevant Theory tells us that “Human cognition tends to be

20、 geared to the maximization of relevance”. And “Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance”. This paper attempts to interpret and analyze the strategy of verbal humor, with examples to study the cognitive environment and Ostensive -inferential proces

21、s in order to find the mechanism of the humorous effect production, thus proving the strong explanatorypower of the relevance theory to humor.1 Relevance TheoryThis section Mainly introduces some important concepts of Relevance Theory, concluding the principle of Relevance Theory, Cognitive Environm

22、ent and Mutual Manifestness, and Ostensive -inferential.Definition of Relevance TheoryRelevance Theory was put forward by Sperber and Wilson (1986, 1995) in the book Relevance: Communication and Cognition, which present a new approach to study human communication. This approach is based on a general

23、 view of human cognition. That is, human attention and thought voluntarily turn to the information which seems relevant. In other words, human verbal communication is considered as ostensive-inferential cognitive process and “every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own

24、 optimal relevance”. Sperber and Wilson proposed the principle of relevance which is applied to interpret the process of ostensive-inferential in communication, including humorous utterances.Principle of RelevanceThe first principle of Relevance Theory is named the Cognitive Principles of Relevance:

25、 “Human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance”.The second principle of relevance theory is Communicative Principle of Relevance: “Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance”.In other words, human cognition is based on the maxi

26、mization of relevance, and communication is based on the optimal relevance. The maximization of relevance means to pay the minimum possible effort to achieve the greatest contextual effects, and optimal relevance means to pay effective communication efforts to obtain sufficient contextual effects. I

27、n the communication process, both sides tend to follow the principle of relevance, combined with the context to find optimal relevance to achieve the purpose of communication.Cognitive Environment and Mutual ManifestnessRelevance Theory claims that the cognitive environment is a collection of people

28、 who knows a series of facts or assumptions. Mutual Manifestness is the information or facts which both sides understand.Cognitive environment means context, also known as contextual assumptions. Context in Relevance Theory is different from the context we knew before, here the context is a dynamic

29、process. The context mentioned in the relevance theory means not simply the preceding linguistic text, or the physical environment in which the utterance takes place, but a set of assumptions brought to bear in arriving at the intended interpretation. So it is also called contextual assumptions, inc

30、luding a variety of expectations, ideas, beliefs, memories, etc. In the process of communication, people make assumptions and reasoning through the given information. With the emergence of new information, people will be adjusted to the assumption before. People never share wholly the same cognitive

31、 environment, But it is possible that there is an intersection of two peoples total environments, as the same facts and assumptions may be manifested in both of the two peoples cognitive environments.Ostensive -nferentialSperber and Wilson define the ostensive -inferential communication as follows:

32、“the communicator produces a stimulus which makes it mutually manifest to communicator and audience that the communicator intends. By means of this stimulus, to make manifest or more manifest to the audience a set of assumptions.”That means communication is a process of ostensive -inferential which

33、introduce informative intention and communicative intent. From the speakers point of view, the purpose of communication is to show his informative intent. From the hearers point of view, communication is a reasoning process to understand the communicative intention. The reasoning is based on th e sp

34、eakers every act of ostensive communication, such as words, and combined with contextual assumptions informing the speakers communicative intent.2 Relevance Theory Account of Humor Production StrategiesThere are many kinds of humor strategies in sitcom Friends but in this paper we mainly research th

35、e following four kinds, which can help us to understand the production of humor.Suspense of Conversational BackgroundSuspense of conversational background means the speaker begins with a statement or some events without telling the foundation of his reasoning. This statement or event makes the heare

36、r to seek for the contextual assumptions. At the same time the hearer assumes that the speaker has made a statement in keeping with the standard of the principle of relevance. During the course of looking for the concealed contextual assumptions or sometimes called the truth-conditions of the statem

37、ent, the hearers cognition tends to fit for maximally relevant ones. But the result uncovered is in contrast with his expectation, then will make people feel funny and amused.Deliberate Twisting of the ContextDeliberate twisting of the context means that a speaker intends to mean A and the hearer al

38、so knows that the speaker means A but deliberately misunderstand it for B. On the basis of Relevance Theory, the hearer purposely gives up the contextual assumption of maximally relevance, but chooses the less relevant interpretation in order to achieve his particular communicative intention. Delibe

39、rate twisting of the context is completely against the principle of relevance theory, creating the humor effects.Cognitive EnvironmentTo understand the utterances correctly, the people inferences are to be made often based on the relevance between utterances and context, and Relying on the two princ

40、iples of relevance theory to ensure inferences will be made correctly. Cognitive environment plays an important role in communication, which consists of logical knowledge, encyclopedic knowledge and lexical knowledge. However, Different people have different cognitive structures and cognitive abilit

41、y; therefore people will give a different inference in communication. For instance, compared with adults, children are likely to have less lexical or encyclopedic knowledge. It is possible that their interpretation towards the same thing will be different from that of adults.2.4 Surplus of Informati

42、onIn real communication, people are apt to be simple and economical. According to the principle of relevance, the speaker aims to achieve enough contextual effects as little processing effort as possible. This means that speaker must imagine the hearers contextual resources process. These assumption

43、s generally will be reflected in the way he communicates his message. In another word, every rigorous speaker, who is going to pursue optimal relevance, must make a right decision on the clarity of his message. Nevertheless, if a speaker makes his utterance more specific or more informative than is

44、required for the hearer to immediately access the intended contextual assumptions, he could easily to get some added contextual effects to achieve humorous effect (such as, to find an excuse, to imply something or only to have fun).3 A Relevance-Theoretical Analysis of Humor in “Friends”This section

45、 mainly descript how dose the humorous effect produce, combined with some examples to explain and analyze the process of humor production. It is the most important section of this paper.31Creating Humor by Suspense of Conversational BackgroundExample 1:(Monicas going out with Alan seems going pretty

46、 good.) Joey: So when do we get to meet the guy?Monica: Lets see, todays Monday. Never.Following the logic of Lets see, todays Monday., majority of the audience are likely to believe a date to meet Monicas boyfriend will virtually be decided, because under such situation that contextual assumption i

47、s the maximally relevant one. Just until the very moment the audience hears the word Never, people know something is not in line with the assumption that we considered. Continuing seeking for relevance, we draw the conclusion that Monica is artful and subtle. She is very likely to have predicted tha

48、t we audience tend to search for maximal relevance whenever we talked to. So she consciously leads us to believe in one thing which need little processing effort, even though the result is conversely. Considering all of the contextual assumptions, we know we are being fooled by Monica. But it is dou

49、btful anyone would be angry with this. However, What is more likely is that we blame ourselves for not seeing this artfulness and laugh about it. Obviously, in this example we can see, Monica intentionally transfer of the audiences attention by violating the principle of relevance in the communicati

50、on, so the answer is humorous, contrary to the audiences cognitive assumptions.Analysis Model: Maximal relevance (in fact)=Irrelevance=Optimal relevance Application:Any day from Tuesday to Sunday= “Never”=being played3.2 Creating Humor by Deliberate Twisting of the ContextExample 2:Chandler: Im smok

51、ing. Im smoking, Im smoking.Phoebe: Oh, I cant believe you! Youve been so good, for three years! Chandler: And this is my reward!Ross: Hold on a second, alright? Just think about what you went through the last time you quit.Chandler: Okay, so this time I wont quit!It is obvious to Chandler that his

52、friend Ross remind him that how good he was when he was not smoking the last time and reliving of the pain he went through last time he quit. These were both the techniques that his friend Ross use to persuade to give up smoking. Completely aware of his friends intention, Chandler deliberate avoids

53、responding in the most maximally relevant way, but topic-relevant response. So his communicative intention is obvious, Chandler wants to talk back to his friends and continues enjoying smoking. He is deliberately twisting his friends communicative intention. Through this way , Chandler may fail to g

54、ive his friend Ross enough informative intention to draw Rosss expected amount of attention, but he really succeed in achieving some added interpersonal effect as well as humorous effect. From this example it is obvious that Chandler deliberate distortion of Ross s communicative intention, thus the

55、humorous effect is created.Analysis Model:Maximal relevance (in fact)=Irrelevance=Optimal relevance Application:Persuading him to quit= reward wont quit =justify his smoking3.3 Creating Humor by Inconsistent Cognitive EnvironmentExample 3:Joey: No, still too ethnic. My agent thinks I should have a n

56、ame thats more neutral. Chandler: Joe.Joe.Joe.Stalin?Joey: Stalin.Stalin.do I know that name? It sounds familiar.Chandler: Well, it does not ring a bell with me.(Joey: (Writes it down) Joe Stalin. You know, thats pretty good.One way to stop this joke at root is to make the hearer have a specific kno

57、wledge in store,there is a Great Russian leader named Stalin. Transparently, Joey has no such generalknowledge or is simply vague about this world-famous leader. Seriously taking Chandler as a第8页共13页close friend, Joey could completely to believe that Chandler is show his both empressement and abilit

58、y. And then , Joey also takes for granted two different things: first, the information that Chandler said to him is worth his attention; second, Chandler wants to make the information as easy as possible for him to understand. However, Chandler is truly jestful, We know when Joey second- guessed him

59、self by raising the familiarity of the name, Chandler offers him some incorrect contextual information. His intention is clear. Chandler just wants to take advantage of Joeys unwisdom and make fun of him. From this example, we can conclude: Because the two different cognitive environment, the hearer

60、 get a wrong understanding of the maximal relevance. Ultimately leading to the production of humorous effects.Analysis Model:Maximal relevance (in fact)=Irrelevance=Optimal relevanceApplication:Universal knowledge about Stalin= “does not ring a bell.”= put the joke on somebody3.4 Creating Humor by S