Abstract

Humor is an indispensable language phenomenon in English culture. Verbal humor can not only be active in interpersonal relationships, promote interpersonal relationships, but also be considered by people as a symbol of emotional intelligence, personal charm. Nowadays there are many great books talking about English humor, most of which are based on pragmatics perspective. In the past, some papers have analyzed the pragmatic effects of humor or its related pragmatic features, but they only concentrated on the principle of cooperation. Not only the object of analysis is very limited and the content is more repetitive. Similarly, some of the books that introduce humor language also mention the pragmatic features of humor, which are talked from a certain aspect of pragmatics.

     This paper, from the perspective of pragmatics, gives the classification of English humor, the relevant pragmatic theories and analyzes the characteristics of humor and its role in our daily life, so that it is necessary to do the research from the perspective of pragmatics. This paper use some typical English humor stories or jokes to the humor of the pragmatic theory of analysis, and explore the causes of humor. Finally, from English majors’ point of view, it mentions the possibility of incorporating English humor into the classroom. Through this thesis, we will have a more detailed understanding of the production of English humor, and in which English culture presents a lot.

Key Words: English humor; Pragmatic; Cooperative principle; Violation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-2

1.1 Previous researches on the English humor from the pragmatic perspective and their limitations-3

1.2 Purposes of the Thesis-3

1.3 The Outline of the Thesis-4

2 Literature Review-4

2.1 The Definition of Humor-4

2.2-Conventional Humor Theories-5

3 Pragmatic Apparatuses for Production and Interpretation of Humor-7

3.1 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Cooperative Principle-7

3.2 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Presupposition Theory-9

3.3 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Relevance Theory-10

3.4 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Face Theory-12

3.5 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Speech Act Theories-14

3.6 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Politeness Principle-14

3.7 Verbal Humor Analysis on the Deixis-16

4 Application-17

4.1 Language Teaching-18

4.2 Daily Communication-18

5 Conclusion-19

Bibliography-20

Acknowledgment-21