A Study Of Humor Phenomena In Chinese Situation Comedy From Schema Theory Perspective

In the1990s, situation comedy entered Chinese market. From then on, situationcomedy has developed for more than twenty years in China. Western scholars havestudied situation comedy from1970s, while Chinese experts undertook researchesfrom1990s.This study, based on Bartlett’s schema theory, analyzes mechanism of listeningprocess, modes of information process, schema opposition and schematacharacteristics respectively, with A Family in Northeast China in case. The purpose ofthis thesis is to illustrate the verbal humor understanding from schema theoryperspective and conclude schemata characteristics.This thesis contains five chapters. The first chapter introduces the origin anddevelopment of situation comedy, the relevant researches on situation comedy fromhome and abroad and the purpose and significance of the study. Chapter twointroduces the definition and classification of humor, three traditional humor theoriesand researches on situation comedy from linguistic theories. Chapter three illustratesschema theory, including the evolution, definition and classification, construction andfunction of schema, mechanism of listening process, modes of information process,and schema opposition. Chapter four concludes the schemata characteristics fromlinguistic schemata and pragmatic schemata. Chapter five provides the major findings,some suggestions and the limitations on this research.