An Adaptation-Relevance Study On Humorous Communication

Humor is a pervasive phenomenon, which plays important roles in many spheresand aspects of our daily lives. Studies on humor can be traced back to 400, B.C., whenboth Plato and Aristotle paid attention to the particular phenomenon and conductedresearches on it through the perspective of philosophy. Nowadays it has become oneof the hottest issues under discussion as an interdisciplinary object of research.Researchers and scholars, from different backgrounds, apply the methodologies andtechniques that they have learned in other fields of study, and bring to the study ofhumor their own theoretical views. These researches range from traditional fields suchas psychology, physiology and philosophy to anthropology, sociology, and many otherfields. What the researchers have achieved provides new perspectives for a morecomprehensive research on humor. Based on these existing research findings, thepresent study is conducted on the production and the interpretation processes ofhumorous communication in the light of a newly-proposed model–theAdaptation-Relevance Model, attempting to put forward a new model on humorouscommunication.Based on Relevance Theory, which is proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1986,1995, 2001) and Adaptation Theory, which is initiated and elaborated by Verschueren(1999, 2000), Adaptation-Relevance Model is proposed by integrating the twoinfluential theories together. The model holds that communication process as aprocess of linguistic choice is an adaptation process to the contextual correlates for theseeking of optimal relevance. It claims that:First, language use is a process of constant choice-making, which includes boththe choice-making of linguistic forms and communicative strategies, and thechoice-making occurs in both the production and interpretation processes.Second, relevance is the prerequisite of communication. Every act of ostensivecommunication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance. In thecommunication process, the utterer's task is to make sure that the information heintends to convey is consistent with the principle of relevance, and the interpreter'stask is to find the interpretation which is in accordance with the principle of relevance.Third, the utterer's presumption of relevance decides his choice-making oflinguistic forms. Presumption of relevance is the mental representation of the world,which mainly derives from the utterer's adapting to the interpreter's contextualcorrelates. This adapting process is also a process of seeking for optimal relevance.Fourth, Linguistic choice-making and contextual correlates are constantlyinteradapting with each other in language use. The contextual correlates include thesocial world, mental world and physical world. When the utterer makes certainchoices concerning the linguistic forms, he is making choices of the relevantcontextual correlates.Fifth, the process of adaptation-relevance involves strategy-choosing. The utterernot only makes choices of linguistic forms, but also makes choices of communicativestrategies, since there is no one-to-one corresponding relationship between thefunctions and forms. Therefore the choice-making of communicative strategies adaptsto certain communicative intentions.Based on the analysis of the samples chosen from Friends within the frameworkof Adaptation-Relevance Model, a conclusion can thus be drawn that humorouscommunication is a process of adaptation-relevance, along with which a new modelconcerning the humorous communication is proposed. This model emphasizes thatcontextual adaptation-relevance plays an essential part in the process of humorouscommunication, which includes both the production and interpretation processes. Inthe model, contextual correlates are dealt with in three dimensions: the social world,the mental world and the physical world. These three dimensions can find theirrespective irreplaceable positions in both the production and interpretation processesof humorous communication. The communicators, including the utterer and theinterpreter, have to make choices concerning both linguistic forms and strategies,which should be adapted to the relevant contextual correlates, in line with theprinciple of relevance;otherwise, the humorous communication will certainly fall flat,and no humorous effects can be guaranteed. The second characteristic of the newmodel is that most of the humorous utterances are produced in an implicit way. Thusto get the optimal relevance out of the communication, extra processing effort isdemanded, which hence will bring extra contextual effects, the humorous effects, as acompensation for the additional effort required.The study makes its own contribution to the systematic study on humor, as aninterdisciplinary phenomenon. From an angle scarcely ever touched upon by otherresearchers, a new model concerning the concrete process in the production andinterpretation of humorous communication is proposed. The construction of the modelcan serve as the guidance to improve individual's humorous communicative ability,and shed light on the teaching and learning processes of foreign languages.