Perception Of Verbal Humor Within Cross Talk: A Schema Explanation

As a unique folk art in China, cross talk is humorous by nature and deserves more research. This thesis probes into the verbal humor within cross talk from schema perspective.On the basis of qualitative analysis of the collected data, this study attempts to answer the following two questions: 1) why is the verbal humor within cross talk laughable? 2) How do the audience understand and receive the verbal humor within cross talk and what factors may influence this process? In this way, a relatively in-depth analysis is conducted.To begin with, drawing upon the previous achievements of humor research, especially SSTH and GTVH, the author makes a hypothesis about verbal humor within cross talk: any piece of verbal humor within cross talk is compatible with two opposed schemas. After the data analysis, it is found that verbal humor within cross talk is complicated beyond the hypothesis. The collected data falls into three categories: 1) verbal humor composed of one self-contradictory schema, 2) verbal humor composed of two opposed schemata in line with the hypothesis, and 3) verbal humor composed of multi-schemata of contradiction.Furthermore, the author makes a careful analysis about the cross talk comprehension process guided by the schema theory. According to the schema theory, cross talk does not carry meaning by itself but provides signposts or clues for the audience to construct meaning from the their prior knowledge. Cross talk comprehension, to a great extent, depends on whether the audience can activate the relevant schema(s), which leads to the information predication, information choice and even new-schema storage.Cross talk has a long history, but the relevant research is insufficient. This thesis aims to cast a brick to attract jade in order to carry forward the Chinese traditional culture.