Discourse Analysis Of Humor In Chinese Cross Talk From Relevance Theory

Humor is a significant component of what makes us unique as human beings. It has been studied by many people for a long time and many different subjects have made their contributions from different aspects. Sperber and Wilson presented Relevance Theory (RT) in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition in 1986. Since then relevance theory has been used in many different subjects. It is also used in the study of humor. However, this theory has seldom probed into Chinese humor area. As a kind of intentional humor, cross talk is a traditional art form of China. This thesis aims to enrich the study of humor and relevance theory into a new field. The author will use relevance theory into the analysis of a special kind of humor---Chinese cross talk.The first chapter gives a general introduction to humor. The definition and classification of humor are introduced. In this part there are also introductions to six humor theories including Chinese humor theories.In chapter 2, former studies of humor from different aspects are disscussed. Firstly, a review of studies of discourse from pragmatics is introduced. Then we can see from this thesis that humor can be studied from the aspect of cooperative principle, speech act, communication, cognition, context and some others. All of these aspects belong to the field of pragmatics. From the aspect of cooperative principle, we can say that violating maxims of quantity, violating maxims of quality, violating maxims of relevance and violating maxims of manner can all produce humor. In the speech act theory, Austin has reminded us that words not only mean something, but also do something. In daily life they can operate as acts. Humors can be easily aroused under this theory. Humors always appear during communications in some certain contexts. This chapter also reminds us to understand humors in certain context.Chapter 3 is the theoretical basis of this paper. In this chapter the thesis first summarizes the definition and two principles of relevance: cognitive principle and communicative principle. These two principles are connected to maximal relevance and optimal relevance respectively. Human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance; however, in communication people must take more effort to get optimal relevance to satisfy their communicative intention. Then the thesis comes to the relationship of cognitive effect and processing effort. People should take much processing effort in order to work out the intended cognitive effects in certain context. All of these theories and principles will help people to understand and appreciate humor in cross talk.Chapter 4 explores the applying field of relevance theory. In this thesis relevance theory is used to analyze the humor in Chinese cross talk. The contrast of maximal relevance and optimal relevance can arouse humor in cross talk. In cross talk the performers always use indirect language to make people infer. The result of the inference will also arouse laughter. This is called ostensive-inferial mode in relevance, so humor in cross talk can be expressed by explicature and implicature of relevance. Humors in cross talks are produced by the performers by using the language indirectly. So they cannot be understood directly. It needs people to pay efforts. The more efforts people pay, the more extra humorous effects they will get.In the conclusion, the author has summed up what has been done in this thesis and has pointed out the room left for further study in the field of relevance in cross talk and some other subjects in Chinese.