Application Of Cognitive Context To English Verbal Humor Interpretation

Humor is the art of human language, which is pervasive in daily and social life. The present thesis gives an in-depth analysis of English verbal humor from the perspective of cognitive context and a further explanation of the cognitive process of verbal humor interpretation within the theoretical framework of cognitive context model. Furthermore, it infers the major obstacles that hinder the successful interpretation of English verbal humor by illustration and provides some effective measures to improve the capability to interpret the English verbal humor and develop successful communication.Based on the incongruity theory in cognitive perspective, the basic explication of cognitive context in relevance theory and the manipulation of cognitive context proposed by Xiong Xueliang in Cognitive Pragmatics, the research of English verbal humor deepens down to the knowledge script, mental schema and socio-psychological representation under the theoretical framework of cognitive context model which combines the relevance theory and Professor Xiong's manipulation mechanism. Guided by the relevance principle, the involvement and influence of cognitive context in the interpretation of English verbal humor is described and analyzed, from which inferences of the barriers of language, experience and culture are conducted to justify the effective corresponding measures.