Register Analysis Of Humorous Discourse

Humor is everywhere in our daily life. Nowadays the study of humor has already become a special and independent discipline.Within the framework of three variables of register, namely, field, tenor, mode, the thesis analyses the stylistics and the register features of humorous discourse. There are two features, one is register mismatch of humorous discourse; the other is register deviation of humorous discourse. As the theoretical basis of the thesis, the major representative of functional linguistic school, Halliday defines register as a variety of language distinguished according to use. This theory emphasizes language variation in relation to context and the effects of three major situational factors on functions. Register theory is one of the important theories in Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG). With aid of three metafunctions of SFG, i.e. ideational, interpersonal and textual functions, the thesis is discussed by virtue of the analyses on transitivity, mood, modality, cohesion and coherence, etc. And at the same time, it tries to find out how they are correspondingly in relation to three variables of register and create the humorous effect in discourse.This thesis studies humorous discourse from the perspective of register theory, not only reveals the linguistic principle of humor completely, but also has the important guiding significance and the reference value towards humorous discourse further research. Studying the register features of humorous discourse, on the one hand, enhances our understanding ability and the appreciation level to humor, on the other hand, strengthens the utilizable ability of humorous language, which is helpful for us to understand the humorous phenomenon well.