A Contrastive Study Of Cohesion And Coherence In English And Chinese Humorous Discourse

Humor is the result of human beings'wisdom and is a universal language. By means of humor, not only a relaxed and amusing talking atmosphere will be created, but the tense relationship between people will also be mitigated. In addition, when we are facing difficulties, humor can increase confidence, cultivate our optimistic attitudes and play a significant role in communication.As we know, English and Chinese belong to two different language families, the former belongs to the Indo-European Family while the latter the Sino-Tibetan Family, so the discrepancies between the two languages are considerable which to a large extent, are presented in humorous discourses. This thesis aims to explore the linguistic features of this specific type of discourse from the perspective of contrastive study and ultimately discover the similarities and differences of cohesion and coherence in English humorous discourses (EHD) and Chinese humorous discourses (CHD).Cohesion and coherence theory is the core theory of discourse study and an important topic in discourse analysis. Since its appearance, this theory has gained unprecedented development in the past few decades; meanwhile contrastive discourse studies based on this theory have also developed quickly. At home contrastive studies of English and Chinese discourses have become the focus of linguistic scholars, and they mainly adopt the theoretical frameworks of Western linguistics. Studying EHD and CHD will help us understand cohesion and coherence theory better. Only after a whole grasping of the cohesion and coherence theory, more and more humorous language will be understandable. Only when we are good at applying cohesive and coherent devices, can we use language well and create more effective humorous discourses.Chapter 1 is the introduction. It mainly introduces the origin, purpose and significance of the study. The organization of the thesis is also presented. Chapter 2 is the literature review of the present study. In this chapter, the definitions and functions of humor are introduced. The previous studies on humor at home and abroad are presented. The author also introduces discourse and discourse analysis and the relationship between cohesion and coherence. Chapter 3 is concerned with research procedures which gives the introduction of data collection, description and procedures of data analyses. By means of the researching method and applying the theory of cohesion and coherence, the main task of chapter 4 is to carry out a detailed analysis of EHD and CHD. The results and findings of the thesis suggest that the similarities and differences between EHD and CHD also reflect the differences between English and Chinese language and culture and other factors. Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the thesis. It consists of the major findings, limitations of the research. A few suggestions for further study are also given in this part.