Adeviation Study On Humorous Expressions In Fortress Besieged

Fortress Besieged (Wei Cheng), the only novel written by Chi'en Chung-shu, enjoys a high reputation in modern Chinese literature. It is hailed as"the most fascinating and the most carefully-written novel". It is true that one of the reasons why it is so popular among readers both at home and abroad lies in its witty and humorous language style. The previous studies on the humor in Fortress Besieged are in general from the following aspects: exploring the humorous effect of the novel through using figures of speech, through describing characters with caricature writing technique, through applying literary quotations and through irrelevant comparisons. However, the humorous feature of the novel is rarely studied from the perspective of linguistic deviation. Thus the present thesis attempts to carry out the study from this perspective. On the basis of inheriting and developing the deviation theory of Geoffrey N Leech, this study aims to explore the language humor of the novel so as to disclose the laughter eliciting mechanism and probe into the deep thought behind the humorous expressions.Geoffrey N. Leech believes that linguistic deviation can exist in the eight levels of a linguistic system, thus forming into lexical deviation, grammatical deviation, phonological deviation, graphological deviation, semantic deviation, dialectal deviation, deviation of register and deviation from the historical period. With a qualitative research method, this thesis will make an elaborate and thorough analysis of the humorous expressions in Fortress Besieged from the eight levels of the linguistic system. Besides, specific approaches to each deviation pattern are also elaborately enumerated and further, this study also tries to expound and prove how language deviation produces humorous effect.Through the detailed analysis and discussion of the humorous expressions in the novel, the present thesis holds that: Firstly, deviation is an effective approach to generating humor and the specific realization of each deviation pattern is also the approach to producing humor. Secondly, humor is an effective tool for writers to have an insight into the world and criticize the existing evils and social wickedness. And thirdly, linguistic deviation is the root cause of linguistic humor. Generally speaking, in literary works, humor is generated by the playful deviation of the fixed thinking pattern of readers from the author's true intention. Sometimes, authors of literary works use lexis or sentences which break the linguistic rules so as to create a special atmosphere and express their deep thought. Influenced by the pre-existing thinking pattern, readers always attempt to comprehend the linguistic expressions according to their normal meaning. However, in certain context, readers will realize immediately that it makes no sense with the normal meaning. Thus this leads to the incongruity between reader's expectation and the true intention of the author and which is the very nature of humor. After all, readers obtain challenge, joy and reflection in the process of coming across and cracking this congruity and which can be regarded as the laughter eliciting mechanism of linguistic humor.The present study by carrying out the research into the linguistic humor in Fortress Besieged aims to come up with a new perspective of humor studies of the novel. It is sincerely hoped that this research can help readers appreciate this masterpiece in the desired way. Besides, it is the author's hope that the research findings can offer significant guide to people'application of deviation means to humor production and humor expression as well as profound thought expression with humor. However, this thesis is only a tentative study and further studies on this topic and from this perspective are expected. It is believed that with the eternity of the glamour of this great novel and the development of deviation theory, the studies and discussion on the language humor of this novel supported by deviation theory will be more profound and more persuading. And the more extensive application of deviation theory to discourse comprehension and appreciation will also follow.