From The Schema Theory Of Comic Humor

The witty and humorous language of cross-talk reflects the wisdom of us Chinese, whose charm deserves more research. The thesis probes into the verbal humor within cross talk from schema perspective.On the basis of qualitative analysis of the collected data, this thesis discusses the following three questions: Firstly, how is the verbal humor within cross talk made? Secondly, what factors influence the audience's comprehension? Thirdly, how to help the foreigners understand the verbal humor within cross-talk?After analyzing"Semantic Script Theory of Humor"and"General Theory of Verbal Humor", in which it's said that any verbal humor is compatible with two opposed schemata, the thesis expounds that verbal humor within cross talk is much more complicated. Besides the verbal humor composed of two opposed schemata, there is also verbal humor composed of one self-contradictory schema and verbal humor composed of multi-schemata of contradiction in cross-talk.Meanwhile, the thesis makes a deep study of the cross talk comprehension processes under the guidance of the schema theory. Cross talk comprehension depends on whether the audience can activate the relevant schema(ta), leading to the information prediction, information choice,reconstruction and new-schema storage.This thesis aims at awakening the insight and prospect of the Chinese traditional culture.