A Study Of The Cognitive Mechanism Of Verbal Humor And Its Pedagogical Functions In The Textbook Communication Strategies

Linguistic humor is an important communicative strategy of people in modern society.Humor, as an implicit and euphemistic way of expression, gradually gains popularityamong the mass. In English, humor, abundant in number and variety, is the embodiment ofthe essence of the language. However, Chinese learners often experience difficulty inunderstanding and appreciating English humor. In the teaching process, the linguisticvalue of English humor is underestimated and its unique pedagogical functions are hardlyappreciated. Communication Strategies is the currently-used textbook for freshmen andsophomores of English major in many universities in China, however, many juniors whohave learned the book still have the difficulty in understanding some verbal humors. Whyit happens, furthermore, as to all ninety verbal humors in the textbook, what roles theyplay and what functions they exert, how to make use of these verbal humors to improvethe teaching efficiency. Through the investigation conducted by a paper of questionnaireand a sheet of cloze test, a better understanding of students' opinion who are juniors ofEnglish major from Yanshan University and Liren College, humors' pedagogical functions,major obstacles for them to understand verbal humors, their suggestions for teachinghumors and the level of comprehending verbal humors is acquired, thus making the studyobjective and valued to some degree. Through Incongruity-Resolution Theory, the mostrepresentative theory, and Conceptual Blending Theory, the important theory of cognitivelinguistics, the cognitive mechanism behind on-line construction of verbal humor isintended to explore. Furthermore, through the analysis of generative mechanism of verbalhumors in the textbook Communication Strategies, pedagogical functions of verbal humorare explored and summarized. Verbal humors are found to have linguistic research valuesthat can cultivate students' pragmatic competence and cross-culture communication valuesthat enhance students' intercultural communication competence. Additionally, verbalhumors in the textbook could be used to interpret language points and develop students'communication strategies, etc.The paper, by the research method of inductive inference, conducts the linguistic research on verbal humors in the textbook Communication Strategies to explore thegenerative mechanism of the humor, probe into the cognitive rules and find linguisticvalues and the pedagogical functions of verbal humors. The research provides suggestionsand references for emphasis of pedagogical functions of verbal humor and Englishteaching involving humor. The study is conducive to arousing the attention of the teachersto pedagogical functions of the humor, making better use of the textbook and developingnew textbooks so as to make certain contribution to further study on linguistic values andteaching functions of verbal humor.