A Relevance Approach To The Cognitive Process Of Verbal Humor Derived From Ambiguity In Friends

In this paper, humorous utterances from the American sitcom Friends will be analyzed within the framework of Relevance Theory (RT) developed by Sperber and Wilson (1986/1995) to examine how RT can explain the cognitive process of verbal humor interpretation and its explanatory power. The present study is different from previous studies. Instead of involving all the humor strategies extensively used by humorists to produce humor, it focuses on one humor strategy, namely, ambiguity, expecting to investigate humors derived from all levels of ambiguity intensively and deeply and thus may further examine the explanatory power of this theory.According to RT, the cognitive process of verbal humor interpretation and the derivation of humorous effects are governed by a cognitive search for relevance. Humorous effects, namely, the extra effects are achieved for the extra efforts during the process of searching for optimal relevance of an utterance against its maximal relevance. As will be shown in the paper, by analyzing the cognitive process of humorous utterances derived from ambiguity at its all levels collected from the American situation comedy (sitcom) Friends, the explanatory power of RT is further proved. What is more, the study may help appreciate humor and thus facilitate human communication, besides its implication for EFL learning and teaching.