A Systemic Functional Study Of English Humorous Discourse

Humor occurs observably in many aspects of our daily life and human interactions. Humor not only creates relaxed atmosphere to avoid conflict, but also entertains people to keep a kind relationship among them. Humor plays an essential role in social communication. Many scholars paid more attention to the nature of humor from different perspectives, for example pragmatics, cognitive linguistics and stylistics. However, the dissertation studies on the English humorous discourse by applying Register theory and three Metafunctions within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).Register is one important theory of SFL. In1964, Halliday set forth the register theory which was defined as a variety of language distinguished according to use. The three variables of Register are Field, Tenor and Mode. Field refers to what is being talked about, tenor refers to the people involved in the communication and mode refers to what role is played by the language activity. The three variables are closed associated with three Meta-functions:ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function in SFL.The dissertation tries to find some factors which attributed to the production of humor by analyzing English humorous discourse from the aspect of Register mismatches with aid of three Metafunctions in SFL. Register mismatches are categorized into mismatch of Field, mismatch of Tenor and mismatch of Mode. Mismatch of Field is mainly discussed by the mismatch of different topics; mismatch of Tenor is discussed by the clash between different formalities or different functional tenor; mismatch of Mode is discussed by the mix-using between oral and written forms. The realization of three Meta-functions is concerned, Ideational function is realized by transitivity; Interpersonal function is realized by mood and modality and Textual function is realized by cohesion.The significance of this dissertation lies in theory and practice. In theory, explaining the essence of English humorous discourse based on the association of Register theory and three Metafunctions. Practically, analyzing English humorous discourse from the aspect of Register mismatch and three Metafunctions in SFL. The dissertation aims to demonstrate that SFL is a feasible theory, and it can be used to analyze and understand English humorous discourse.