An Analysis Of Humorous Conversation Implications In The Big Bang Theory Ⅴfrom The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Humor, as a special speech act, is used in our daily life widely. Because humor is not only a communication manner owned by human beings specially, but also a kind of desirable and influential language art, which plays a very significant role in different kinds of cultures and languages. Research on the humorous conversation implication is such an important topic. Referring to humor, the author can not ignore the unique function of humor—melting embarrassment and adding communication interest for people’s life.The research of humor can date back to Plato and Aristotle during Ancient Greek Times. At that time, most of the studies on humor focused on physiology, psychology, anthropology and sociology. The studies on humorous conversation implications from the perspective of linguistics have risen from the late1970s. In recent years, with the growth of linguistic scholar group, scholars began to probe into studying and interpreting humor linguistically. At the very beginning, studies focused on semantics, rhetoric, and syntax and so on. With the developing and broadening of this discipline, linguistics has been subdivided into different smaller branches. At the same time, new branches have been added to linguistics. Under such situation, more and more theories can be applied to explain humorous conversation implications. Pragmatics, as a new branch of linguistics, has earned tremendously popularity among linguists. Thus, the study of humor extended to the field of pragmatics. More and more scholars are inclined to employ the subset theories in pragmatics such as speech act theory, cooperative principles and relevance theory to explain humorous conversation implications. Definitely, cognitive pragmatics must be paid attention to. The significance of using pragmatics lies in "implication", which can be called as "speaker meaning". Generally speaking, humor can be understood from two perspectives—speakers and listeners. In1986, French linguist Sperber and England linguist Wilson put forward the relevance theory together which belongs to pragmatics. In recent years, the relevance theory provides great cognitive pragmatic foundation for pragmatics.Along with the evolvement of different cultural forms, popular songs, films and television programs prosper and develop rapidly. Among them, the American Sitcom becomes more and more popular, and serves as a carrier for the studying of humorous conversation implications. The fact scholars have to admit is that only when there is a carrier for the humor study, can the learners understand and master such humor better. In the history of American sitcom, there are many excellent works, such as Friends, Everyone loves Raymond, and the renewing The Big Bang Theory. All these Sitcoms offer vivid examples for the study.The theory foundation of this thesis is the relevance theory, which is a branch of pragmatics. The analyzed object is a popular American Sitcom on Internet----The Big Bang Theory V. In the thesis, the author uses the two principles of relevance theory to indicate the humorous conversation implications from different perspectives. During the process of analyzing, the author of this thesis classifies the humorous conversation implications by distinct techniques, aiming at proving the significance of relevance theory in the interpreting of humorous conversation implications. This thesis puts forward some pragmatic and cross-cultural suggestions for learners, and suggests applying this research into the cross-culture research and English teaching as well.This thesis can be divided into five chapters.The first chapter is introduction to the whole thesis. In this chapter, the research background, objectives and significance, research methodology of this study are discussed. Meanwhile, the structure of this thesis is put forward as well. The second chapter is literature review. At first, the author gives the definition of humor, and introduces the American sitcom briefly. Then the author gives an outline of the three classical theories of humor. At last, the author summarizes the recent development situation of humorous conversation implications.The third chapter is the theoretical framework. In this chapter, the relevance theory, as the theoretical foundation, is elaborated in detail. The main purpose is to let readers comprehend the significance of two principles of relevance theory and cognitive context in the study of humorous conversation implications.The forth chapter is the most important chapter of this thesis.In this chapter, the author uses the relevance theory to analyze the vivid instances in The Big Bang Theory Ⅴ. The research emphasizes on the inference process of the audience during the watching. The fifth season of this sitcom is the object.The last chapter gives a summary of the whole thesis. Major findings, some implications and limitations are put forward. Meanwhile, some suggestions are also presented to learners.