A Relevance-theoretic Analysis Of The Humorous Dialogues In The Sitcom The Big Bang Theory

This thesis is a relevance-theoretic study of the humorous dialogues in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory in order to prove the feasibility of Relevance Theory in humor interpretation and to explore the. process of cognitive interpretation of humorous discourse.The research has the following findings:First, Relevance theory is reasonable to demonstrate how verbal humor is generated and interpreted. Relevance Theory has a great explanatory force on verbal humor. People can make use of ostensive-inferential communication, the relationship between the optimal relevance and the maximal relevance, the relationship between informative intention and communicative intention, etc. to analyze verbal humor.Second, humor can be produced not only when the informative intention and the communicative intention are different, but also when the informative and the communicative intention are consistent; humor can be produced by the violation of the Maximal Relevance and the Optimal Relevance; humor can be produced by different logical information, encyclopedic information and lexical information; insufficient processing effort can also produce humorous effect; ignorance, deliberate misunderstanding have close relation with humor.Third; humorous communication is an interactional process in which both the speaker and the hearer have to play an active role. In order to generate humor or create humorous atmosphere, both the speaker and the hearer have to pay some effort.Finally, humorous discourse has many very important roles in interpersonal communication, such as balancing people’s emotions, resolving embarrassment, alleviating the contradiction between people, adjusting interpersonal relationship as well as creating a relaxed and happy atmosphere.The significance of the study has the following two aspects:Theoretical significance:first of all, the research, which applies Relevance Theory to the field of sitcom humorous discourse analysis, widens the road of humor research, so that the scholars of humor research have more theoretical choices. Second, the study provides a new perspective and direction for verbal humor analysis. That is a supplement of the previous studies of humor under the frameworks of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle. Third, relevance theory can put a better interpretation on the internal mechanism of humor from different angles compared with cooperative principle and politeness principle. Finally, the research enables the majority of scholars conduct more thorough research into the theory of humor and to obtain greater theoretical achievement as well as to better analyze verbal humor.Practical significance:first, under the guidance of relevance theory, people can better understand humor, and create more verbal humor with the use of language skills. Second, the study of humor can help us make better verbal communication and improve language skills. The study can help us express our ideas skillfully, avoid conflict, and create a harmonious interpersonal relationship. Finally, the study of humor is helpful for teaching:on the one hand, humorous teaching style will attract students ’attention and stimulate students’ interest in learning, in order to achieve better teaching effect. On the other hand, teachers will consciously enlarge students’ background knowledge to provide them with corresponding context for reference in the classroom teaching. This kind of classroom teaching will be very productive; then, students’ ability in various aspects can be improved.