A Pragmatic Study Of Verbal Humor In The Ellen Degeneres Show

Verbal humor plays an indispensable role in our daily life. It is not only a social lubricant but also a preferred way of communication. Because of its ubiquity and popularity in social interactions, verbal humor has attracted the interests of scholars from various fields of studies for long. Relevant studies have covered a wide range of topics from literary works such as novels and comedies, to popular sitcoms such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory. However, literary works and sitcoms are precisely edited before coming into public. Researches based on ready-made data seem less reliable since a pragmatic study of verbal humor should be based on naturally occurring humor to the greatest extent, which makes the live talk show an optimal choice.The past years have witnessed a growing popularity of the television talk show programs. As a television-programming genre in which people discuss various topics put forward by a talk show host, talk show attracts audience since it can provide both information and entertainment, among which we find the most popular American television talk show, namely The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The current study is a case study of verbal humor in The Ellen DeGeneres Show from the pragmatic perspective, focusing on the employment of the CP to examine its explanatory power on the naturally occurring humor collected from the program. It differs from the majority of previous studies in that it employs a data-driven approach with a microanalysis of the relationship between violating certain maxims of cooperative principle and humor creation.This case study does the research using qualitative methods. The data are collected from the first 35 episodes from season 12. Based on the analysis, major findings of the thesis are listed as follows:Firstly, the cooperative principle, as a framework of how people normally understand utterances in conversations, is applicable to analyzing naturally occurring humor, especially in the case of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Secondly, humorous effects are not consciously expressed by the speakers. They are implied context-dependent facts perceived by the hearers. Thirdly, the case study of verbal humor also indicates that verbal humor has both interpersonal and socio-cultural functions. As an integral part of our private and social life, humorous remarks are frequently employed to relieve the embarrassment between speakers, to help break the ice, to boost interpersonal harmony and lessen pressure of daily life.This tentative study explored the generative mechanism of verbal humor from the perspective of the CP, hoping to provide some useful suggestions for people to better understand the generative mechanism of verbal humor and become better language users.