Humor From Verbal Impoliteness

Politeness,as an essential aspect in daily interaction,has become an indispensable component of pragmatics and attracted the attention of numerous linguists from ancient times.Humor is a necessary part to increase interest in daily life.However,there also exists impoliteness in our daily communication,and sometimes application of impoliteness can create humor.The thesis aims to explore and analyze verbal impoliteness in comic sketches of CCTV Spring Festival Gala based on Culpeper's(1996;2005)Impoliteness Theory.According to the targets of the impoliteness,there are four types of verbal impoliteness in Chinese comic sketches: the impoliteness to the speaker himself/herself;the impoliteness to the hearer;the impoliteness to the on-stage third party;the impoliteness to the off-stage third party.Based on the analysis and summary of verbal impoliteness in Chinese comic sketches,the thesis finds out that humor can be achieved by making up plots which conforms to Incongruity Theory or Superiority Theory through utilizing impoliteness strategies to attack participants' positive face.Above all,the present study has both theoretical and practical significance.Theoretically speaking,the thesis applies Culpeper's(1996;2005)Impoliteness Theory to comic sketches analysis,which not only enriches the data corpus for the theory but also proves its explanatory power.The application of impoliteness strategies plays a significant role in depicting the role characters,pushing the plot development,and particularly generating humor in Chinese comic sketches.At the same time,because of the similarities between utterances in comic sketches and those in daily communication,the study also is helpful for people to understand impoliteness in everyday life,which promotes interpersonal harmony.