A Contrastive Analysis Of English And Chinese Puns In Literary Works Based On The Cooperatiive Principle

Pun,as one of widely used rhetoric devices,plays an essential role in literature and daily communication.Studying pun in literary works is of help not only for grasping the implication of the language but also for a better understanding of the literary works.The early studies of pun focused on its definition and classification from the perspective of semantics,pragmatics,and cognition and so on.Recent studies show that more and more researchers have conducted their analysis on the contrastive studies of English and Chinese puns,but few contrastive studies have been done based on the Cooperative Principle and fewer have been done to explore the causes for the similarities and differences between English and Chinese puns.This research,which aims to conduct a contrastive study of English and Chinese puns based on the Cooperative Principle to find the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns and moreover,to work out the causes for the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns,is of great significance.Based on the Cooperative Principle of Paul Grice(1975),this research makes a contrastive analysis of English and Chinese puns in literary works,aiming to find out what the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns in literary works are and the causes for these similarities and differences.To achieve the objectives,this study puts forward two questions.Firstly,what are the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns in literary works based on the Cooperative Principle? Secondly,what are the causes for the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns in literary works?This study selects Romeo and Juliet and The Peony Pavilion as research objects.In terms of the research methodology,this research takes advantage of the methods of text analysis,contrast,generalization,quantitative and qualitative analysis.Research procedures are as follows: firstly,read the sampled texts Romeo and Juliet and The Peony Pavilion to find English and Chinese puns respectively;secondly,analyze English and Chinese puns and summarize their similarities and differences based on the Cooperative Principle;thirdly,explore the reasons for the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns.The major findings of this research include:(1)the first similarity of English and Chinese puns in literary works is that both English and Chinese puns are shaped by violating the maxim of manner and quality.Besides,most of English and Chinese puns are shaped by violating the maxim of manner;the second similarity of English and Chinese puns in literary works is that they both take advantage of word play to shape the puns,especially when they violate the maxim of quality.(2)There exist many differences of English and Chinese puns in literary works: firstly,when violating the maxim of manner,English puns take advantage of word play while Chinese puns not only take advantage of word play but also the scene and literary quotations;secondly,English puns are often taken advantage of to achieve the goal of irony and humor,while Chinese puns are often employed to achieve the goal of euphemism and implication.(3)The causes for the similarities and differences include: the factor contributing to the similarities is the nature of puns;the factors contributing to the differences are the different characters,different history and different thinking modes of English and Chinese.The thesis comprises five chapters.Chapter One introduces research background,research significance,research objectives and the structure of the thesis.Chapter Two reviews previous studies on pun,on Romeo and Juliet and on The Peony Pavilion.Chapter Three consists of research questions,theoretical framework and research procedures.Chapter Four presents the data,analyzes the features of English and Chinese puns,summarizes the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns and discusses the reasons for the similarities and differences of English and Chinese puns.Chapter Five explains major findings of the research,implications of the research as well as limitations and prospect of the research in detail.