Trying to Analyze the Implication of Humorous Dialogue Under the Premise of Pragmatics

JIN+Xin

【Abstract】The language of humorous conversation is special and has extra content， which is beyond the surface meaning. I collect fifty humorous conversations and choose typical samples among them for research. Through analysis of humorous conversations， I can draw such a conclusion that humorous conversations set up presupposition at the very beginning， which can add sense of humor for them.

【Key words】Humorous conversation；Presupposition；Cooperation

The explanation of humor in “Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary” means quality of being amusing or comic； ability to appreciate things， situations or people that are comic； ability to be amused； persons state of mind； mood； temper.

Humor has close relation with presupposition， cooperative principle. Humorous conversations can be divided into two parts. In the first part， the language includes a presupposition or conversational context. However， the meaning in the second part is totally different from former presupposition or conversational context. Then sense of humor is created. Moreover， humorous conversations sometimes observe cooperative principles， but sometimes they are not. As humorous conversations violate cooperative principles， there will be conversational implicature. Later， I will explain the relationship between presupposition， cooperative principle and humorous conversations more explicitly and clearly.

A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance. Presupposition does seem at least to be based more closely on the actual linguistic structure of sentences. Presupposition is such an inference cannot be thought of as semantic in narrow sense， because they are too sensitive to contextual factors. Grice develops the concept is essentially a theory about how people use language. Grices suggestion is that there is a set of over-arching assumptions guiding the conduct of conversation. These arise， it seems， from basic rational considerations and may be formulated as guidelines for the efficient and effective use of language in conversation to further cooperative ends. Grice identifies as guidelines of this sort four basic maxims of conversation：

The humorous conversations， I think can be divided into two parts. The author of humorous conversations always sets up presupposition at the first part. The author at the beginning put thinking pattern in the first part. People will follow authors thinking pattern. But in the second part， the truth is totally different from former thinking pattern. When people understand they have made mistakes because of thinking pattern， they sense the humor favor. Now firstly lets look at the relationship between humorous conversations and presupposition.endprint

The language of humorous conversation is special and has extra content， which is beyond the surface meaning. I collect fifty humorous conversations and choose typical samples among them for research. Through analysis of humorous conversations， I can draw such a conclusion that humorous conversations set up presupposition at the very beginning， which can add sense of humor for them. In this paper， I also analyze the relationship between humorous conversations and cooperative principle. Some humorous conversations observe cooperative principle， while some not. I find out that humorous conversations that violate cooperative principle， can also add sense of humor for them. It has close relationship with presupposition and cooperative principle.

【參考文獻(xiàn)】

[1]何自然.《語(yǔ)用學(xué)概論》，湖南教育出版社，1987.

[2]黃國(guó)文.《語(yǔ)篇分析概要》，湖南教育出版社，1987.

[3]Stephen C. Levinson Pragmatics Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，1999.

[4]林添勝.“試論幽默的內(nèi)涵和方法”廣西教育學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào) 2004（4）.

[5]劉學(xué)豐.“語(yǔ)言歧義、文化背景與英文幽默”渤海大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)，2004（7）.endprint