Humor

pragmatic analysis of humorIntroductionThe production of English humorConclusion

The emergence and development of English humor has a close contact with language itself and context. Linguists have done many researches on English humor from different perspectives. Among them, Paul Grice’s cooperative principle has special viewpoints to the explanation of English humor. This paper uses cooperative principle, analyses and discusses the causes of English humor. From some specific conversational examples, we can have a deep understating and appreciation toward English humor.

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of humor
Humor is a kind of language art; it can bring a lot of pleasure and laughter for our daily life. In the humorous conversation, if one party violates one of the maxims in cooperative principle, it will lead the hearer misunderstand the speaker’s original intension, at this time, humor is naturally come out.
1.2 Background of cooperative principle
Cooperative principle is proposed by the philosopher and logician, Paul Grice. He thinks that the participants must be willing to cooperate with each other; otherwise, it would be impossible for them to carry out the conversation. This general principle is called cooperative principle.
1.3 Four maxims under cooperative principle
Grice further proposed his four maxims under cooperative principle, which includes “maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relation and maxim of manner”.
1.3.1 Maxim of quality
a. “Say what you believe to be true”
b. “Do not lie or say things you can’t prove ”
1.3.2 Maxim of quantity
a. “Be as informative as is required for the current purpose of the exchange”
b. “Do not say more than is required ”
1.3.3 Maxim of relation
“Say what is relevant”. That is, the speaker’s contribution should relate to the purpose of the exchange
1.3.4 Maxim of manner
a. “Express clearly, briefly and orderly”
b. “Avoid ambiguity, obscurity and unnecessary prolixity”
If we could usually abide by cooperation principle in the communication, social communication will carry out in an effective way. However, Grice have found that people always purposely violate cooperative principle for some needs. In fact, humor is reflecting on people’s violation of cooperative principle. When people violate cooperative principle, it will produce unrelated information on the surface. These unrelated information actually include overtone, so, it will produce the effect of humor.

2. The Production of English Humor

2.1 The violation of quality maxim
Eg: David goes to see his boss in the office. He says:” Boss, we are going to move house, my wife needs my help.” But the boss responds: “we are short-handed; I can’t give you a day off.” “Thank you very much, boss”, says David, “I know I could count on you.”
Quality maxim needs us to say some true and reasonable words. But, sometimes, people always violate quality maxim on purpose for achieving the effect of exaggeration and metaphor.
In this example, David asks for leave from his boss, according to common sense, he will hope that his boss could agree his requirement. But, to our surprise, when his boss refuse his demand, he unexpectedly thanks his boss, so, humor comes out. David tells a lie to his boss and violates the quality maxim. His implication is just to escape doing housework.
2.2 The violation of quantity maxim
Eg: Jimmy: Teacher, would you scold someone for something he didn’t do?
Teacher: Of course not.
Jimmy: well, that’s good, because I didn’t do my homework.
Quantity maxim asks speakers to give sufficient information. The more or less information could lead to ambiguity and implication.

Jimmy didn’t provide enough information for his teacher so that his teacher drops into his trap. He is so clever that he will escape the blame of his teacher through this conversation, because his teacher has promised him that he will not scold someone for something he didn’t do. We couldn’t help laughing for this boy’s naughty behavior.
2.3 The violation of relation maxim
Eg: Three deaf ladies were traveling on top of mountain.
“Windy, isn’t it?” asked one.
“No, it isn’t Wednesday, it’s Thursday.” said the second.
“Yes, I am thirsty, too, let’s go downhill and have a bottle of water.”
Relation maxim needs both speakers say something related to the topic. If one side violates this principle, the conversation will be stopped. Sometimes, it could create the effect of humor.
The first lady was talking about the weather, while the second didn’t listen carefully and clearly, and she answers the “what day it is?” Then, the third lady continues topic of the second lady, but she also didn’t understand the previous topic. In fact, the last two ladies’ answer has no relationship with the question of the previous speakers. But, it is quite reasonable for these deaf ladies to misunderstand conversational implication according to their hearing illness. So, this humorous conversation could win readers’ laugher.
2.4 The violation of manner maxim
Eg: Bob: Waiter, what’s this fly doing in my dinner.
Waiter: Hi, guy, how could you play on guest’s table? Go out to play with you friends. This guy is naughtier than others. Don’t mind.
Manner maxim requires speakers to say clear and concise words to communicate with each other. However, some people purposely say ambiguous words for politeness or other reasons.
In this conversation, when the customer complains the fly in his vegetable, the waiter purposely misinterprets his meaning and puts all responsibility on this naughty fly. His humorous answer not only brings pleasure to the guest, but also retrieves the face of the restaurant by violating manner maxim

3 Conclusion

Humor is condiment of our daily life, it bring us laughter and inspiration. In cooperative principle, we could see that humor mainly come from ambiguous, unrelated and implicit conversations. Beside, humor relies on specific culture, history and natural phenomenon on certain degree. So, we should firstly know this basic information in order to feel the effect of humor. Meanwhile, we need to learn the basic speculative knowledge about the produce of humor so that we could know the deep implication of humor.

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