摘 要

本文在合作原则和礼貌原则的基础上,挑选了中美两部非常受欢迎的情景喜剧

《破产姐妹》和《爱情公寓》，通过借助影像和台本将其中的幽默言语进行对比分析，揭示言语幽默的内在产生机制，为读者更好地理解情景喜剧的言语幽默提供参考意见。

关键词： 语言学，言语幽默，情景喜剧

Abstract

Based on cooperative principle and politeness principle in pragmatics, this thesis takes sitcoms Two Broke Girls and Love Apartment as the study subject, conducting qualitative analysis with the help of videos and lines to examine which maxim of the CP and PP is violated to create the verbal humor, so to reveal the mechanism of verbal humor creation and provide suggestions for better understanding of the verbal humor in sitcoms for readers.

Key words: Pragmatic, Verbal Humor，Sitcom

Contents

1. Introduction 1
   1. Significance of the study 1
   2. Definition of two Pragmatics Principles 1
      1. The Cooperative Principle 1
      2. The Politeness Principle 2
   3. A Brief Introduction to Love Apartment and Two Broke Girls 2
2. Demonstration 3
   1. Verbal Humor Effect in English and Chinese Sitcoms from

the Perspective of Pragmatics 3

• • 1. Verbal Humor Effect Creation Through the Violation

of CP in Love Apartment amp;Two Broke Girls 3

• • • 1. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Quantity 3
      2. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Quality 4
      3. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Relation 4
      4. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Manner 5
    1. Verbal Humor Effect Creation Through the Violation

of PP in Love Apartment amp;Two Broke Girls 6

• • • 1. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxims of Tact amp; Generosity 7
      2. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Approbation amp; Modesty 7
      3. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Agreement 9
      4. Verbal Humor through Violating Maxim of Sympathy 10

1. Conclusion 11

Verbal Humor Effect in English and Chinese Sitcoms from the Perspectives of CP and PP

——A Case Study of Love Apartment amp;Two Broke Girls

Introduction

• 1. Significance of the study

Humor is an important part in every aspect of our daily life all over the world. We can find humor in daily chat, magazines and the most popular TV program–sitcoms. In recent years, Chinese sitcoms and American sitcoms are both popular and attract much attention in many countries. Sitcom is an artistic script which comes from life to make audience laugh. And humor is always the popular topic in the field of philosophy and linguistics. But, the study of humor being applied to linguistic theories developed late, because of its relatively modern style. This analysis attempts to analyze the verbal humor effect in English and Chinese sitcoms from the two theories-- Cooperative Principle(CP) and Politeness Principle(PP). When Chinese audience have trouble understanding the punchline in American sitcoms, the detailed analysis of verbal humor from linguistic theories will solve the problem, and guide audience to appreciate American sitcoms with deep comprehension. Besides, along with the popularity of American sitcoms such as The Big Bang Theory, Friends, Two Broke Girls, some Chinese sitcoms have achieved great successes but they still lack international attention. In order to resist “cultural invasion” in situation comedy, we should apply pragmatic theory ,which can help us to get a better understanding of verbal humor and to make high quality sitcoms.

• 1. Definition of two Pragmatics Principles
     1. The Cooperative Principle

In 1970, H.P Grice who is American linguist first put forward the concept of

Cooperative Principle. From the perspective of social science and linguistics, the cooperative principle shows how people interact with one another. ‘ Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged’.(Grice 2001)‘ Although phrased as a prescriptive command, the principle is intended as a description of how people normally behave in conversations’.(Graeme 2004)

According to Grice, there are four maxims:

Maxim of Quality:

• • • 1. Do not say what you believe to be false.
      2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. Maxim of Quantity:

1. Make your contribution as informative as is required .
2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. Maxim of Relation:

Be Relevant Maxim of Manner:

1.Avoid obscurity of expression. 2.Avoid ambiguity.