摘 要

言语幽默是一种社交艺术，它不仅可以为人们的交流创造一个和谐的环境，也可以让人们缓解学习和工作上的压力。情景喜剧中就广泛利用言语幽默来吸引观众。本论文基于优越论、释放论和乖讹论对美国著名情景喜剧《生活大爆炸》第十季中的言语幽默进行分析，探讨了反讽、夸张、委婉语、换喻、隐喻、悖论、双关语和仿拟等修辞手法在剧中所产生的幽默效果，并借此表明情景喜剧中的这些语料可以为人们在日常生活中创造幽默提供借鉴。

关键词：《生活大爆炸》；言语幽默；修辞手法；优越论；释放论；乖讹论

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...1

2. Demonstration………………………………………………………………………2

2.1 An Overview of three conventional theories of humor............................................2

2.1.1 Superiority Theory.................................................................................................2

2.1.2 Relief Theory.........................................................................................................3

2.1.3 Incongruity Theory................................................................................................4

2.2 The rhetorical analysis of verbal humor in The Big Bang Theory X........................5

2.2.1 Sitcom features of The Big Bang Theory..............................................................5

2.2.2 Verbal humor in The Big Bang Theory X.............................................................6

2.2.2.1 Humor arising from Superiority Complex........................................................6

2.2.2.1.1 Irony................................................................................................................7

2.2.2.1.2 Hyperbole........................................................................................................9

2.2.2.2 Humor arising from Euphemistic Relief..........................................................11

2.2.2.2.1 Euphemism....................................................................................................12

2.2.2.2.2 Metonymy......................................................................................................13

2.2.2.3 Humor arising from Incongruity.......................................................................15

2.2.2.3.1 Metaphor........................................................................................................15

2.2.2.3.2 Paradox..........................................................................................................17

2.2.2.3.3 Pun.................................................................................................................18

2.2.2.3.4 Parody............................................................................................................20

2.3 Summary.................................................................................................................21

3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………............22

Works cited…………………………………………………………………...............23

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….............24

A Rhetorical Analysis of Verbal Humor in The Big Bang Theory

1. Introduction

As a human-specific communicative form, humor plays an important role in creating harmony and enriching people’s life. The tremendous value and diversified mechanism have made humor a comprehensive research issue for a long time. Verbal humor is the main form for conveying humor because of its distinct pragmatic characters and effects. With the rapid development of cultural diversity, analysis of verbal humor shows a positive effect not only theoretically but also practically.

The study of verbal humor enjoys a long history and remarkable achievements. Its foreign studies can be traced back to the fourth century B.C. when Plato and Aristotle paid attention to the generation of verbal humor. In the conventional study of humor, the west tended to analyze it based on philosophy, psychology and sociology, bringing about the emergence of three conventional theories of humor, namely, superiority theory, relief theory and incongruity theory, which established the theoretical basis for the study of humor in the western world. With the development of contemporary linguistics, scholars from the field of linguistics began to study this issue since the 1970s. V. Raskin (1985) raised the Semantic-Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) in Semantic Mechanisms of Humor and revised it into General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) together with S. Attardo(1991). Simultaneously, some linguistic theories like the Cooperation Principle, Relevance Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory were also applied to explaining the generation of verbal humor. Besides, anthropology, rhetoric and aesthetics are vital methods as well.