Abstract
Humor research has not usually been considered to be a discipline of great importance for a long time. Most people think that humorous utterance is just a pervasive occurrence. But in fact, it is the reverse side. In our lives humor plays an important role. It can make one laugh, make society more harmonious, reflect one’s wisdom and attitude towards life, resolve conflicts between people and so forth.
This article attempts to adopt American sitcom Friends as the corpus, starting from the angle of pragmatics, to analyze the potential mechanism of humor under the theoretical framework of Cooperative Principle. This study on humor in the sitcoms Friends and SFEB has both theoretical and practical significance.
Keywords: Humor; Cooperative Principle; Politeness Principle; Friends; SFEB
Abbreviation
SFEB Series From Editorial Board
CP Cooperative Principle
PP Politeness Principle
SFG Systemic Functional Grammar
Chapter one A Pragmatic Comparison of Humor in Friends and SFEB
The conversations in Friends and SFEB are abundant in wit and humor. To appreciate these humorous conversations thoroughly, the implicit meaning behind utterances should be studied. The following discussions are to explore the conversational implicature of humorous utterance through the approach of the conversational maxims of Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle.
1.1 A Comparative Study of Humor in Terms of CP
According to Grice, people can communicate in the most direct way with highest efficiency by observing the CP. In real life, however, people do not always speak by faithful observing the CP. The speaker may deliberately or accidentally violate these maxims for the conventions of politeness, taboo and so on. The hearer still assumes that the speaker is cooperative. In this case, the hearer needs to understand the conversational implicature which is generated by violating the maxims. The speaker expresses in this way which seems against the CP to reinforce the communicative effect. Humor is generated by the conversational implicature of the humorous utterances. Each violation of the maxims leads to the inconsistence in the speaker’s intention and the hearer’s interpretation. In rhetoric, metaphor, irony, hyperbole, euphemism and so on is all specific examples of this case. In this way, the speaker can make his conversation humorous，and the communicative effect is strengthened. Thus, humor is created.
1.1.1 Humor Produced by Violating the Maxim of Quantity
Violation of the maxim of quantity includes two points :( A) Providing less information than needed. (B) Providing more information than required. The following examples which illustrate both cases produce a humorous effect.
(3-1) Mrs. Geller: Oh, Martha Ludwin’s daughter is gonna call you. (Tasting a snack) Mom! What’s that curry taste
Monica: Curry.
(Episode 1*02 in Friends) Monica does not get along well with her mother Mrs. Geller who is always critical of her. Monica says so, intentionally providing less information and gives a hint that she gets annoyed somewhat by her mother.
The Chinese has also the way of speaking. When they are willing to express their ideas to others, they usually provide less information. Consequently, the effect of humor is realized.
Dongbao（drinking and thinking）：Is it easy for us to grow up?
Yonggang：Do not dare to talk about others, but it is really not easy for me.
Dongbao（leniently）Rreally. Abortion is possible even since mom is pregnant…….
1.1.2 Humor Produced by Violating the Maxim of Quality
In terms of the maxim of quality, people tend to tease others or tell a humor by intentionally saying something is true that they don’t believe.
For example, in Friends’ Episode 1*03 in central perk where phoebe enters, muttering. She sits down without saying hi.
Chandler: They were huge. When she sneezed, bats flew out of them.
Rachel: Come on, they were not that huge.
Chandler: I’m telling you, she leaned back, I could see her brain!
(Episode 5*07 in Friends)
Chandler uses an exaggerated way to describe her new girlfriend whose nostril is huge. His description is certainly untrue but produces humorous effect.
The maxim of quality focuses on the importance of saying what we believe to be true. But from the above examples in both English and Chinese, we can see that people often intentionally say something they do not believe is true to mock others. Some rhetorical devices like irony, hyperbole, etc. which sometimes can result in humor also violate this maxim. So we can have a better understanding of humor production in both English and Chinese by using this approach.
Dongbao：The same, the same, still the always-spoken words, we are both poor children and we shouldn’t laugh at each other.
Yonggang：I am the poorest, the unhappiest and the most miserable child of all.
1.2 A Comparative Study of Humor in Terms of PP
Leech (1983) proposed PP to interpret why people communicate in an indirect way with the practice of violating the maxims of CP. He holds that people violate the CP sometimes because they want to observe the PP, which is crucial in the maintenance of social relations. Therefore, people violate the CP by intention for the sake of the principle of politeness.
1.2.1 Humor Produced by Observing PP
In both American and Chinese humor, people often speak very politely by observing the PP, which can also create humorous atmosphere. Yet sometimes the seemly polite implicature of the utterances turn to be more humorous and even more sarcastic. For example:
(Rachel is making coffee for Joey and Chandler)
Rachel: Isn't this amazing? I mean, I have never made coffee before in my entire life.
Chandler: That is amazing.
Joey: Congratulations. And while you're on a roll, if you feel like you gotta make like a Western omelets or something...(Joey and Chandler taste the coffee grimace, and pour it into a plant pot)Although actually I'm really not that hungry...
(Episode 1*01in Friends)
Obviously, Chandler seems to be amazed at the coffee made by Rachel, which seems a praise to Rachel, but actually he is amazed that Rachel has never made coffee before. Chandler observes the PP to be polite. The humor also lies in Joey’s reaction after tasting the coffee made by Rachel. He realizes Rachel cannot be a good cook at all. So he pretends not hungry to avoid an embarrassing situation.
1.2.2 Humor Produced by Violating PP
Sometimes there is some humor which the speakers do not observe the Politeness Principle. They tend to say something impolite. The techniques of self-recognition and depreciation on others apply to this approach. But this way of speaking is usually found between those whose relationship is close or special. So it is unacceptable for normal social communication. In Friends, some maxims of the PP are sometimes violated, which always makes the audience amused. The reason is probably that people are less likely to speak like that in real life. For example:
Joey: Hey Pheebs, you wanna help?
Phoebe: Oh, I wish I could, but I don’t want to.
(Episode 6*05 in Friends)
According to Leech (1983), people usually adopt an indirect refusal which tends to be more polite than a direct one. Phoebe gives a direct refusal which seems impolite and violates the maxim of generosity.
Ross: Okay. You know you probably didn't know this, but back in high school, I had a, um, major crush on you.
Rachel: I knew.
Ross: You did! Oh....I always figured you just thought I was Monica's geeky older brother.
Rachel: I did.
(Episode 2*09 in Friends)
Here the word “geeky” means someone who is not popular because they wear unfashionable clothes, do not know how to behave in social situations, or do strange things. Rachel’s sharp response to Ross is also the violation of approbation maxim and generates humor.
In these examples we see that in close relationships, no matter in American or China, people sometimes make fun of each other, which violates the Politeness Principle. Only family members and friends can endure this impoliteness. What’s more, this humor lightens the boring everyday life.
Chapter two Theoretical and Pedagogical Implications
With the present research on the humor in sitcom "Friends", including a classification of the various kinds of humor in sitcom "Friends", a relevance-theoretical analysis of the come-about of humorous effect of the humor in sitcom "Friends", a relevance-theoretical analysis of the reason of humor appreciation failure in a cross-cultural context, we find out that the come-about of humorous effect in situation comedy--a verbal-visual model of communication--can be explained within the framework of relevance theory and the relevance-theoretic account of the cognitive mechanism of humor works in the specific context situation comedy but has taken on some new characteristics when it is applied to that specific context. And we find out that we can classify the humor in sitcom "Friends" into different categories, including the humor made by deviation of linguistic structures, by punning, by misapprehension of polysemy, by ambiguity, by the deviated borrowing of encyclopedic knowledge and by deviation of logic, etc. Besides the above two, we also find out that when Chinese audiences watch "Friends", humor appreciation failure often occur to us in that cross-cultural context and the reason for that phenomenon, explained within the framework of relevance theory, is that a lack of necessary culture-specific contextual assumptions in our cognitive environment impedes a smooth interpretation and appreciation of humor.
2.1 Implications to Humor, Sitcom and Cross-cultural Communication
Mutual manifest ness is indispensable to a smooth and successful communication. So when some certain contextual assumptions are not mutually manifested by both the communicator and the hearer, communication failures are inevitable. We suggest that because of the inaccessibility of certain culture-specific contextual assumptions due to the great differences between Chinese culture and American culture in terms of their living patterns, customs, habits, rites and rituals, language, social organization, worldview, value, belief, etc, some of the assumptions cannot be mutually manifested by both the American humorist and the Chinese audiences. So sometimes we as Chinese audiences cannot select the right interpretation intended by the humorist so that cannot get the pleasant surprise which is the direct psychological stimulus for laughter and consequently, fail to appreciate the humorous effect of a certain humorous discourse in "Friends". So RT can also be applied to explain the reason of humor appreciation failure in a cross-cultural context, which further expands the explanatory power to the study of cross-cultural communication.
2.2 Implications to Foreign Language Teaching and Learning
As we know, sometimes we fail to communicate because language differences impede us; while at other times, we find the meaning of each word, but realize that something beyond language is at work, that is culture. Kramsch once said that "one had to understand why they said what they said and how they said it to whom in a specific context of situation. In addition, one had to link their words, beliefs and mindsets to a larger context of culture” (Kramsch, 1989: 26). Language and culture are interwoven so that to develop students' communicative as well as linguistic competence, we must blend both language teaching and culture teaching together in a foreign language class. Here we recommend that American situation comedy can be taken as good foreign language teaching material both in terms of language and culture. There are three reasons for that.
1) The knowledge
American sit-com is loaded with colorful language usages and cultural and conceptualizations so that its can be ideal teaching material for both language and culture teaching. As having been examined in the earlier chapter, humor made with verbal strategies—language and discourse—in sitcom "Friends" totally occupies eighty percent of all the humor so that it contains colorful language usages such as puns, ambiguities, metaphors, hyperboles, etc. So it can be used as language teaching material to teach the students linguistic and grammatical knowledge and a colorful usage of English language. Besides that, with the colorful usage of various kinds of paralanguage such as rate of speech, non-verbal sounds and tone shift, etc. in sitcom "Friends", the students can have a good view of English pronunciation, intonation and the flow of speech so that their sensitivity to English language will be greatly improved. And as far as cultural knowledge and conceptualizations are concerned, the American situation comedy is permeated with American culture which includes American cultural knowledge and conceptualizations, so that it can also be used as culture teaching material to teach the students American, and more generally, western culture and improve students' cultural awareness. With American sitcoms as the teaching material, we can combine language teaching and culture teaching together.
2) In a non-English speaking country like China, the teaching and learning of English, in most cases, are taking place without a good target language learning atmosphere. But the video version of American situation comedy "Friends", with its vivid moving pictures and real-life situations, can help provide a better language learning atmosphere and do more than lecturing because they are more perceptible and attractive
3) Sitcoms can create a comfortable and non-threatening environment and encourage students to relax through the music, the humorous plots and the actors' performance. It brings laughter to the foreign language classrooms and adds much fun into the language learning process so that can lower the anxiety of students and make the students become more motivated in the foreign language learning process and make the things that learned become more easily grasped and more firmly remembered. When American situation comedy is used in foreign language teaching, teaching procedures can be three steps, pre-watching, while-watching, post-watching.
Conclusion
In this paper, humor has been introduced in terms of definition, theories, types, and mainly from the aspects of semantics and pragmatics. In pragmatic aspect, I emphasize the relevance-theoretic approach to the interpretation of verbal humor.
The interpretation of humor from the perspective of pragmatics has not been widely and thoroughly studied yet. Most of works still pay attention to the relation of the traditional Grice’s CP and humor. Not all humorous utterances can be explained by the CP. It explains how a joke violating the CP can convey information. It is a pragmatic theory of human communication and its principle of relevance can be applied to the interpretation of all types of discourse.Of course, there are still a lot of issues left open because of the length of this paper. In pragmatic analysis of humor, such aspects as speech act, politeness, and presupposition, et cetera, can be applied to the study of humor as well. Moreover, cross-cultural pragmatics is also concerned with humor tightly and will prove a very interesting topic. In short, linguistic study of humor has a long way ahead and is undoubtedly beneficial to our lives.
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