语言学合作原则及违背分析 论文

Analysis of Humor from the Violation of the Cooperative Principles

——

In

4 Apartment

and

Friends

Abstract:

Chinese

jokes

and

English

jokes

are

humorous

and

implicit.

However,

perhaps

it

’

s not

easy

for us to

totally understand English

humor,

or foreigners have

some difficulties in comprehending Chinese jokes because of the differences between

different cultures. As we all know, Chinese sitcom

IV Apartment

series and American

sitcom

Friends

are popular with the majority of the young television audience. This

paper mainly

attempts

to analyze the verbal

humor lying in

both

IV Apartment

and

Friends

within

the

framework

of

Grice’s

Cooperative

Principles,

especially

the

violation

of

these

principles.

Specific

samples

are

given

to

illustrate

each

cause,

aiming

to

help

readers

reach

a

higher

level

of

language

understanding

and

appreciation of the humorous connotation.

Key Words

：

The Cooperative Principles

；

Viola tion

；

IV Apartment

；

friends

；

Verbal

Humor

1 The Cooperative Principles

Paul Grice was the first to note this ubiquitous feature of language use and also

the first to present a philosophical analysis. Grice begins to notice that conversations

are

usually

to

some

degree

cooperative

enterprises.

He

then

formulates

the

Cooperative Principles:

“

Make your conversational contribution such as is requited at

the stage at which it occurs by the accepted or direction of the talk exchange in which

you are engaged.

”

To

specify

the

CP

further,

Grice

introduced

four

categories

of

maxims:

First,

Quantity maxim including: 1) Make your contribution as informative as is requited, 2)

Do not say what your contribution more informative than is requited. Second, Quality

maxim, try to make your contribution one that is true., including: 1) Do not say what

you

believe

to

be

false,

2)

Do

not

say

that

for

which

you

lack

adequate

evidence.

Third,

Relation

maxim:

Be

relevant.

Fourth,

Manner

maxim,

including

1)

Avoid

obscurity of expression, 2) Avoid ambiguity, 3) Be brief, 4) Be orderly.

2 The Cooperative Principles and Humor

Grice noticed that in daily conversations people do not usually say things directly

but

tend

to

imply

them.

In

order

to

avoid

the

logical

use

of

“implication”

,

Grice

coined

the

term

“

implicature

”

.

Our

talk

exchanges

do

not

normally

consist

of

a

succession

of

disconnected

remarks

and

would

not

be

rational

if

they

did.

In

other

works, we seem to follow some Cooperative Principles.

People

’

s

conversation

exchanges

are

cooperative

efforts.

The

participants

must

cooperate in some degree in order to achieve their shared purpose and continue their

talks. CP and its maxims will be followed by everybody. People do violate them and

tell lies. So Herbert Paus Grice

’

s

“

Logic and Conversation

”

is devoted to a discussion

of

violation.

Some

examples

which

involve

the

violation

of

the

four

maxims

respectively are presented. All the samples below are collections of punch line jokes.

a)

Violation of Maxim of Quantity

b)

Violation of Maxim of Quality

c)

Violation of Maxim of Relation

d)

Violation of Maxim of Manner

3 CP-based samples Analysis of IV Apartment and Friends

In Grice

’

s view, conversational implicatures can only be worked out on the basis

of CP. If somebody deliberately conceals facts from his hearers, the basis for accurate

interpretation is lost, though a liar succeeds only when his hearers assume that he is

observing the CP. In this case, if the Maxims is broken, humor or jokes will presented.

3.1 Violation of Maxim of Quantity

1) Example in IPARTMENT

一菲：

“你无耻 ，你卑鄙，你不靠谱！

”

子乔：

“那你就不无耻，不卑鄙，非常靠谱？”

一菲：

“我哪里无耻，哪里卑鄙，哪里不靠谱了！？”

子乔：

“你哪里不无耻，哪里不卑鄙，哪里靠谱了！？”

一菲：

“就算我再怎么无耻，再怎么卑鄙，再怎么 不靠谱，也不会比你更无耻，更卑鄙，更

不靠谱了！

！

”

Their quarrel is in violation of the first rule of quantity, making your contribution

as

informative

as

is

required.

In

response,

they

avoided

the

other’

s

accuse

and

questions by repeating

each other’s

words in a stronger and stronger tone. Although

using

the

different

sentence

patterns,

such

as

exclamation

and

rhetorical

question,

they didn

’

t add new information in their following quarrel. It

’

s their funny Lip Tips

that make it humorous.

2) Example in

Friends

Chandler: where is the book you are reading?

Monica: it

’

s the living room where there is also light and no one will kick you in the

shin.

Chandler: what?

In the dialogue, Chandler can nor fall asleep so he turn on the light and asks Monica

about the books she usually read. Because Monica is sleeping soundly so she is angry

with him. So her answer violates the second rule of the Quantity maxim, which means

what she says is more informative than requited. In fact, she implies she is angry and

wants to kick.

3.2 Violation of Maxim of Quality

1)

Example in IPARTMENT

展博：

“想送东西给女孩子，不知道女孩 子喜欢什么。

”

宛瑜：

“那直接问你姐不就行了吗？”

展博：

“我姐不是所有时候都是女孩子的！

”

It

’

s obvious rules that Zhanbo violates the first rule of Maxim of Quantity, that

do not say what you believe to be false. Why he would say that? Because his sister,

Yifei

is

a

brutal

vigorous

and

strong

girl

and

she

has

mild

violence,

without

the

exquisite thoughts of common girls. Even Zhanbo is a little afraid of her. On the other

hand, Zhanbo wants to close to Wanyu. So his answer looks funny.

2) Example in

Friends

Phoebe:

Can

I

borrow

the

phone?

I

want

to

call

my

apartment

and

check

on

my

grandma.

(to

Monica)

What

’

s

my

number?

(Monica

and

Rachel

look

at

Phoebe strangly)

Phoebe: Well, I never call me.

Phoebe violates the Quality Maxim. He want to call her grandma and asked how