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；Violation；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