英语幽默的语用研究(英文)

2  The pragmatic analysis on English humor
The previous section has introduced some basic pragmatic theories concerning English humor. In this section, the author will analyze the pragmatic effects reflected in English humor by means of lots of examples so as to lead to more comprehensive understanding of English humor.
2. 1 The pragmatic analysis on the creations of English humor
In the following section, a great number of examples will be given to help the analysis of English humor’s creation.
2.1.1 English humor from deixis                                                                                                                
As is mentioned in the previous section, deixis is the reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the extra-linguistic context of the utterance. Deixis can only be understood in the specific context. If a deixis is used improperly or the context is unclear, reference will become unclear, too. Thus, contradiction and misunderstanding may arise, and then change into humor. For example:
(1)Voice on the phone: John Smith is sick and can’t attend class today. He requests me to notify you.
Professor: All right. Who is this speaking?
Voice on the phone: This is my roommate.[4]
This example includes humor led by misapplying personal deixis. John was so nervous that he wrongly used a deixis “my” instead of “John’s”, thus his lie was immediately discovered. The humor occurred because John didn’t correctly transform his role in the call. Here are another two humor concerning spatial deixis and temporal deixis.
(2) John: You feet are sticking out of the bedclothes.
Tom: I know.
John: Why don't you pull them in, then?
Tom: And have those cold things in the bed with me? No way! [5]
(3) “If you refuse to marry me”, he swore, “I shall die.”
She refused him. Sixty years later, he died.
Usually, psychologically close objects are also physically close to us, while psychologically distant objects will normally be physically distance. However, it may happen that something is physically close but psychologically distant. In Example (2), when John mentions his own feet, Tom uses “those cold things”. This tells his feet are really frozen that he can hardly sense they are part of his body and then psychological excludes them. The psychological distance between himself and his frozen feet makes him give the ridiculous answer. In Example (3), the man swore, “I shall die.” “Shall” might probably be interpreted that something will happen “soon” or “before long”. While the time deixis “sixty years later” breaks the expectation, and produces a humorous effect. Normally, the temporal deixis can be understood according to the time when the conversation happens. When the result is different from one’s understandings, humorous effects maybe here by created.
2.1.2 English humor from presupposition
In the previous section, it mentioned that a presupposition is an implicit assumption about the world whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. It involves the context, mutual knowledge or shared information. When the speaker deliberately speaks some sentences whose presupposition is wrong, he purposely wants to create comic effect. For instance:转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net