武汉理工大学硕士学位论文中英文幽默映射的语言与文化差异姓名：王伟清申请学位级别：硕士专业：外国语言学及应用语言学指导教师：魏万德20060401武汉理工大学硕士学位论文摘 要作为人际交往的一种方式和目的，幽默是所有文化、语言、语式阻及语域的重要组成部分。它如此具有渗透力，遍布人类社会的方方面面。但奇怪的是，有关幽默的研究一直没有得到足够的重视，甚至常常被人耻笑。在众多的学术研究中，幽默始终被看作是一种边缘学科。数十年以前，语言学在幽默的研究中也仅扮演着无足轻重的角色。令人振奋的是，近二十年，语义学和语用学相继提出了许多关于幽默的理论。如今，语言学在幽默的研究领域已占据了重要的位置，很多语言学家在这一领域都做出了重大贡献，比如奥斯汀、格莱斯、斯伯格、威尔森、莱斯金等等。他们所作的贡献把幽默研究带入了一个新的时代。对中英文幽默的定义和分类法的比较显示出幽默的复杂性和多学科性，以至于迄今为止对幽默还没有一个令人满意的定义，也没有一个统一的分类方法。回顾中英文幽默的发展史和研究史可以看出：有关幽默的理论，汉语和英语无论在形式上还是方法上都存在着很大的差异。英语中关于幽默的理论既丰富又具体，英语似乎已涉及到了幽默的每一个方面。而汉语的幽默理论在数量上要相形见绌许多。这主要是因为，在中国，对幽默的研究尚处在起步阶段，而且，在过去，汉语一直比较重视幽默本身的发展。帕尔默认为，不协调在幽默的产生和感知中均起着举足轻重的作用。只有当一个概念和一个真实的物体之间存在着不协调时，幽默才有可能产生，并且，只有当这种不协调被揭示和领悟后才会令人捧腹。借助奥斯汀的言语行为理论、格莱斯的会话合作原则，尤其是斯伯格和威尔森的关联理论，通过对一些幽默故事的具体分析，作者旨在阐明言语幽默的本质和形成机制。但这并不是本文的中心，因为有关这两方面的调查和研究成果已不胜枚举。在文中，作者主要采用了比较和对比两种研究方法，主要是为了说明：有时，同一可笑的情境对来自于另一文化的交谈者来说既不有趣也不可笑。原因何在?根据克莱姆斯，我们知道这主要是因为“我们不得不弄清他们为什么会说那些话、是如何说的以及在怎样一个特定的情景下对谁说的那些话。另外，我们还不得不将他们的话语、信仰、心态与一个更为宽广的文化背景联系起来。因此，通过比较英语与汉语以及西方文化与中国文化的不同，本文又进一步探Ill武汉理工大学硕士学位论文究了影响我们理解英文幽默的语言和文化障碍。从一个更为宽泛的意义上讲，只有当话语的接受者充分理解话语的文化内涵后，幽默的表达本身才更有意义，语言又何尝不是如此呢?因此，文化移植与二语习得有着密不可分的联系。本文的教学意义不仅在于突出文化学习在二语习得中的重要性，更在于引起人们的关注：文化课程的开设应始于二语习得的早期阶段，文化意识的培养应贯穿外语教学的始终。因为布朗曾指出，儿童的社会和文化适应性较强，不象成人那样容易受文化的束缚。也就是说，二语习得与文化移植的每一阶段都关系密切。然而，在中国，只有大学的外语专业学生才开设有关文化的课程，这未免为时过晚。关键词：言语幽默关联理论语言与文化差异文化移植武汉理工夫学硕士学位论文AbstractAs a means and an end of interpersonal communication，humor is the nuclearpart of all cultures，languages，idiolects，and registers of speechIt is a pervasivephenomenon that penetrates every aspect of social lifeStrangely enough，study onhumor is not reckoned with but even layIghed atHumor is still considered a marginalfield of all academic researchesLinguistics，until the recent few decades，had been anegligible player in the study of humorEncouragingiy,the past twenty years hadwitnessed the fhst semantic and pragmatic theories on humorLinguistics is now oneof the leading fields in humor researchA lot of linguists such as JL AustinHPGrice，Sperber,Wilson，Raskin，etc，have contributed a lot in this field，which leadshumor study into a new eraTbe comparisons of definition and taxonomy of humor in English and Chineseindicate that humor is so complex and multidisciplined that no definition given canmeet everyones satisfaction，so is the taxonomy of humorThe retrospection of thehistory and research of humor in English and Chinese reveals that theories on humorin China and English speaking countries are different in forms or methodsTheorieson Engiish humor are plentiful and specificIt seems that English has stepped deepinto every aspect of humorCompared with English，theories of Chinese humor arequite smaller in quantityStudy on humor in China is young，becansc in the past，Chinese gave priority to the development of humor itselfAccording to Palmer(1994)，incongruity is a key element in the production andperception of humorOnly when there is an incongruity between a concept and thereal object can a humor be possibleAnd only when the incongruity is revealed andsensed will there be lau【ghterThrouglI the analysis of some connqrlon types of humorand with the help of Austins Speech Act Theory,Grices Cooperative Principle，especially Sperber and Wilsons Relevance Theory(R1)，the author intends toexplicate the nature and mechanism of verbal humorHowever,this is not the focus ofthis thesis，because numerous studies and researches had been done on these twoaspeCts武汉理工大学硕士学位论文In this thesis，the author exploits the comparative and contrastive approachesprimarily to show that on occasions，the same comic situation is not regarded asfunny or laughable by communicators from another cultureWhatS the reason?Because“one had to understand why they said what they said and how they said it towhom in a specific context of situationIn addition，one had to link their words，beliefs and mindsets to a larger context culture”(Kramsch，1989：26)So the thesisgoes further to make a tentative exploration on the linguistic and cultural reasons thatlead to barriers in the understanding of humor in Engiish from the analysis of thedifferences between En#ish and Chinese，Western culture and Chinese cultureTo a larger degree，only when the recipient understands its cultural connotationenou【gh，can humorous utterance itself be much more meaningful，SO is language itselfTherefore，acculturation is tightly linked to second language acquisition(SLA)Thepedagogical implication of this study lies not only in the importance of culturelearning in SLA，but in the attempt to provoke peopleS collcern fur that courses inculture should be given at the early stage of SLA and the cultivation of culturalawareness should be integrated with the whole process of foreign language teachingAccording to Brown(1980)，young children are socioculturally resilientThey areless culturebound than adultsIn other words，SLA is related to the stages ofacculturationYet，in China，only college students majoring in foreign language haveCOUrSes in cultureIt，s f