Abstract:Humor is a pervasive language phenomenon. In social communication, the proper employment of humor can improve interpersonal relationships, adjust the mood or atmosphere, and avoid embarrassment and conflict. Humor is an essential part of situation comedy, which reflects the culture, way of thinking and customs of different countries. Friends is one of the most well-known and interesting sitcoms in America currently, especially among young people. Conversational Implicature put forward by Grice is an important theory for linguists to study humorous utterances. Through the analysis of dialogues in Friends, this paper helps people understand how the verbal humors are produced and enjoy the humorous utterances better. Therefore, people can learn more about English culture and become more interested in English learning.

Key words: humorous utterance; Conversational Implicature; Cooperative Principle; Friends

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Literature Review.1

  2.1 Definition of Humor

  2.2 Grice’s Conversational Implicature and Cooperative Principle

  2.3 Studies on Humor at Home and Abroad

    2.3.1 Studies on Humor Abroad

2.3.2 Studies on Humor at Home

3. Analysis of Humorous Utterances in Friends5

  3.1 Definition of Situation Comedy

  3.2 A Brief Introduction to Friends

  3.3 Humorous Utterances and Conversational Implicature

    3.3.1 Humors Created by Violating the Maxim of Quantity

    3.3.2 Humors Created by Violating the Maxim of Quality

    3.3.3 Humors Created by Violating the Maxim of Relevance

    3.3.4 Humors Created by Violating the Maxim of Manner

4. Conclusion12

Bibliography.13

Acknowledgements14