Humor Generated by Violation of Cooperative Principlefrom Perspective of Film a

【Abstract】This paper， based on the Grice’s cooperative principle， attempts to taste the English verbal humor from the perspective of violation of cooperative principle in films and television so as to help the language learners to understand and use English humor in a better way and improve the communicative competence and to get a better understanding of culture.

【Key words】cooperative principle； humor； film and television

1. Introduction

Humor， with the characteristics of shortness， sparkles with wit and meaning， is an art of language. The generation of humor mostly depends on the speaker intentionally use apparent improper utterance in the specific context.This paper analyzes the generation of humor from the perspective of the violation of cooperative principle in films and television.

2. Violation of Cooperative Principle

2.1 Violation of Maxim of Quantity

The maxim of quantity requires the speaker make the conversation as informative as it required for the purpose of exchange， do not make contribution more informative than is required and do not make contribution less informative than is required. But sometime， the speaker will have less or more contribution than is required in this condition. Humor will be generated in such conversations.

Eg.1. In Desperate Housewives， Bree is taking an advertising shooting for her new book. But the photo man is not very satisfied with her performance and calls Bree sweetie. Bree is extremely disgusting about the call and warms the photo man not to call her sweetie again...

Photo man： Excuse me， time is money. Chop—chop， sweetie. （Put the pie on Bree’s hand and then go away）

Bree： Andrew， do we have a backup pie？

Andrew： Yes， yes. We do

（Then she walks towards the photo man）

Her words violate the maxim of quantity and what she will do will amuse the audiences， all of which will generate a kind of humor.

2.2 Violation of Maxim of Quality

In the maxim of quality， the speaker needs to try to make contribution one that is true and do not say what one believe to be false and do not say that for which one lack adequate evidence. But， in our daily life， this maxim is often violated when the speaker tries to tell lies or tease the listener， following is the example that from the Big Bang Theory.

Leonard and Sheldon are having dinner， Leonard’s phone ring， but he doesn’t want to answer Stuard’s phone to talk about the how to chase Penny. Then he doesn’t answer the phone until it goes into the voice mail.

Eg.2 Sheldon： Aren’t you going to check your messages？

Leonard： No

Sheldon： You have to check your messages， Leonard

Sheldon： The leaving of the messages is one half of a social contract which is completed by the checking of the message. If that contract breaks down， then all social contracts break down and we descend into anarchy.

Leonard： it must be hell inside your head.

Sheldon： At times

The audience could know more about Sheldon’s personality and couldn’t help laughing for Sheldon’s logical inference capability. At the same time， Leonard says it must be hell inside your head also lacks adequate evidence which violates the maxim of quality.

2.3 Violation of Maxim of Relation

The maxim of relation means that during the conversation， the speaker has to express the relevant information. When the speaker violate of the maxim of relation， the conversation and the exchange can’t proceed. Many speakers make use of the violation of maxim of relation to switch the topics to avoid embarrassing situations which result in humorous effect.

The following example is from the Friends .Rachel has given birth to her daughter Emma in the hospital； all her friends come to see her. Ross came here to see whether Rachel wanted to maybe start things up again， but Rachel said that she had already engaged with Joey. When they talk about their relation， then Joey showed up and was ready to say goodbye to them.

E.g.3 Joey： Hey，I’m gonna take off. I just wanted to say goodbye.

Ross： Rachel said she had married you？ （Turn to Joey）

Joey： This isn’t the right room. Sorry folks.

This answer will not only avoid embarrassing but also produce a kind of humor in this scene.

2.4 The Violation of Maxim of Manner

The violation of maxim of manner refers to the obscurity of expression or ambiguity of the meaning in conversation which leads to humor. When a speaker violates the maxim， the conversation will bring out the sense of humor. Just like the following examples：

E.g.4 At midnight， Sheldon knocks at the door of Leonard.

Leonard： What’s the matter with you？

Sheldon： I have pain radiating from my navel to my lower right abdomen.

In our daily life， people often express that they have stomach ache，but Sheldon expresses that I have pain radiating from my navel to my power right abdomen， which is an obscurity of expression. Sheldon often use obscure expressions which result to a special verbal humor in his conversations.

Conclusion

From the above analysis， the author expects to help the readers to a better understanding of humor and the endless glamour of language humor so as to build a perfect platform for language learning.

Reference

[1]Stephen C.Levinson.Pragmatics[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2001.

[2]张淑静. 幽默的语用分析[J].外语学院学报，1998（3）.