A Study Of English Conundrums From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As one of the most important forms of English riddle, English Conundrums are considered to be a kind of interesting language game loved by people. Scholars from different fields have done some researches in this particular way of humor. The research of English Conundrum mainly involves folklore, linguistics, rhetoric, cognitive psychology and so on. However, the previous researches mainly focus on collecting and reorganizing English Conundrums rather than studying on their generative and consultative mechanic. In the hope of replenishing the English Conundrum studies based on the former researchers, from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics theory--Relevance Theory, this thesis intends to describe the specific communication process of English Conundrums.Under the guidance of Dynamic Context of Relevance Theory, this thesis uses a qualitative research method based on the materials classified according to the characteristics of conundrums. The author classifies conundrums into two types:Confusing Context-based Conundrums and Deliberate Misinterpretation Context-based Conundrums. Furthermore, there are three types of Confusing-based Conundrums:Structure-based Conundrums, Pun-based Conundrums and Culture-based Conundrums. Deliberate Misinterpretation Context-based Conundrums consist of Common Sense-based Conundrums and Removing Context-based Conundrums. Integrating two relevance principles, Dynamic Context and Ostensive-inferential Communication of Relevance Theory, the thesis discusses the characteristic process from the design and the solution of English Conundrums in detail. Through the research we can see that the designers of English Conundrums always integrate the key points of Relevance Theory in order to confuse the solvers who are hard to obtain the right answers immediately. In turn, the solvers can also start from the traits of Relevance Theory, and then find the short cut to the right answers.All in all, study on English Conundrums from the perspective of Relevance Theory is quite reasonable, and Relevance Theory sheds new light on the explanation for English Conundrums. This is also a good try for the application and spread of Relevance Theory itself. In addition, this thesis may not only benefit the design and the solution of English Conundrums, but also can make positive effects on language teaching and entertainment.