An Analysis Of Verbal Humor In The Sitcom The Bigbang Theory From Memetics

Verbal humor which is an important form in our conversation, has always been verypopular among people from different background. Verbal humor can be regarded as aspecial form of language, which is humorous, plain, vivid and impressive in language. Asa result, verbal humor has always been in hot discussion in the academic field recently.On the basis of the previous study, this thesis tries to analyze verbal humor from a newrising theory memetics.The term “meme” first appeared in the book The Selfish Gene written by RichardDawkins in1976who is a famous zoologist and ecologist in Oxford University. RichardDawkins coined the word “meme” which is defined as the genetic unit of culturaldevelopment of human beings. Based on Darwin Evolutionism, memetics can be used toexplain the evolutionary law of culture. From the perspective of memetics, languagememes can reveal the law of language transmission and the transmission of verbal humoris in fact a manifestation of memes. This thesis analyzes the process of the generationand transmission of verbal humor in order to explore the way of how these memes getreplicated and transmitted.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is the introduction, which mainly introduces the development ofmemetic theory home and abroad. It also presents the problem to be solved. In China,memetics develops relatively slowly, and there are only a small number of peopleconduct the research of memetics. In linguistic field, memetics or the language meme isoften used to explained some linguistic phenomena, like net language, catch-phrase, loanword, advertisement, and so on. However, there are less studies about the analysis ofverbal humor from the perspective of memetics or language meme. And this is exactlythe creativity and speciality of the thesis.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters:Chapter One mainly introduces the general definition and features of verbal humor,and gives us a general overview of the memetic theory. The last part of this chaptermentions language memes which includes the types of language meme and application of language meme. Memetics which is based on Darwin’s evolutionary theory is a newtheory interpreting the law of cultural evolution. Meme is similar to gene in that genespropagate themselves through heritage, while memes spread like viruses throughimitation. The study of memes, as a newly invented subject, shows its enormous powerand appeals to scholars from different fields ever since it was born. It has been approvedvery enlightening. In linguistic field, many scholars have used memetics as a theoreticaltool to analyze different language data, like catch-phrase and net language.Chapter Two concentrates on the process of the generation of verbal humor. Thepresent research finds that characteristics of meme replication and meme variation haveeffect on generation of verbal humor; moreover, verbal humor based on language memewill promote replication and transmission of language meme contained in verbal humor.The present research also finds: firstly, congruity of verbal humor may be interpretedfrom disharmony between default context and new context of language meme, besides,default context of language meme plays a key role in the interpretation of languagememe; secondly, Verbal humor may be formed in four stages of meme replication一assimilation and retention stage of language meme are preparation stage of verbalhumor, expression and transmission stage of language meme are generation andappreciation stage of verbal humor; thirdly, verbal humor may be generated from ways oflanguage meme replication and transmission, which can be specifically divided into fiveways, in other words, Verbal humor is generated from disharmony between content andform of memetic genotype or memetic phenotype.Chapter Three focuses on the replication and transmission of verbal humor. Fromthe memetic perspective, language memes reveal the law of language transmission andverbal humor transmitted by the public is actually a manifestation of memes. Meme playsa significant role in the wide propagation process of information which is carried byhumor language. As a factor of transmitting information, memes depend on replication tosurvive and get transmitted in some certain way. In this thesis, the language memes ofverbal humor are classified and analyzed in order to explore the way of how these memesget replicated and transmitted. Since the introduction of memetics into China, somedomestic scholars have applied the theory into language phenomena, which is a relativenew research field. The language meme explains the features and rules of language replication and transmission. During verbal communication, the selection and use oflanguage is the process of the competing, replicating and spreading of language memes.The replication and transmission of language memes have two ways: one is genotypereferring to the same contents but different forms”; the other is phenotype referring to“the same forms but different contents”. During replication and transmission, a memegoes through four stages: assimilation, retention, expressivity and transmission. Duringthe four stages, the meme depends on several selection criteria. Those of which are inaccordance with the selection criteria can better replicate and spread themselves. Thetransmission of verbal humor has many functions, such as activating atmosphere,improving interpersonal relationship, and so on. Therefore, verbal humor plays animportant role in our daily communication.The last part is the conclusion. Memetics provides us a new perspective to probeinto the study of language. This study tries to discuss the interpretive power of languagememe to verbal humors. The thesis presents the generation and transmission of verbalhumor from memetic perspective. The interpretive power of language meme to verbalhumor lies in that: when appears in verbal humors, language meme often becomes ahumorous factor. It can either give the reader or audience a feeling of having met itsomewhere before, or evoke their association of a familiar expression. But under scrutiny,the language meme can be recognized that it is not exactly the same with what the readeror audience have already met but only an imitation. The difference between the imitatedversion and the original one in such aspects like form and content, as well as thedifference in terms of connotation, implication or emotional color between them cangenerate unexpected humorizing. Besides, the humorizing power produced by languagememes of the same kind can also be embodied in a different language system.