A Study Of Verbal Humor In Modern Family-On The Basis Of Violation Of Coopertaive Principle And Politeness Principle

Pragmatic strategies are often used for creating verbal humor in verbal communication.Drawing on cooperative principle and politeness principle of pragmatics as theoretical foundation,this thesis discusses verbal humor created by violating cooperative principle and politeness principle in the eighth season of American sitcom Modern Family.And 105 examples are selected from the eighth season of Modern Family(22 episodes in total)to show how verbal humor is generated through violation of cooperative principle and politeness principle.The main findings of this thesis are as follows.Firstly,verbal humor is mostly generated by the violation of the maxims of cooperative principle and politeness principle.Secondly,there are more humorous examples created by violating the maxims of politeness principle than cooperative principle.The quantity maxim is the most frequently violated one among the maxims of cooperative principle,and the approbation maxim is the most frequently violated one among all the maxims of politeness principle.Thirdly,the members of certain intimate groups are more inclined to violate the maxims of cooperative principle and politeness principle to achieve the humor effect.Finally,the differences in nationality,age and sexual orientation are the most common topics among the humorous conversations that violate cooperative principle and politeness principle.By analyzing how the characters create verbal humor effects by violating the maxims of cooperative principle and politeness principle in this sitcom,the thesis enriches the studies of sitcoms from the perspective of cooperative principle and politeness principle and presents a linguistic point of view for audiences to appreciate English films and television works.It can also provide a reference for future researches studying verbal humor in the field of cooperative principle and politeness principle.