_生活大爆炸_幽默话轮转换研究_张岁岁.docx

生活大爆炸幽默话轮转换研究 一基于话轮转换系统及关联理论 重庆大学硕士学位论文 (学术学位） 学生姓名：张岁岁 指导教师：朱万忠 教 授 专 业：外国语言学及应用语言学 学 科 门 类 ： 文 学 重庆大学外国语学院 二 _四年五月 The Study on Humor Turn-taking in The Big Bang Theory Based on Turn-taking Systematics and the Relevance Theory A Thesis Submitted to Chongqing University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Masters Degree of Arts By Supervised by Prof. Zhu Wanzhong Specialty: Linguistics and Applied Linguistics College of Foreign Languages of Chongqing University, Chongqing, China May, 2014 摘 要 情景喜剧作为戏剧的一种，因其内容轻松诙谐、表演贴近生活且逐步发展为 电视播放而受到广大观众的青睐。对于幽默的研究由来已久，加之幽默是情景喜 剧的最主要特点，因此近年来对情景喜剧幽默性的研究不胜枚举，但其中运用话 轮转换理论来探索情景喜剧幽默话轮转换特点的研究则不多见。因此 ,本文以 Sacks 等提出的话轮转换最简系统及关联理论为框架，通过定量与定性分析的方法研究 美国情景喜剧生活大爆炸第五季中幽默话轮的构成及转换特点。 本文选取生活大爆炸第五季前 10 集为分析对象，通过观看视频的方式在 其剧本上进行幽默话轮的标注，并用特定的语音转写符号对影响研究的重要语言 特征进行标注。幽默话轮的确定以视频中的背景笑声为依据。以此建立了由 890 个 幽默话轮构成的语料库。随后作者运用 Sacks 提出的话轮转换系统中关于话轮构成 及话轮转换控制策略的分类对这 890 个幽默话轮进行标注，通过定量分析研究生 活大爆 炸中幽默话轮构成及转换策略的特点，并用定性分析方法对数据进行分析。 对于幽默话轮转换分配规则的研究主要通过定性分析的方法进行。为了解释在话 轮转换过程中幽默效果是如何实现的，作者还将运用关联理论对典型例子进行分 析。本文拟解决以下问题： (1) 生活大爆炸中幽默话轮的构成有何特点？ (2) 生活大爆炸中幽默话轮的转换规则与 Sacks 等提出的口常会话话轮转 换规则相比有何不同？ (3) 在索取话轮策略中，哪种策略被更多地用来制造幽默效果？ (4) 在放弃话轮策略中，哪种策略被更多地用来制造幽默效果？ 研究结果显示生活大爆炸第五季幽默话轮转换的特点如下： (1) 与 Sacks 等提出的口常会话中话轮的构成相同，幽默话轮可以由一个单 词、短语、从句、句子或其组合构成。其中以组合构成的幽默话轮数最多。占总 幽默话轮数的 56.63%。以一个句子构成的幽默话轮数占 37.87%。以一个单词、短 语或从句形式构成的幽默话轮非常少，仅占 5.50%。 (2) 与 Sacks 等人提出的口常会话话轮转换的分配规则相比，不同之处在于 生活大爆炸中 aa 前说话人选定下一说话人，这个被指定的说话人可以发话 但不是必须发话，其他会话参与者也可以发话。幽默既可以在 a 前话轮出现也可 以再下一话轮出现，出现在下一话轮的机率更大。 I (3) 话轮的索取策略包括插入、打断及重叠，排除出现在会话开始的 90 个幽 默话轮，在 800 个幽默话轮中由插入引起的幽默话轮数最多，有 779 个，所占比重 高达 97.38%;打断与重叠引起的幽默话轮数很少，分别占 1.00%和 1.63 %。 (4) 话轮的放弃策略包括指定下一说话人、说话人自选及说话人完全自选， 其中由指定下一说话人引起的幽默话轮最多，排除会话一开始 就成为幽默话轮的 有 90 个话轮以及通过打断索取的 8 个话轮，占剩余 792 个幽默话轮的 67.17%;由说 话人完全自选引起的幽默话轮及由说话人自选引起的幽默话轮，分别占 26.39 %和 6.44 %。 综上所述，本文以话轮为基本单位，发现了美国情景喜剧生活大爆炸中 幽默话轮的转换特点，并运用关联理论对话轮转换中幽默产生的原因进行举例分 析，从理论上丰富了对于幽默的研究方法，从实践上能够指引第二语言学习者对 于美国情景喜剧幽默性的理解。 关键词：情景喜剧，幽默话轮转换，话轮转换系统，关联理论 ABSTRACT Situation comedy, as a form of drama, has been favored by the majority of people because of its comic content, to-life performances and widespread media, television and Internet. Humor has for centuries attracted the interest of scholars. As the most important feature of situation comedy, numerous researches on humor in situation comedy have been seen in recent years, however, in which turn-taking systematics is seldom applied by scholars. In order to remedy that gap, this thesis focuses on studying the features of humor turn-taking in American situation comedy The Big Bang Theory 5 Season in turn-construction, turn-allocation and turn-control aspects. The basic framework of the study is the simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation proposed by Sacks, etc and the Relevance Theory by Sperber. And both quantitative and qualitative method are applied in the study. The present study selects the first 10 episodes of The Big Bang Theory Season 5 as objects. By watching videos, humor turns are marked in scripts. Background laughter in the videos is regarded as the criterion of humor. In that way, the corpora consisting of 890 humor turns is built. Then, the author marks those humor turns by applying the classification of turn-construction components and turn-control strategies in Sacks9 turn-taking systematics. Those collected data are analyzed through qualitative method. The research on the turn-taking allocation rules depends on qualitative method. In order to explain how humorous effects are produced in turn-taking processes, the author will utilize the Relevance Theory to analyze typical examples. This thesis tries to solve the following research questions: (1) What are the characteristics of humor turn-construction component in The Big Bang Theory 5 Season (2) Is there any difference in turn-allocation rules between the daily conversation turn-taking proposed by Sacks and humor turns identified in The Big Bang Theory 5 Season! (3) Which strategy in taking turns is more frequently used to produce humorous effects? (4) Which strategy in yielding turns is more frequently applied in the production of humorous effects? m The results show that the main features of humor turn-taking in The Big Bang Theory are as follows: (1) Similar with turn-construction components of daily communication proposed by Sacks, humor turns in The Big Bang Theory are also constructed by a word, a phrase,a clause, a sentence and the combination of them.The number of humor turns constructed by the combination is the largest accounting for 56.63%. The percentage of humor turns consisting of a sentence is 37.87%. The other 5.50% humor turns are constructed by a word, a phrase and a clause. (2) Compared with turn-allocation rules of daily conversation proposed by Sacks, the difference is that in The Big Bang Theory, if the turn-so-far is so constructed as to involve the use of a 'current speaker selects next9 technique, then the party so selected is allowed but not required to speak; others also have rights to speak and transfer occurs at that place. Humor turn may both exist in the turn-so-far and in the next turn. And the possibility of the latter is higher. (3) Insertion, interruption and overlap are three strategies in taking turns. Among those 800 humor turns, excluding those 90 humor turns at the beginning of the conversation, 779 humor turns are taken by insertion, accounting for 97.38%. Interruption and overlap strategy are seldom used, only accounting for 1.00 and 1.63 percent respectively. (4) Strategies in relinquishing turns consist of nomination, self-selection and complete self-selection. The number of humor turns caused by nomination is the largest, accounting for 67.17 % of 792 humor turns excluding those 90 humor turns at the beginning of the conversation and 8 humor turns taken by interruption. Humor turns caused by complete self-selection and self-selection account for 26.39 % and 6.44% separately. On the whole, this paper regards the turns as the basic unit to find out features of humor turn-takting in The Big Bang Theoryf and uses the Relevance Theory to explain how humorous effects are produced in the progress of turn-taking, which enriches the research method on humor and guides the second foreign language learners to understand humor in the American situation comedy well. Key words: situation comedy, humor turn-taking, turn-taking system, relevance theory IV TABLE OF CONTENT 攸顧 . i ABSTRACT . HI TABLE OF CONTENT . v CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION i 1.1 BACKGROUND . 1 1.2 RESEARCH PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE . 2 1.3 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY . 3 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 4 2.1 RELEVANT REVffiW OF HUMOR STUDY . 4 2.1.1 The Definition and Classification of Humor . 4 2.1.2 Relevant Studies on Humor . 6 2.2 THE RELEVANCE THEORY . 9 2.3 GENERAL REVIEW OF STUDIES ON TURN AND TURN-TAKING . 12 2.3.1 The Definition of Turn . 13 2.3.2 Sacks Turn-taking Systematics . 14 2.3.3 Other Relevant Studies on Turn-taking . 16 2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 18 2.4.1 The Relation between the Relevance Theory and Turn-taking Systematics . 18 2.4.2 The Research Framework . 19 CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 21 3.2 DATA INFORMATION . 22 3.3 DATA COLLECTION . 23 3.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURES . 24 CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 27 4.1 STATISTICAL RESULTS OF THE STUDY . 27 4.1.1 Constructional Component of Humor Turns in The Big Bang Theory. 27 4.1.2 . Statistical Result of Strategies in Taking Humor Turns in The Big Bang Theory . 28 4.1.3 . Statistical Result of Strategies in Yielding Turns in The Big Bang Theory . 29 4.2 DISCUSSION . 30 4.2.1 Discussion on Constructional Component of Humor Turns in The Big Bang Theory 30 V 4.2.2 . Discussion on Turn-allocation Rules of Humor Turns in The Big Bang Theory . 35 4.2.3 Discussion on Humor Turns at the Beginning of Conversations . 37 4.2.4 Discussion on Strategies in Taking Humor Turns in The Big Bang Theory . 38 4.2.5 Discussion on Strategies in Yielding Turns in The Big Bang Theory . 44 4.3 SUMMARY . 50 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION 51 5.1 SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS . 51 5.2 IMPLICATIONS . 52 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND FURTHER RESEARCH SUGGESTIONS. 52 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 54 REFERENCES. 55 APPENDIX . 58 作者在攻读硕士期间发表的论文目录 . 58 VI Chapter One Introduction The brief introduction of the study is described in this chapter including some relevant background information, research purposes and significances and the structure of the whole thesis. 1.1 Background Nowadays, people peculiarly English learners have closely stirred out their concern about American situation comedies like Friendsy The Big Bang Theory and Broken Girls, because they can not only learn relevant language knowledge such as words and idioms to improve their English skills but also understand one of the most important characteristics of American situation comedies as well as Americans, humor, which is ubiquitous in daily life. Sometimes, humor acts as a form of language smoothing the conversation and improving interpersonal relationships. Because of its importance, researches on humor began from centuries ago. At that time, the principal concern of those researches is the essence of humor, based on which three theories were proposed: superiority theory, release theory and incongruity theory. However, according to Attardo (1994), researches on humor from linguistic perspective began to occupy a lot in humorous studies in the late 1970s since its close relation with language. Raskin (1985) originated semantic script theory of humor which is the first humor theory based on linguistics. With the development of pragmatics analysis, researchers paid more and more attention to pragmatic theories in humor study, among which, Grice's Cooperative Principles, Austin and Searle's Speech Act Theory, Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory were most utilized to interpret humorous effects. With respect to the development of discourse analysis, on the one hand, language in use,both verbal and written, was regarded as the most crucial object of linguistic studies; on the other hand, scholars began to explore a new angle to study language dynamically. The new angle was to regard the turns as the basic unit of discourse instead of focusing on words or sentences. Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974) constructed the simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation, which was the foundation of turn-taking studies. Though many scholars tried to enrich and advance it, there was little breakthrough. At home applied study was the main current. Miao Xingwei(1995), Jia Yanping(1995) applied turn-taking systematics to English teaching study. Li Huadong, Yu Dongming(2001) took advantage of turn-taking systematics to analyze drama and construct quantitative turn-taking analysis model of drama. However, as an extended form of drama, situation comedies were rarely explored by turn-taking systematics, and it was the same for humor study. Therefore, it9s possible and necessary to try to study humor turns in situation comedies through turn-taking systematics. 1.2 Research purpose and significance English has been employed widely by people in different countries, which determines the fact that the number of people learning English as the second language increases progressively. Therefore, American sitcoms, which not only contain abundant language knowledge but also reflect American culture, are considered as efficient materials to learn English. However, it is the fact that there are differences in peopled cognitive contexts, as a result, not all the audien