Study on Verbal Humor in the Play Friends

【Abstract】Humor usually refers to the situation that the speech or acts are humorous and can make people laugh. As an important part of humor， verbal humor is usually realized under the guidance of certain language rules. Cooperative principle is a linguistic theory that can analyze conversational implicature， including humor. The author tries to analyze some classic verbal humor in the movie Friends with Cooperative Principle， in order to see how verbal humor occur due to the violation of the four maxims in Cooperative Principle.

【Key words】Cooperative principle； Friends； Verbal humor

【中圖分類號】G64 【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】2095-3089（2014）05-0033-02

1.Introduction

The play Friends is one of the most popular American comedies. It tells about family love， friendship and love stories of six close friends. Firstly broadcast in 1994， it is loved by audiences all over the world and also becomes one of the best ways to learn idiomatic American English and understand American culture. Its popularity around the world is not only because it shows another side of ordinary life， but also because the dialogues in it are witty， humorous and full of fun. These humorous dialogues are wonderful sources of verbal humor study material for researchers. In this paper， the author will select some of the classic dialogues and analyze them with Cooperative Principle， in order to see how the violation of four maxims in Cooperative Principle may cause humorous effect.

2.Cooperative Principle and Verbal Humor

Cooperative Principle （CP） is raised by American philosopher and linguist Paul Grice in his paper “Logic and Conversation”. Grice（1975） suggests that the conversations between people are rule？鄄governed and usually have certain communicative purpose. To realize the communicative effect， the participants of conversation must be willing to cooperate and obey some basic rules. Grice refers to these rules as Cooperative Principle. According to him， Cooperative Principle is a potential rule in all language communication activities. It is determined by the communicative purpose and direction of the conversation. As long as both sides of conversation expect the conversation to go smoothly and realize specific communicative effect， these principles must be obeyed.

According to Grice， there are four kinds of maxims in Cooperative Principles， i.e. maxim of quality， maxim of quantity， maxim of relevance and maxim of manner. The maxim of quality requires that the content of conversation must be reliable and valid. The maxim of quantity requires that the information included in the conversation must be enough， neither more or less. The maxim of relevance requires the content must be related to the topic of the conversation. And the maxim of manner requires that the means should be clear and not ambiguous. These four criteria of conversation regulate quantity， quality， relevance， and manner of the conversation in a detailed way. In order to achieve specific communicative purpose， participants of conversation must abide by the four maxims consciously or unconsciously. However， in actual communication process， people will not abide by these maxims all the time. Sometimes one or more maxims may be flouted purposefully to achieve certain purpose. When the hearer realize the speakers intentional violation of maxims， he will guess the intended meaning of the violation， as a result of which humor may occur. Therefore， analysis of dialogues which violates Cooperative Principle will deepen the understanding of verbal humor.endprint

3.Verbal humor in Friends due to the violation of CP

As a classic sitcom， Friends is popular all around the world， the reason of which mainly lies in the witty and humorous dialogues between the main characters. Its the violation of certain criteria in CP that causes the verbal humor. In the following， the author will select some humorous dialogues and try to explore the effect of the violation of four maxims of Cooperative Principle on verbal humor.

3.1 Violation of the Maxim of Quantity

The maxim of quantity means that the information in the dialogue must meet the requirement of communicative task. Neither more nor less information should be included. However， in actual communication process，if the speaker provides more or less information purposefully， dramatic humorous effect may be reached. In Friends， there are many examples.

Monica： Chandler， here we are， with our future before us. And I only want to spend it with you， my prince， my soul mate， my friend. Unless you do not want to.

The above dialogue is what one of the heroine Monica says at her wedding oath. The key of humor lies in the last sentence “Unless you do not want to”. In general， a bride will not say these words when making marriage commitment in a wedding ceremony. In this context， these words violate Cooperative Principle in that too much information is provided. Monica says so because the groom Chandler tries to run away from marriage. She is angry with his behavior， so she says “unless you dont want to” in the wedding ceremony. Although it violates the maxim of quantity， a surprisingly humorous effect in a solemn occasion is caused.

3.2.Violation of the Maxim of Quality

The maxim of quality requires that the information in the conversation must be true and reliable instead of false or against the fact. If the information provided by one side of the conversation is not true， then the failure of message transmission will be caused. In Friends， sometimes the speaker will deliberately say something that is untrue to show his attitude indirectly， which may lead to comedy effect and win the audiences applause. For example，

Ross： Hey， I have to go to China.

Joey： The country？

Ross： No， this big pile of dishes in my moms breakfront.

Ross tells Joey that he is going to China， but Joey asks “is the country？” Hearing this， Ross feels it is beyond belief， because the word “China” itself has two meanings， namely “porcelain” and “China” and in this context it is apparent that Ross means he is going to the country “China”. However， Joey doesnt understand this， so Ross says sarcastically “no， I am going to a large pile of plates”. In this dialogue， Ross deliberately violates the maxim of quality by saying something that is false in order to express his ridicule indirectly. The irony of discourse and the exaggerated expression make everyone in stitches.endprint

3.3.Violation of the Maxim of Relevance

The maxim of relevance means that the information should be related to the topic of the conversation. Otherwise， strange phenomenon may occur. However， sometimes the speaker may say some irrelevant words deliberately. These seemingly unrelated words actually reflect the speakers real meaning and create a humorous effect. For example，

Monica： What do you think？

Chandler： I think…I think I can see your scalp.

Monica： Dont you just love it？

Ross： Ye…Yeah…Yeah…You got shellfish in your head.

Monica does a new hairstyle and is anxious to know her friends opinion of her hairstyle， so she asks her friends “What do you think”. Chandler says “I think... I think I can see your scalp”， while Ross says “Ye…Yeah…Yeah…You…”. Ross and Chandler apparently dont think Monicas hairstyle looks good. Although their answers seem to be irrelevant to Monicas question， the irrelevant answers actually reflect their true thoughts. Through the way of indirect answer， they euphemistically express their views without hurting Monicas feeling， which also makes many audiences laugh. Thus， although some dialogues violate Cooperative Principles， they achieve the effect of making conversation more interesting.

3.4.Violation of the Maxim of Manner

The maxim of manner means that the conversation must abide by certain principles， namely， it must be clear， simple and concise. Compared with the first three maxims of Cooperative Principle， which are focused on content， the maxim of manner are focused on requirement for the manner of conversation. In Friends， there are lots of dialogues which violate Cooperative Principle， such as semantic fuzziness， repetition of meaning and unclear expression. In the following， what Joey says is against the maxim of manner.

Joey： Let me just stop you right there， OK？ First， you lied， right？ Then， you lied about lying， OK？ Then you lied about lying about lying， ok？ So before you lie about lying about lying about lying about…lying…（loses count and begins to count the number of “lying” in the air but gives up.） （yelling） Stop lying！

Chandler lies to Joey and Joey is angry， so he says the above words. Although these words are very long， they only express one central meaning， which is to ask Chandler to “stop lying”. In this paragraph， there are 13 words that are connected with “lie”， which seems to be repetitive but is indispensable in fact. It is due to the repetition of the word “lie” that Joeys fury and sadness are vividly showed. As as result， a dramatic humorous effect is realized and this becomes a classic part in the play.endprint

4.Conclusion

In the paper， the author selects some humorous dialogues in American classic comedy Friends and takes Cooperative Principle as theoretical basis in order to test the relation between the violation of four maxims and verbal humor. From the above analysis， it can be seen that verbal humor is closely related with Cooperative Principle. The violation of four maxims may directly cause a certain effect of verbal humor. From the perspective of pragmatics， it is showed that the violation of the Cooperative Principle is not necessarily wrong or illogical. Sometimes it is needed to violate the cooperative principle in order to reach specific verbal humor effect. This also provides a better perspective for our study of verbal humor. In the play Friends， there are also some other elements that work together with humorous dialogues to strengthen the comic effect of the play， such as the actors vivid expression and exaggerated movements. However， the dramatic humor effect is largely due to the actors violation of Cooperative Principle in making dialogues. It can be said that without verbal humor， there is no humor of the whole play， not to mention the success of the whole play.

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作者簡介：

周嘉慧（1991年1月-），系南京師范大學外國語學院碩士，研究方向為英語語言與文化。endprint