The Discourse Analysis of Humorous Utterances in Friends

【Abstract】： Humor is a kind of language art. This paper will analyse humorous utterances of Friends on the basis of cooperative principle to study the effect of humorous acts， aiming at improving the ability of appreciating English humor and reasoning abilities， and understanding the rules of English language.

1.Introduction

Humor originates from humoural medician ， which was said to control one’s mood and health. Humor is a kind of language art， a kind of representation of people’s attitudes expressed in a simple， funny language form according to their understandings to lives. Humor can represent a kind of wisdom of life， and it is the lubricant of interpersonal relationships. Taking the sitcom Friends as examples， the paper will study the humor effects in utterances with the means of discourse analysis， aiming at improving the ability of appreciating English humor and reasoning abilities.

2.A Brief Introduction to Friends

Friends is a popular sitcom in the United States . Friends describes the interesting and fantastic lives of six young people who live in the same flat in New York. They stick together under any circumstances， share each other’ s pains and happiness and grow up together.

Rachel Green， who is beautiful， gossipy， is a girl spoiled by her rich father. Monica Geller was Rachel Green’s best friend when they were in high school. She tries hard to achieve success so she changes jobs frequently， and she finally becomes the head chef at a well-respected restaurant. Phoebe Buffay， Monica’s former roommate， is a quirk but lovely girl. Phoebe usually satirizes the snide events in a boldly and abnormal way. Chandler Bing， Ross’ college roommate， is very kind and enthusiastic who marries Monica Geller. Joey Tribbiani， Chandler’s roommate， is an actor struggling for years in New York. Ross Geller is the elder brother of Monica and a paleontologist with an intellectual mind.

3. Humorous Utterances and Cooperative Principle

In 1975， America linguistic philosopher H.P. Grice published an excellent article named the cooperative principle. Grice holds that the speakers and hearers should obey the cooperative principle to cooperate with each other in real communications. The cooperative principle can be divided into four maxims as follows： the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. Humorous effects are created when the speaker violates them intentionally. In Friends， we can easily find some cases violating cooperative principle.

3.1 Humorous Uterances and Maxim of Quantity

The quantity maxim means that people should offer adequate information as needed， nothing more and nothing less. Giving more information than required and providing less information than required are not required. In the real communication， people usually say something lacking in information for some special purposes， so the hearer needs to infer the implied meaning of the speaker. Sometimes， the hearer’s guess is not the same as what the speaker really wants to express. Then the hearer may misunderstand the meaning of the speaker. When they finally understand the speaker’s true intention， there is a sharp contrast with the previous comprehension， thus resulting in the humorous effect.In Friends， for example， When Rachel bought a set of archaistic furniture from the Pottery Bam……

Monica： Rach， Phoebe hates Pottery Bam.

Joey： I hate Pottery Bam too. They nicked me out of there just because I sat on a bed.

Chandler： You took off your pants and climbed under the sheets！ （Laughter）

Joey： I was tired！

From the dialogue we can see Joey says he hates the pottery bam because they kick him out of there just because he sits on a bed. At first， the other friends will be dissatisfied with the store and agree with Joey. But from Chandler’s words， we know that Joey sits on the bed. Joey omits the necessary information， which is just the reason why he is thrown out of the shop. When the insufficient information is completed， we could not help laughing and the humorous effect is achieved.

3.2 Humorous Utterances and Maxim of Quality

Maxim of Quality claims that people should not say what they believe to be 1， or people should make sure the utterances is true. But in order to enliven the atmosphere or reach some utterancesal effect， the speaker may sometimes violate this maxim and tell lies. So the rhetorical devices like exaggeration， irony， metaphor and so on comes out， the rhetorical devices are the manifestation of humor. For example in Friends， when Monica apologized to Rachel for having done something bad to her but Rachel seemed not to forgive her…

Monica： I feel terrible， t really do.

Rachel： Oh， I’m sorry， did my back hurt your knife？ （Laughter）

As we know， human’s back could not possibly hurt a steel knife， so Rachel says something that she believes to be 1. Through this unusual statement， Monica will understand that Rachel will not forgive her.

3.3 Humorous Utterances and Maxim of Relation

The maxim of relation requires people to be relevant to the topic when they carry on a utterances with others. However， in some situation， people need to be irrelevant to the topic in order to switch a topic to avoid embarrassment or express their ideas in a euphemistical way to achieve a humorous effect. For example， When Phoebe is talking about her miserable childhood without a bike……

Ross： Oh！ Did the girl ever let you ride it？

Phoebe： No！ But she gave me the box that it came in. It has a picture of the bike on the front. So I would sit on it and my step-dad would drag me around the backyard.

Ross： That is so unfair！

Phoebe： Not really， I got to drag him around too！ （Laughter）

Phoebe tells her miserable childhood without a bike due to lack of money， but the girl living across the street has a beautiful bike. Phoebe likes the bike very much， but she is not permitted to ride it， and she is only given a box with a picture of the bike. Then， she has no alternative but to sit on the box and is dragged around by her step-dad. Ross says that is so unfair. We can understand that “that” refers to the miserable and bitter life experience of Phoebe. Ross is obviously sympathetic to Phoebe’s suffering. However， Phoebe answers “I got to drag him around too！” which is irrelevant to Ross’s real meaning. So this maximal relevance turns out to be wrong when Phoebe speaks out her interpretation which causes the humorous effect.

3.4 Humorous Uttterances and Maxim of Manner

The maxim of manner requires the speaker to talk in a clear， concise way and avoid obscure and ambiguous statements. The speaker sometimes intentionally violates this maxim for the sake of avoiding embarrassment， taboo and so forth. By doing so， the speaker wants to conceal something from the hearer. In this case， the humorous effect will be achieved by violating the maxim of manner. Let’s see the example， when the friends are talking about their respective jobs……

Rachel： So， like， you guys all have jobs？

Monica： Yeah， we all have jobs. See， that’s how we buy stuff.

Joey： Yeah， I’m an actor.

Rachel： Wow！ Would I have seen you in anything？

Joey： I doubt it. Mostly regional work.

Monica： Oh wait，wait， unless you happened to catch the Reruns’production of Pinocchio， at the little theater in the park.

Joey： Look， it was a. job all right？ （Laughter）

Rachel desires to know which TV play Joey has ever played in， but Joey only answers her roughly. “Regional work， in fact is a euphemistic expression which means that he has never played in the formal programs. By saying the vague words， he wants to save his face because he is an unrecognized actor. Unluckily， Monica reveals his secret. To maintain his last self-esteem， Joey argues that his informal play， after all， is a job. Joey violates the maxim of manner by saying something ambiguous， thus resulting in the humorous effect.

4. Conclusion

The paper uses the cooperative principle to investigate the humorous utterances in the American sitcom Friends. The cooperative principle shows the origin of humor in logics and philosophy. In Friends， the cooperative principle argues that the humorous effect is achieved when the speaker violates the specific maxims in the communication and does a better job in explaining humor by speaking irrelevant utterance when the speakers are in bad moods. So it is a useful theory for interpreting the cognitive process of humor understanding and helpful in improving the ability of appreciating English humor and reasoning abilities， and understanding the rules of English language.

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作者簡介：韓歡（1989—），男，漢族，河南衛輝人，河池學院，助教，研究生學歷，碩士學位，研究方向：語言學，教學法。