Abstract:Humor plays an important role in our daily life. For several centuries, many scholars have done many studies on humor from different perspectives. In this paper, a cognitive approach to humor is adopted within the framework of the Relevance Theory. 

From a relevance-theoretic point of view, humor understanding is thus a process in which the hearer finds “relevance” in what seems “irrelevant”. Verbal humor involves an element of accidental irrelevance, which decreases contextual effects and requires extra processing effort. Nonetheless, the extra processing effort implies additional effects. In the interpretation of verbal humor, the extra processing effort invested is to be offset by additional humorous effects, by which the audience will be amused. This study has implications in the exploration into humor as well as the research on the Relevance Theory. It efficiently contributes to the communication and the understanding of verbal humor for the reader.

Key words:  verbal humor  Relevance Theory  processing effort  interpretation

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 The Purposes of the Study-1

1.2 The Layout of the Study-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-2

2.1 The Definition of Humor-2

2.2 The Classifications of Humor-2

2.3 Previous Studies on Verbal Humor-2

2.3.1 Classical Theories-3

2.3.2 Modern Linguistic Studies-3

Chapter Three Framework of the Relevance Theory-5

3.1The Definition of Relevance-5

3.2 Principles of Relevance-5

Chapter Four Relevance Theory and the Interpretation of Verbal Humor7

4.1 Processing Efforts on Verbal Humor Interpretation-7

4.2 Relevance in Verbal Humor Interpretation-9

Chapter Five Conclusion-11

References-12