中西幽默異同探析【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　?。?0_ _屆）</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計</b></p><p><b>　　中西幽默異同探析</b></p><p><b>　　英語</b></p><p>　　Investigation and

2、 Analysis on Similarities and Differences of Humor between China and Western Counties</p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　幽默是語言表達的一種方式，表達了人的思想境界、觀點和人生態(tài)度。幽默是語言和文化的重要組成部分，它具有極強的滲透力，而且已經(jīng)遍布人類社會的

3、各個方面，并在人際交往和溝通中起著不可或缺的作用。無論是誰，如果能在日常交際中常常表現(xiàn)幽默的一面，那么他的人際關(guān)系會非常融洽，人際交往也就會變得很順利。但是由于文化層次、知識面、認識事物的深度和興趣愛好等方面的差異，幽默所帶來的效果會有所不同。由于文化的差異，不同文化背景中的人交流時對幽默的解讀可能會存在障礙。</p><p>　　中西言語幽默中有著很深的文化特性，對于這些文化一無所知就不能完全理解兩種文化下的幽

4、默，取得交際的成功。本文正是基于此此現(xiàn)狀，以“文化的多樣性”為依據(jù)，從跨文化角度分析例證，努力探索影響幽默交際的文化因素。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞:幽默，幽默理論，差異，相同點，跨文化交際</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　Humor, a way of lingual expression, pre

5、sents man’s thought, opinion and attitude towards life. It is also an important part of language and culture, which penetrates and permeates all aspects of human society, and dominates social intercourse and interpersona

6、l communication. Anyone, with a strong sense of humor in daily dealings can acquire a more harmonious interpersonal relationship and a smoother social contact. But humor entails different ends due to different education

7、backgrounds, horizons</p><p>　　Since humor is deeply rooted in the cultural features, one could hardly make full understanding of different humors as to achieve the fulfillment of communication without the c

8、ultural knowledge. Similarly, on the theory of “cultural diversity”, the present thesis attempts to explore the cultural factors exerting influence on humor communication by bringing examples into the scope of cross-cult

9、ural communication for analysis.</p><p>　　Key words：humor; theories of humor; differences; similarities; cross-cultural communication</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　A

10、bstract………………………………………………………………………….……ii</p><p>　　1. Introduction……………………………………………………...……….….…….1</p><p>　　1.1 Definitions of Humor…………………………………………..……….……1</p><p>　　1.2 Theories o

11、f Humor…………………………………………………….…..….2</p><p>　　2 Differences of Humor between China and Western Counties……...……………3</p><p>　　2.1 The main Representations of Differences of Humor between China and W

12、estern Counties……………………………………………………….……..….3</p><p>　　2.1.1 Different in Subjects and Foundations……………………..…...…….3</p><p>　　2.1.2 Different Styles and Techniques of Expression………………….……4</p&

13、gt;<p>　　2.2 “Humor Barrier” and Its Cause …………….………………………………..5</p><p>　　2.2.1 Exclusive Cultural Concepts……………………………………...…..5</p><p>　　2.2.2 Differences in Religion Beliefs and Customs

14、……...……………..…..8</p><p>　　2.2.3 Differences in Social Ideologies and Modes of Thinking……...……10</p><p>　　3 Similarities of Humor between China and Western Counties…………...…..…10</p><p&

15、gt;　　3.1 The Way of Creation……………………………………………………......10</p><p>　　3.2 Cultural Coincidences…………………………………………...……..…...14</p><p>　　4 Conclusion.…………………………………………………………………….…..14</p><p&g

16、t;　　Bibliography……………………………………………………………..……….…16</p><p>　　Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………17</p><p>　　1 Introduction</p><p>　　When we look around our world nowadays, we wi

17、ll find that people have more opportunities to communicate with each other and to form a closer relationship. We must prepare ourselves to face the challenges. Humor, a frequently-used communication skill, plays a signif

18、icant role in people’s daily communications. It helps to bridge the communication gaps between people from diverse cultures. People may use humorous language, if possible, anywhere, anytime. It’s humor that makes our lif

19、e more colorful</p><p>　　Humor is a thing that can be found everywhere and anytime in our daily life. It can infiltrate every corner you can think up, and nobody is unfamiliar with it. Humor is a universal f

20、orm of art and a tool of communication. At the same time, humor links to a country’s culture. It is a special way that carries a country’s particular culture. Due to the globalization, cross-communication is increasing.

21、Humor, as a universal dispense to people’s life, also causes some problems because of its close li</p><p>　　To solve the problems of humor understanding between China and western countries, a research on hum

22、or and the similarities and differences of humor between China and western counties are urgently in deed.</p><p>　　1.1 Definitions of Humor </p><p>　　The word “humor” came from a Latin word. It

23、 was a physiological nomenclature, and the original meaning was body fluid. Hippokrates of Kos considered that “human’s constitutions depend on four cardinal fluids in body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. So

24、the original meaning of humor referred to people’s preferences, qualities, psychologies and emotions on ideology and customarily determined by the inverse proportion of the four cardinal fluids in human body.”(李瑾成,2010:1

25、00) British drama</p><p>　　In the late 17th century, humor had the meaning that we use now. When entering into the 18th century, artists and litterateurs that were special in humor works appeared. When humor

26、 became popular throughout the world, it turned to be a symbol of wisdom.</p><p>　　Lin Yutang was the person who firstly adopted humor into China. Though humor is a word that comes from other country, the hi

27、story of humor in China is very long, almost as long as the Chinese history. The ancient Chinese humor contained abstruse philosophic theory and artful theoorein. </p><p>　　1.2 Theories of Humor</p>&

28、lt;p>　　There are three traditional theories of humor. </p><p>　　1. Superiority Theory</p><p>　　Superiority theory is based on the theory of classical rhetoric of ancient Greece and Roman; it

29、mainly contains the humor theories base on malice, hostility, deriding, aggressing, defiance and superiority. </p><p>　　2. Incongruity Theory</p><p>　　Incongruity theory leads the most important

30、 statue in the theories of humor. It can be dated back to ancient Greek. It means that if two or more different situations connected in a special scene, thus, humor comes.</p><p>　　3. Relief Theory</p>

31、<p>　　Relief theory is of specific psychological or physiological significance. It defines humor as a way of relief of life.</p><p>　　2 Differences of Humor between China and Western Counties</p>

32、;<p>　　2.1 The main Representations of Differences of Humor between China and Western Counties</p><p>　　To understand humor, we need to understand the cultures behind humor. Chinese traditional cultur

33、e stresses Confucian and modest. So Chinese humor always goes somehow elevated or contains something meaningful. Western countries, however, come into ocean culture, which contains the characteristics of risking and pass

34、ion. This kind of culture makes their humor more various and open. </p><p>　　2.1.1 Different in Subjects and Foundations</p><p>　　Influenced by the different cultures, Chinese humor and western

35、countries’ humor have different subjects. Chinese humor tries to keep everything smoothly and control everything in hand. It usually adds something meaningful to make humor full of teaching foundations. Yet, western cult

36、ure makes their humor more wild and jump. Almost everything can be added to humor, i.e. sex, Chinese people always try to avoid talking about sex, but western people don’t mind it. So in Chinese humor you may find fe<

37、/p><p>　　Humor can be defined into three respects by the way of use. The first one is negative humor, which denials the shortcomings and negative side in life; the second one is affirmative humor, which affirms

38、 the advantages and right side in life; and the last one is pure humor, which has no denial or affirm, but just reflects the interesting things in daily life.</p><p>　　In western countries, pure humor takes

39、up a large proportion. This kind of humor has no special meaning and just for fun. This phenomenon was formed in the seminal state of humor. Chinese humor, somehow, contains the mission of indicating the mistakes of soci

40、ety. This makes Chinese humor more sarcasm.</p><p>　　2.1.2 Different Styles and Techniques of Expression</p><p>　　Chinese humor usually connects to society in that time, which presents to be iro

41、nical. </p><p>　　British people look humor as a very important thing. They think that gentlemen should have a sense of humor. “You have no sense of humor” may be the worst abuse. British people mostly play a

42、bout “dry humor”, which is a little man show. For instance, you may see this scene in a country cafe: when settling accounts, the waiter asks the customer, “In what way do you want to settle?” “Plastic.” When the waiter

43、is in a shock, the customer gives him a credit card. Mr. Bean may be the best symbol of Br</p><p>　　American humor seems to be “hot humor”, which is simple, direct and loony tone. Almost every state has some

44、 strange laws; such as elephants are not allowed to walking on the road except that their necks are tied with a chain. Even there are humor clubs in America. You can get certificates of humor if you pass some examination

45、s.</p><p>　　On technique of expression, Chinese humor prefers to make things further and further. Comic dialogues may be the best way to express this. Comic dialogues have many foreshadowing, which called “d

46、oubaofu”（抖包袱）.With these “doubaofu”, the audiences will be in good moods and hold high interests all the time. However, in European countries, each short sketch only has one “doubaofu”.</p><p>　　2.2 “Humor B

47、arrier” and Its Cause</p><p>　　It is known to all that culture is tightly connected with language. If people want to understand each other, they must know the cultures of each other. To understand humor, the

48、 understanding of culture is very important or you may not know why one thing is humorous. The misunderstandings of humor caused by the lack of culture backgrounds engender “humor barrier”. How it comes into being?</p

49、><p>　　2.2.1 Exclusive Cultural Concepts</p><p>　　“Cultural blank” means that one culture is short of equal things in another culture.（黃德榮,2005:46）For example, elephant and donkey stand for the Rep

50、ublic Party and the Democratic Party of United States. “You wind up the elephant doll and it pins everything on the donkey.” On surface this means that someone want to make elephant doll but at last it seems that the dol

51、l looks like a donkey. Actually it refers that the Republic Party and the Democratic Party don’t do things well. But in Chinese cultu</p><p>　　Another example: In the first season, twelfth part of Friends.

52、 </p><p>　　Ross: Well? Isn’t that amazing?</p><p>　　Joey: What are we supposed to be seeing here?</p><p>　　Chandler: I dunno, but, I think it s about to attack the Enterpri

53、se.</p><p>　　Phoebe: You know, if you tilt your head to the left, and relax your eyes, it kinda looks like an old potato.</p><p>　　The laugh point is in “it s about to attack the Enterprise”. En

54、terprise means firm or business, but here it refers to the name of the first space shuttle of America. </p><p>　　One more: In the second season, eighth part of Growing Pains.</p><p>　　Mike: Ah w

55、ait. I got it. This is great, so simple, so perfect, so right. You know sometimes my brain frightens me. Alright, now get this. I m going to send mom a huge bouquet and a wimpy apology from dad.</p><p>　　Car

56、ol: That s your idea?</p><p>　　Mike: Yeah!</p><p>　　Carol: Mike, it will never work.</p><p>　　Mike: Well it did on the Cosby Show (another hot American sitcom showed simultaneously

57、with Growing Pains)</p><p>　　Carol: That s TV. This is real life.</p><p>　　Ben: Hold it! You’re saying the Cosby Show isn’t real?</p><p>　　Here, if you don’t know that the Cosby Sho

58、w is another American situation comedy, you will not laugh.</p><p>　　Readers who are short of this background can hardly understand the humor behind these.</p><p>　　Chinese humor can be created

59、in much more ways. Some special forms that cause “humor barrier” may own to the typical Chinese culture.</p><p>　　The first one is Chinese specific political and social phenomenon. Look at this example, “mee

60、tings crowed of people are not important, meetings that are important always involve a few people; to solve small things, an extensive meeting is hold, to solve important things, a small meeting covers; key problems need

61、 no meeting, meetings always appear without problems. ”（ 人多的會議不重要，重要的會議人不多，解決小問題開大會，解決大問題開小會，解決關(guān)鍵問題不開會，不想解決問題總開會。）</p><p>　　This reflects the social and political phenomenon of Chinese government with a sens

62、e of humor. It is a scathing satire on the Chinese government. Western people may not so sensitive about this. As a result they may not find any humor about it. </p><p>　　My friend once asked me a question,

63、“What is more expensive than learning in university?” “Learning abroad?” I answered. “No. It’s going kindergarten!” This also refers to the social phenomenon in China. Nowadays, Chinese parents pay more attention to deve

64、loping their children’s abilities from their childhood in order to let them adapt the competitive society better. Because of this, many parents pay a large amount of money in sending their children to a better kindergart

65、en. However, western peo</p><p>　　The second one is Chinese English. Nowadays, Chinese people are learning English like a raging fire. While learning they don’t forget to add something native into English. B

66、etween friends, we can hear “We two who and who.”（咱倆誰跟誰?。?， “You me you me.”（彼此彼此）；when threatening others, we can hear “You gave me stop.”（你給我站住）, “You have need, I will give you some color to see see today.”（你有種，今天就給你點顏

67、色看看）; when praising others, we can hear “You have two down son.”（你有兩下子）, when looking down on others, we ca</p><p>　　Actually, these uses don’t mean that we don’t respect English; they are only ways of mock

68、up ourselves. Even, they can be used as humorous examples to tell English learners not make mistakes like these.</p><p>　　The third one is the collocations of Chinese poems. There is no doubt that the poem o

69、f Tang dynasty and the verse of Song dynasty are marrows of Chinese culture, all of the mood is reflected in the concise of language. But now people can ably rearrange them, which makes them still catchy but full of fun.

70、 For example, “In obscurity, scholars would maintain their own integrity”（窮則獨善其身）, they stick “In times of rich, they would have wives and lovers.（富則妻妾成群）” to it, yet the original one is “In time</p><p>　　Wh

71、at’s more, different understandings of animals in different cultures may also cause “cultural blanks”. Here are some words of animals which contain different meanings in different cultures:</p><p>　　1 Fish:

72、Western culture belongs to ocean. So there are many phrases in English about fish—cool fish, poor fish, drink like a fish, as mute as a fish, big fish, dull fish, like a fish out of water. However, in China, there are fe

73、w phrases about fish.</p><p>　　2 Bat: In western people’s eyes, bat is a kind of blackhearted animal. It is always connected with guilty and hell. But in China, bat is looked as the animal that can bring hap

74、piness because the word has the same pronunciation with “Fu” (福)in Chinese, which means to bring good things.</p><p>　　3 Pie: In western countries: irritating</p><p>　　In China: lucky</p>

75、<p>　　4 Swan: In western countries: usually used to compare poet</p><p>　　In China: symbol of something to be respected</p><p>　　5 Cricket: In western countries: symbol of something cozy o

76、r comfortable</p><p>　　In China: has no special meaning </p><p>　　If these words appear in some ways that cause humor, people in two different cultures can not catch the laughing points of each

77、other.</p><p>　　2.2.2 Differences in Religion Beliefs and Customs</p><p>　　“Humor is a mirror of a country’s culture. A nation’s religion briefs and customs are included into the country’s cultu

78、re and clearly deeply influence humor.”(Kramsch.2000:2)</p><p>　　(1) A little girl at her first church wedding suddenly whispered loudly to her mother, “Mummy, has the lady changed her mind?!”</p><

79、;p>　　“Why, dear, whatever do you mean?!” Her mother asked.</p><p>　　“Well Mummy, she went to the aisle with one man and came back with another!”</p><p>　　The wedding custom of western countri

80、es hides in this example. In western countries weddings are held in churches, and in the wedding ceremony, the bride is led along by her father at first, then they walk to the minister’s desk and the minister will put th

81、e bride’s hand into her bridegroom’s. This means that the bride, from birth, is taken care of by her father, and putting her hand into bridegroom’s means that since this time the responsibility of looking after the bride

82、 has be passed to the b</p><p>　　(2) A Buddhist monk once visited a family. The host asked him, “Master, do you drink wine?”</p><p>　　The Buddhist monk laughed and answered, “Yes, only a little,

83、 but I never abstain of eating meat.”</p><p>　　和尚到人家做客。主人見他是出家人便問道：“師傅，您喝酒嗎？”</p><p>　　和尚笑笑道：“酒倒是喝一點，只是從不吃素?！?lt;/p><p>　　Buddhist monks are not allowed to eat meat. Because killing is

84、 forbidden in the rules of Buddhism. The laugh point in this joke is that the Buddhist monk was never allowed to eat meat but he answered that he never abstains of eating meat!</p><p>　　(3) Two persons are q

85、uarreling. One is too angry and shouts, “How great you are! Could you swallow me?”</p><p>　　The other answers, “No, I can’t. I’m the Huis.”</p><p>　　兩人吵架，一人氣急罵起來：“你有什么了不起，能把我吃了！”</p><

86、p>　　另一人回答：“不能，我是回民?！?lt;/p><p>　　In this part, you need to have the knowledge that the Hui people don’t eat pock, so in fact the second person means that the first person is a pig.</p><p>　　(4)

87、Adam returned home late one night, and Eve confronted him at the door.</p><p>　　“You're seeing another woman, aren't you?”</p><p>　　“Do n' t be silly ,”he replied. “ You're the o

88、nly woman on earth.”</p><p>　　Later, while half- asleep, Adam felt a tickle on his chest.</p><p>　　“What are you doing?” He asked Eve.</p><p>　　“Counting your ribs.”</p><

89、p>　　In Geneses, the god firstly created a man named Adam, and then he used a rib of Adam to create a woman named Eva. With this background, readers could easily understand that Eva was counting Adam’s ribs to make sur

90、e whether another woman was created.</p><p>　　2.2.3 Differences in Social Ideologies and Modes of Thinking</p><p>　　Social ideology refers to philosophy, sense of worth and social beliefs based

91、on some kinds of politic and economy theories, which is the deposition of history. Compared to China’s history, the histories of western countries are shorter. Take the United States as an example, the foundation of Amer

92、ica is only about 230 years. There is no gestation of its own awareness. With this reason, the American’s daily awareness is funded of instant, fragmentary, and scattered senses, and the ideology is dis</p><p&

93、gt;　　At the same time, China has a history of about 5,000 years. The Chinese people chronically receive an influence of politic concept which is systemic and strong. These senses, connected with Chinese traditional syste

94、m of value, make Chinese citizens embody strong political tendency in dealing with things in daily life.</p><p>　　For modes of thinking, western people, comparatively speaking, have a rational way of thinkin

95、g, which indicates strong abstraction and generality. However, Chinese people have intuitionistic and visual thoughts, which is much more different from western people. If these modes of thinking reflect in humorous adve

96、rtisements, western countries’ ads are more nonrepresentational. To understand these ads, rational thoughts are needed. Likewise, Chinese humorous advertisements are some kinds of intuiti</p><p>　　3 Similari

97、ties of Humor between China and Western Counties</p><p>　　3.1 The Way of Creation</p><p>　　Though Chinese humor and western humor have many differences, there are still some crosses between them

98、. Both Chinese and English use rhetoric to create humor.</p><p><b>　　(1) Pun</b></p><p>　　Pun refers that in certain language situation, people purposely using the ambiguity or homop

99、hony (homonymic) of words to make the sentences contain double meanings. Pun makes language expression implicative and humorous. Pun can be defined into two kinds: homograph and homophone.</p><p>　　ⅰ Homogra

100、ph: Using the ambiguity of words to create pun in special language situation.</p><p>　　“To make your skin better, you’d better to use Dabao at day and night.” (要想皮膚好，早晚用大寶)</p><p>　　Here, “at da

101、y and night”, in Chinese pronunciation is “zaowan”. “zaowan” superficially means at day and night; but it has another meaning in Chinese which means “sooner or later”. This is an ad for “Dabao”—a skin care product. The u