双关语视角下《老友记》幽默对话赏析
用语用原则简析《老友记》中的幽默
用语用原则简析《老友记》中的幽默
《老友记》中的幽默遵循了“调侃式”、“自嘲式”、“反讽式”、“超越式”等原则。
“调侃式”：在剧中，一些朋友之间的互动，以及主角们的口头禅，都是以调侃式的语言进行的，比如，当Ross在和Rachel
的约会中被问到他有没有兴趣去看电影时，他回答道：“当然，我喜欢看电影，尤其是穿越时空的故事。
”
“自嘲式”：在剧中，主角们也经常以自嘲的方式来表达自己的
情绪，比如，当Chandler被一位女士拒绝时，他就说：“我可
以接受失败，但我不能接受拒绝。
”
“反讽式”：在剧中，主角们也经常用反讽的方式来表达自己的
想法，比如，当Rachel在和Ross的约会中被问到有没有兴趣
去看电影时，她回答道：“你知道，看电影是我最喜欢的事情
之一。
”
“超越式”：在剧中，主角们也经常用超越的方式来表达自己的
想法，比如，当Monica在和Chandler的约会中被问到有没有
兴越去看电影时，她回答道：“当然，我喜欢看电影，尤其是
穿越时空的故事。
”。
从语境视角看《老友记》幽默言语的解读
从语境视角看《老友记》幽默言语的解读摘要语境在理解电视情景喜剧的幽默言语中具有特殊的作用。
作为以制笑为目的的电视情景喜剧，编剧成功与否取决于观众能否调用正确的语境来对其中的幽默对白进行理解，从而发笑。
从关联理论角度，通过截取美国著名情景喜剧《老友记》的片段作为幽默语料，对抽样出来的幽默言语语料在理解时所需调用的语境进行分类分析统计．结果显示：在正确理解《老友记》幽默言语的过程中，语言上下文知识是被调用最多的语境因素，情景知识的调用率处于第二位，百科知识是被调用得最少的因素。
关键词语境幽默言语语言上下文知识情景知识百科知识一、引言电视情景喜剧(Situation comedies。
简称sitcoms)，诞生于二十世纪二十年代的美国广播中。
第一部真正意义上的电视情景喜剧出现于1947年，当年的片名叫《玛丽?凯和琼尼》，在当时产生了重要影响。
从五十年代开始，电视情景喜剧在西方一直成为一个受人喜欢的电视节目(陆哗、陈立斌2002)。
《老友记》又名《六人行》(friends)是美国自二十世纪九十年代起在NBC电视台热播的著名情景喜剧(从1994年至2005年5月6日)，一共十季。
该剧目前仍是欧美最受欢迎的情景喜剧之一，收视率常居榜首，播出以来一直为NBC电视网的招牌剧，多次获得艾美奖的提名并数次获奖。
主要讲述了六个性格各异的人的生活故事，他们之间的情路坎坷、事业成败和生活中的喜怒哀乐，是对生活原生态的再现。
该电视情景喜剧自从进入中国影视市场后，也给中国的电视观众们带来了全新的感受，引来了众多的追捧者，催生了该喜剧自身的老友记。
年轻人群体沉迷于剧中人物诙谐幽默的对白中。
但是。
在笔者与学生的交流以及在播放该片时笔者仔细的观察发现，大部分的学生在喜剧背景有罐装笑声的地方并没有象预期那样发出了笑声。
探究其原因。
固然有学生个体差异引起理解上的差异，但更大的原因是出于没能成功解读其中的幽默，因此笑不出来。
对于这样一部来自美国本土的情景喜剧的英语幽默言语，非本族语观众们应该怎样去解读它的幽默言语呢?本文从S perber 和Wilson提出的关联理论出发。
“老友记”中双关语的幽默分析
“老友记”中双关语的幽默分析摘要：双关语是一种常见的用于引人发笑，产生乐趣的修辞格。
它的大致定义是对幽默语言的运用，其包含的词汇或是含有两种或两种以上的意义，或是拥有相同或者相似的发音。
正因为这些特质，双关语主要通过玩笑和嘲讽等方式被广泛应用于商业广告中以获得较高的利润，或是被用于增加日常交流的趣味性，当然，文学作品中更不乏双关语的运用，以此增强语言的幽默性，并起到诙谐讽刺的效果。
然而，作者发现在以往对双关语的研究中，绝大多数集中于其在商业广告方面的运用以及其在翻译领域的研究。
作者在日常的观影生活中发现，情景喜剧中同时存在着相当可观的双关语运用，并且这种运用很大程度上增强了剧集的幽默性和可看性。
本文作者以美国老牌情景喜剧“老友记”为语料库，并根据文军教授对双关语的分类对语料库进行研究。
本文共分为五章。
第一章是包括论文的目标，重要性以及方法论的介绍部分。
第二章是文献综述，主要介绍在此之前与双关语研究相关的理论比如关联理论及合作原则。
第三章描述双关语的定义以及分类：大致上它分为两个大类，语音双关和语义双关，然后前者再进而细分为近音双关和同词异义双关。
后者细分为一词多义双关和歧解双关。
第四章是论文主体部分，首先概述了老友记的主要内容、其语言特征及六个主角的性格特点，再开始根据分类分析所选的语料库。
最后则讨论了双关语所需的语用修辞功能以及理解老友记中的双关语所需要的背景知识。
第五章为本文的结论部分，总结了该研究的结果和其限制。
关键词：双关语，幽默，近音双关，同词异义，一词多义，歧解双关The Analysis of the Pun in “Friends”Abstract: Pun is a rhetorical device used to trigger laughter and make fun results. Pun is usually defined as the humorous use of a word that has two or more meanings,or,of different words that sound the same or alike. For those features, puns have been widely used,by means of jokes,riddles and etc., in commercials to enable a bigger profit, in people’s life to enrich the enjoyment of daily speech, especially in literary work to decorate the language with a humorous, jocular or sarcastic effect.The thesis is made up of five chapters. However, most of the previous study of pun are focusing on commercial field and translation section. Through the daily experience of watching films and televison, there are numerous pun in the language of situational comedy, enhancing its humorous effect and adding something valuable. This thesis choose the time-honored sitcome “ Friends” as the corpus, and analyse the corpus according to the classification of pun in Professor Wenjun’s view.In this thesis, Chapter one is introduction,which includes the need, the purpose, the significance and the methodolog. Chapter two is literature review, introducing the relevant terms of the previous study of pun such as Relavance Theory, and the Cooperative Principle. Chapter three offers the introduction to the defination of pun and put its classification in details. Generally it was divided into two broad category: Homophonic Pun and Homonymic Pun. Then it presents further elaboration on these two genres while Paronomasia and Antanaclasis belong to the former and Sylletic Pun and Aseismus pertain to the latter.Chapter four is the main body of the thesis which first makes an introduction to Friends including the main content of the sitcom,the features of its language and the traits of the main characters, then classify the selected examples extracted from Friends according to the classification mentioned in chapter three and analyze them in details. Besides, the pragmatic rhetorical function of pun in Friends and the backgound knowledge needed to get a better command of pun can also be acquired in this part.Chapter five is the conclusion part. It summarizes the research,and points out the limitations of the study.Key words: pun, humor, Paronomasia, Antalaclasis, Sylletic, AsteismusContents Abstract摘要Chapter1 Introduction1.1 The Purpose of the Study1.2 Significance of the Present Study1.3 The Methodology of the StudyChapter 2 Literature Review2.2 Previous Study Relevant to Pun2.2.1 Three Premises of Pun2.2.2 The Relevance Theory2.2.3 The Cooperative Principle(CP)Chapter3 The Definition of Pun and Its Classification3.1 The Definition of Pun3.2 The Classification of PunChapter 4 The Analysis of the Humorous Pun in “Friends”4.1 Brief Introduction of “Friends”4.2 Different Performances of Pun in Friends4.2.1 Humor Produced by Paronomasia4.2.2 Humor Produced by Antanaclasis4.2.3 Humor Produced by Sylletic4.2.4 Humor Produced by Asteismus4.3 The Pragmatic Rhetorical Function of Pun in Friends 4.3.1 Enhance the Sense of Humor in Conversations4.3.2 Vivid Characters of the Actor/Actress4.3.3 Obvious Irony4.4 The Necessary Knowledge to Understand Pun in Friends Chapter5 ConclusionChapter 1 Introduction1.1 The Purpose of the StudyEver since entering the chinese film market,Friends brings the chinese audience in a fresh new way and giving rise to its mounting fans. Young people indulge themselves in the funny dialogues of those characters in this series. However, according to the author’s observation and knowledge, many chinese audience didn’t have the expected laugher at the point which the canned laughter appear. There is one reason that different understandings exist due to the personal variability, but the underlying cause is that they don’t get the point thus no laughter come out. Besides, the author find that the audience often cannot catch the point or lose sight of the point especially at which the pun is hiding. This paper is to display the artistic charm of pun by analyzing it within the background of the sitcom Friends, so as to acquire a better understanding of American culture as well as to explore its positivity and help the broad English lovers in English study and daily communications in further understanding of pun and making use of it then aid to improve their appreciation in film and TV series and promote language competence.1.2 Significance of the Present StudyThe study will be of significance chiefly in practice. Once all the rage as a situational comedy, numerous people are still reviewing Friends series nowadays, for those who studying English and regard it as a must-see classic in particular. The six leading roles in Friends each possesses different their own characteristics, they live and work together, sparking unique language style. Pun,as a figure of speech and also a kind of linguistic art, is presented in their conversations incisively and vividly. This research is set in the former,emphasis on the latter, combining and analyzing in both sides, showing the magnetism of English that derived from humor. In this way, western culture are further exposed to the readers and they are able to have a better access to the humorous point in the context, consequently the appeal of English learning to the learners boost. In the situational comedy,humor is incurred not only by some humorous language like pun, but also by the combination of some clauses that triggers humor and the situation which is divided into the context of the language and the surroundings; therefore, the study of humor in sitcom should take situations into consideration thus it is more dynamic and applicable.1.3 The Methodology of the StudyThe method adopted is mainly corpus, quantitive and descriptive approach. The versionanalyzed here is download from the internet. There are more than two hundred episodes in total in Friends. So, an exhaustive and analysis of all the episodes proves to be redundant and impossible for the limitation of the length of the present paper. Hence the method is to select several situations randomly where pun appear from al the ten seasons, taking the background laugh sound in the video as the indicator of humor.Chapter2 Literature Review2.1 Three Premises of PunThe formation of pun has three presuppositions according to Achibald A.Hill(1985:449-450), namely, double context, hinge and trigger.(李鑫华，2000:195) Double context is the premise of the arise of pun to which the language environment the hinge attaches. Hinge means the words in which pun are embodied. It is the joint point and axis which combines together to form the pun and, polysemy and homonyms are usually act as the role s of hinge. Trigger refers to the user’s motive and the background. No connection can be achieved without hinge in double context, and double context is the core of pun resulting from using the linguistic ambiguity.2.2 Previous Study Relevant to PunThis part of thesis pick up only two theories to make brief introductions concerning pun.2.2.1 The Relevance TheoryRelevance theory is a proposal raised by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, seeking to explain the second method of communication: one that takes into account implicit inferences. It argues that the information recipient will search for meaning in any given communication situation and having found meaning that suits their expectation of relevance, will stop processing.Sperber and Wilson’s theory starts with some watershed assumptions that are typical of pragmatic theories. That is to say, it argues that all utterances are encountered in some context and that utterances convey several implicatures. In addition, they posit the notion of manifestness, which means when something is grasped either consciously or unconsciously by some one.They further state that it will be obvious to people who are engaged in inferential communication that each other have the notion of relevance in their minds. This will causeeach person engaged to arrive at the presumption of relevance, which is the notion that (a) implicit messages are relevant enough to be worth bothering to process, and (b) the speaker will be as economical as they possibly can be in communicating it.The core of the theory is the “communicative principle of relevance”, which explains that by the act of making an utterance the speaker is conveying that what they have said is worth listening to. It will provide "cognitive effects" worthy of the processing effort required to find the meaning. In this way, every ostensive act of communication will look something like this:1. Purposefully, the speaker gives a clue to the hearer as to what the hearer wishes to communicate - that is a clue to his/her intention.2. The hearer speculate the intention by analysing the clue and the context-mediated information. The hearer have to interpret the clue, taking into account the context, and surmise what the speaker intended to convey.For Sperber and Wilson, relevance is conceived as relative or subjective, as it determined by the state of knowledge of a hearer when they encounter an utterance. However, they are quick to note that their theory does not attempt to exhaustively define the concept of "relevance" in everyday use, but tries to show an interesting and important part of human communication, in particular ostensive-inferential communication.2.2.2 The Cooperative Principle(CP)Herbert Paul Grice, an Oxford philosopher and famous linguistician, came up with the term “conversational implicature” in 1967 and revealed to the public afterwards. He noticed that people do not always say things explicitly in daily conversation, on the contrary, they are more likely to convey the meanings that can nonetheless be inferred. Grice believed that we can tell the differences between the speaker said and what the speaker virtually meant, suggested or implied. Furthermore, Grice coined the term implicature to replace the logical use of the term implication and explored how people manage to convey implicature, which is indirectly expressed. This kind of behavior was generalized by Grice in to Cooperative Principle. The In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy clarified that this theory of Grice “opened up a new era for pragmatic”.Further specification of CP includes four categories of maxims: the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. Quantity maxim requires one to make his contribution as informative as is required and for the present purpose of the exchange only instead of being more informative than is required. Qualitymaxim is stated as not to say what one believes to be false and not to say that for which one lacks adequate evidence. Relation maxim is relatively simple with being relevant as its single sub-maxim. Manner maxim focuses on the necessity to avoid obscurity and ambiguity as well as the necessity to be brief and orderly.In accordance to CP, people engaging in a conversation can deduce the meaning of the speaker in that situation by what he says in that moment. That is to say the listener and the speaker both assume each other conform to CP, thus both sides of them are able to deduce the implication of the speech. However, for various reasons, people often violate the principles intentionally or accidentally in conversation. As long as a maxim is broken, our language becomes indirect. Grice made a distinction between literal meaning and the speaker’s intention. Recipients, when hearing an utterance, will process its literal meaning first with the supposition that the speaker is keeping to CP and its attendant maxims. Then, they check the literal interpretation against the context to see whether it fits or not. If it does, it can be taken to reflect the speaker’s inte ntion. If not, the recipients will work out possible implicature corresponding to the utterance of the speaker. Humor is thus created sometimes as a result of the clash between the initial interpretation and the implicature.Chapter3 The Definition of Pun and Its Classification3.1 The Definition of PunIn the Oxford English Dictionary, pun is defined in this way: “The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different association,or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect”.(1989:832)Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines pun as “The humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest different meanings or application of words having the same or nearly the same sound but different meanings:a play on words”. (1961:2014)According to Ci Hai(2002) pun is defined as “one of the figures of speech, making one word or sentence relate to two matters by making use of the homophonic or homonymic relation.”The Longman Dictionary Dictionary of Contemporary says “an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two or more different meanings which is called polysemy or of words with the same sound and spelling but different meanings which is called ho monymy.”(1984:751) The definition of “pun” in Collins English Language Dictionary is “a use of words that have more than one meaning, or words that have same sound but different meanings, so thatwhat you say have two differet meanings and makes people lau gh.”(1987:1164)To summarize, though there are various definitions of pun with its own characteristics, they share something in common. In one aspect, pun have two or more meanings through the play on the words. The same sound or pronunciation as it have, it totally differs in meaning. On the other hand, as a rhetorical device, the purpose of using pun is to produce some language effects, like satiric or humorous or witty effects. The speaker arouses the attention or interests from the hearer and the hearer enjoys the process of interpreting the pun.3.2 The Classification of PunPun has been classified into many types based on different standards in linguistic study. Due to the slightly differed definitions, it is hard to classify the puns. In this paper, the author is going to specify pun into two broad types，firstly, homophonic pun and homonymic pun. Then give further classifications according to professor WenJun’s work “英语写作修辞”(1991:315-318), which is , namely, homophonic pun, paronomasia, antalaclasis, sylletic and asteismus.(1) Homophonic PunHomophonic pun refers to the same or similar sound of a word used to give rise to a pun in sentences.1)ParonomasiaParonomasia is the use of two words similar in pronunciation but different in spelling and meaning. Steven Paul put forward that paronomasia, or adnomination originates from the Greek vocabulary and it means “a slight name change”.2) AntalaclasisAntanaclasis means one word with different meaning by apearing twice or more times. Homonym is usually in this type.(2) Homonymic PunHomonymic pun refers to a word with various meaning or ambiguity to casue the effect of pun.1) SylleticSylletic is one word with at least two meanings but appearing only once. Though similar to an antanaclasis, a sylleptic pun usually appears only once, using fewer words to express more information.2) Asteismus(歧解双关)Asteismus involves a distorted comprehension of earlier word or words. This type of punsis usually employed in dialogue, referring to one’s intentional misunderstanding of the meaning of word or words.Chapter4 The Analysis of the Humorous Pun in “Friends”4.1 Brief Introduction of “Friends”Friends, from 1994 to May 2004, with ten seasons, has been one of the most popular sitcoms in American television history and gained tens of millions of fans throughout the world. This successful sitcom touches upon almost every aspect of American life, and vividlY depicts the life of six friends, who are three females, Monica, Rachel, Phoebe and three males, Ross, Chandler and Joey. They often get together at Monica and Rachel’s department or share the sofa at Greenwich Village’s “Central Perk” coffeehouse in New York’s Manhattan to enjoy the treasured times with each other. A brief introduction of the six protagonists will be followed.Monica Galler, Ross’s younger sister, a girl who was a laugh stock during her childhood for her extreme overweight, has an insatiable appetite for total neatness and things well organized in almost everything such as house-cleaning, food processing and wedding arrangement. More often than not, Monica speaks in a biting and bossy manner, so her sense of humor comes from her cranish character.Rachel Green, a typical “American sweetheart”, who is beautiful, spoiled, fussy and gossipy, ran away on her wedding day and accidentally encountered Monica,her best friend in high school, and henceforth lead a independent life with other five protagonists. Firstly she worked as a cafe waitress in “Central Perk”; because of her unique taste and her passion for fashion, she got a decent office job at Ralph Lauren. Rachel’s sense of humor reflects from her naive character and that makes her very lovely.Phoebe Buffay, a vegetarian and environmentalist, is a lovable and quirky girl. Being once abandoned child, she had a tough experience in her childhood and thus bad educated but seems to be eternally optimistic. She ekes out a living as a freelance masseuse and works as a single sone-writer and bar-singer in spare time. She often speaks boldly, even abnormally sometimes, to satirize snide events and hypocrites in the society. Generally speaking, his sense of humor comes from his pedantic and scholastic’s character.Ross Galler, Monica’s elder brother and divorces three times, is an intellectual and a high-strung paleontologist works as a professor in a university. He is timid and easily annoyed sometimes because he has a girlish childhood. As the most erudite and also themost bookish one among the six, he always speaks in a scientific and rigorous way.C handler Bing, Ross’s roommate in college and marries his long-time friend Monica, changes his career from data processing to advertising. He is a very warm-hearted, kind and generous person, always help his roommate Joey in danger or difficulty and knee on making dry jokes in response to the actions of his friends. Because of the incurable mental hurt caused by his parents’ divorce, he is cynical, ironic and more or less over self-protected Joey Tribbiani, a handsome but not-so-intelligent Italian descendant, is a food lover and playboy with childlike innocence. He struggles in his acting business in New York and finally make it in the sitcom Days of Our Lives. With his poor education background, he often speaks rudely and sometimes illogically.4.2 Different performances of pun in FriendsThe author picked up several samples by watching again almost the whole ten seasons from the downloaded series to have a further look about the puns in Friends. The followings are the extracted examples and their interpretations.4.2.1 Humor Produced by Paronomasia(1)Rachel: No But Ross. We are never gonna happen,ok? Accept that.Ross: E-except,except what?Rachel: No,no. “Accept” that.(season2episode14)In this situation, rachel is telling ross they have broken up with each other and hopes Ross could face this reality. But in Ross’s heart, he still wishes to fix the relationship with rachel and stay together with her since he had been in love with Rachel for a long time and finally being with her. So subconsciously, he make the mistake of thinking “accept” as “except”, supposing that there might be something he can do to repair the break up. However, Rachel has make up her mind and repeat to Ross to accept that.(2)[Scene: Central Perk, Joey is getting a phone number from a woman (Casey) as Chandler watches from the doorway.]…Chandler: I just think it's time for you to settle down. Make a choice. Pick a lane.Joey: Who’s Elaine?(Season4 Episode7)In this part, Chandler finds Joey are dating two girls in the same period, which Joey isdoing all the time, and that he happens to love one of the girls secretly. So he tries to persuade Joey to pick the other girl. Joey feels strange for Chandler’s suggestion, so Chandler has to explain that as a friend of Joey, he just wants Joey to settle down with a girl Joey likes. Here, “pick a lane” means make a choice and choose one of the two girls. Logically, Joey’s expected reply should be “OK, I will choose Cathy (or Casey)” or “I will choose both.”. However, as a playboy, Joey surprises us by saying “Who is Elaine” with a confusing tone, mistakenly takes it as another girl’s name, which deviate from Chandler’s and audiences’ expectation. Hence, audiences have to interpret the dialogue and find that Joey mishears Chandler’s words because “a lane” has a similar pronunciation with “Elaine”, a response which can more or less underline his figure a lady-killer.(3)[Scene: Central Perk, everyone is there as Rachel enters, happily.]Rachel: Good, you guys are all here!Ross: Hey! What's up?Rachel: Well, I have a job interview at Ralph Lauren tomorrow!All: Congratulations! Ohh, that's great!Rachel: I know!Joey: Boy, that guy's underwear sucks!Rachel: Wh-what?!Joey: I got this pair marked “XS”, I gotta tell ya, there was no room for excess anything in there.(Season 5 Episode17)The background of the dialogue is that Rachel gets a job interview at Ralph Lauren. Since it is a very famous fashion brand, Rachel is very excited and runs to the other friends. All the others congratulate her except Joey, who speaks out his dissatisfaction of the clothes of this brand. When hearing “XS”, people all know it is the abbreviation for “extra small” to mark the clothes of very small size. Audiences may expect Joey to say something about the problem of the size or the clothes. However, Joey’s following words are quiet different from audiences’ expectation. By reanalyzing his words, audiences find that Joey assume “XS” to “excess”, which two words have a similar pronunciation while the latter means “in addition to an amount that is necessary”. The word “excess” in his mind relate to the meaning of “more” and “large”, so Joey treats the two as a same one and only has the frame of “excess”, which is the reason why he is not satisfied with t he clothes of this brand. People won’t make such mistake normally, Joey’s character of a little bit silly vividlyappears in the screen.(4)Monica: we’re supposed to be spending a romantic weekend together. What’s the matter with you?Chandler: I just want to watch a little television. What is the big deal? Jeez,relax,mom! Monica: what did you say?Chandler: I said “Jeez, relax, Mon.”(s5e5)In this sitcom, the other friends often call Monica “Mon” for short, which has a similar pronunciation with “Mom”. I n Friends, Monica is a methodical person and a fanatic for cleanliness. In most cases, Monica takes care of the others, also keeps waffling like a Mom. But here chandler uses “ mom” instead of “Mon” on purpose, since he wants to express his anger. In this example, Monica is on a vacation with chandler, but her perfectionism drives chandler mad. She complains a lot about the hotel and changes several times but still cannot be satisfied. Chandler is tired about monica’s picky manners and wants to watch a foot ball game. So he uses “Mom”, which is similar to “Mon” to let out his discontent and indicate Monica is being like a Mom that likes to give orders and being fussy about everything. In fact, the script writers mean to use the phonetic pun so as to impress p eople’s mind to emphasis Monica’s some characteristics like mom.4.2.2 Humor Produced by Antalaclasis(1)Chandler: Rach,Rach,we gotta settle.Rachel: Settle what?Chandler: The Jamestown colony of Virginia. See, king james is giving us the land so…(s1e18)In this conversation, Chandler asks rachel to settle the money after playing poker. Rachel, however, does not know what chandler means by saying settle. So Chandler comes up with a joke by using different definition of “settle”, which can mean paying a debt in card play or establishing residence in some place.(2)[Chandler and Joey meet two beautiful girls whose radiator doesn’t work.] Chandler: Oh, no, no, no, wait, wait…Uh, we may not know anything about radiators persay, but we do have a certain amount of expertise in the heating and cooling…mileu. Joey: Uh, aren’t we kind of in the middle of something here?Chandler: Yes, but these women are very hot, and they need our help! And they’re very hot. (with a queer expression)(V olume 19, the First Season, “Friends”)These conversation occurs when six of them are looking for Marcel, Ross’s illegal monkey pet. Chandler and Joey knock at a door to enquire the information about Marcel and run into two girls. One of the girls asks them whether they know how to fix a radiator, and them the other girl shows up. They dress in a very sexy way and both of them are sweaty due to the unavailable AC, and these factors form an appealing picture to male. Chandler wants to help these women to mend the radiator because they are pretty. But Joey thinks they should focusing on helping Ross. Thus, Chandler repeat his utterance by saying “they are very hot” to suggest Joey that these are two beautiful women! The first “hot” Chandler refers to the literal meaning, which is a higher body temperature of these girls because of the broken radiator, and the second “hot”, in another way, means they are very sex ually attractive and desirable. Chandler speaks the seemingly unnecessary repetition with a queer facial expression to remind Joey that they should grab this chance and do something about these two girls.(3) [Rachel entering from the bathroom]Rachel: H ey Mon? I’m gonna check my message.Chandler: You just thought of that in there?Monica: Yeah, sure. Nature called, she wants to see what else did(called).(s6e18)Rachel is asking Monica to see if there is any telephone message for her when she comes out of toilet. “Call of nature” is a polite expression of go the bathrooms. The word “call” in this phrase is a noun, while the second “call”, pronouns by “did”, is a verb which means a telephone connection here. Monica used the euphemism to connect the two acts together and expressed the two meanings.4.2.3 Humor Produced by Sylletic(1) (Ross is playing poker with Rachel and he looks in his wallet, realizing that he has only two dollars to bet in.)Ross: (To Joey) Joey, I’m a little shy.Joey: That’s OK, R oss, You can ask me. What?(V olume 18, the First Season, “Friends”)Just according to the initial part of this exchange, people see what Ross is doing and hear what Ross says: Ross is playing poker with Rachel; Rachel has bet in seventeen dollars; Ross only has two dollars in his wallet. By saying he is a little shy, Ross means that he is lack of money. Based on previous situation, people naturally have the assumptions of their first response in mind toward this scene, which is that Ross lacks of money at that specific moment and hopes Joey could lend him some and Joey is expected to make some corresponding response. “Shy” is a polysemous word and it usually means “timid and nervous in the presence of others; reserved” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, 1989: 1402); Joey is slow in thinking and is simple-minded to some extent, so he does not get the implicature of Ross’ utterance and interprets it as Ross is too timid to ask him some certain questions.(2) [Scene: Monica and Rachel's, the girls are all there, discussing their bad luck with men.]……Rachel: How did we end up with these jerks? We're good people!Monica: I don't know. Maybe we're some kind of magnets.Phoebe: I know I am. That's why I can't wear a digital watch.(Season1 Episode14)Valentine’s Day is coming. But all the three girls are single, they all very upset. Now they are getting together to talk about the men they used to date with. Rachel wonders why the good girls like them will end up with these jerks. In this s ituation, “magnets” in Monica’s words should be interpreted as “a person (or a place or a thing) that somebody (or something) is attracted to.”When Phoebe agrees with her by saying the first sentence, people may think that Phoebe is full of confidence about her charm and expect her to say something about this. But her following utterances is quiet divergent from her former speech, driving our thoughts to other places. “a digital watch” Phoebe says is consistent with another meaning of “magnet”, which refers to “irons or other material which attracts iron towards it.” This response is fairy coincide with Pheobe’s personality that she always pick up the unusual interpretation of one thing in her world.(3)。
赏析《老友记》中幽默的修辞艺术
赏析《老友记》中幽默的修辞艺术作者：尤南来源：《北方文学·下旬》2015年第08期摘要：美剧《老友记》是一部幽默感极强的经典作品，在这部剧作的语料中，以比喻与夸张的修辞方法所产生的幽默效果十分突出，以至于稍加品味就会感受到我国的一家俗语所说的“理儿不歪，笑话不来”的含义。
本文试就这部剧作中所使用的比喻与夸张的幽默修辞方法做以赏析。
关键词：老友记;夸张;幽默;修辞艺术修辞手法是增强言辞或文句效果的艺术手法，而由比喻和夸张修辞手法所表现出的幽默特色可增强遣词造句、表情达意的颇耐寻味、蓦然省悟、忍俊不住、不同凡响的效果。
欧洲人和亚洲人相比，欧洲人更喜欢运用幽默的方式来表情达意，在欧美文学作品中以幽默修辞手法来增添语用特色的经典名篇可谓多多。
一、幽默言语与英语幽默幽默言语是人们日常交际中所使用的一种常见方式，这种言语方式能营造诙谐欢乐气氛、缓解压力、建立和谐关系、抨击丑恶现象。
幽默以语言为媒介，运用轻快诙谐的基调，表达自己的思想，启发人们思考，产生意味深长的艺术效果。
幽默是思想、学识、品质、智慧和机敏在语言中综合运用的成果。
按照构成方式，幽默大体上可分为情景幽默和非情景幽默。
情景幽默是语言本身并不含幽默因素，但当它被置于一定的语境中，便产生了独特的幽默魅力。
二、美剧《老友记》以比喻修辞手法达成的幽默效果比喻包括明喻、暗喻、借喻和提喻。
比喻的本质在于通过在不同事物里建立起等值、相似的关系来表情达意，让人产生恍然大悟的感觉或，或称之为以轻就中或以重就情地体会到沟通交流的对方索要对自己传递的语言信息。
生动形象的比喻往往会产生幽默风趣的效果，将可能会引起僵化或方案的情绪一笑了之，但留在心里的意味式绵长耐品的。
例句：Monica： Are you ok， sweetie？Ross： I just feel like someone reached down my throat， grabbled my small intestine， pulled it out of my mouth and tied it around my neck. （第一集）例句的对话发生在Ross的同性恋妻子搬走之后，Ross对自己失落痛苦情感的描述，他没有使用直接的言语说明，而是运用了一个比喻“我感觉好像有人把手伸到我的喉咙里，抓住我的小肠，从我嘴里拽出来，然后缠到我的脖子上”来表达。
对外国情景喜剧中言语幽默的修辞分析
对外国情景喜剧中言语幽默的修辞分析在外国情景喜剧中，言语幽默常常被运用到极致，成为了这些喜剧的一大特色。
言语幽默修辞是指通过词汇、语法、语境等方式来掌握语言的多义性，达到让人发笑或产生幽默效果的目的。
下面，将从词汇、语法和语境三个方面分别分析外国情景喜剧中言语幽默的修辞手法。
一、词汇1. 双关语双关语是指一句话有两个或多个不同的解释。
在情景喜剧中，通过双关语的使用，可以达到让人出其不意的轻松效果。
例如，在美剧《老友记》中，莫妮卡做饭时怕被别人打扰，于是问菲比：“你想不想象我妈妈一样站在厨房里，上下晃动？”此处的“上下晃动”除了可以指菲比的母亲在厨房里上下晃动，还可以指感觉不适，暗示“不要打扰我。
”2. 似曾相识似曾相识是指新词组的本质是从识别出现过的旧词语构成的，从而产生了一种“看起来不知道，听起来却很熟悉”的感觉。
通过这种方式，情景喜剧中的人物可以用独特的方式表达他们的意见或感受。
例如，在美剧《生活大爆炸》中，谢耳朵在卖废铝时说：“我必须把这垃圾送到回收中心。
这就是电视新闻所说的‘好心不得好报’。
”此处的“好心不得好报”是一个似曾相识的表达方式，用于表述废铝卖的不值钱，而不是有好结果。
二、语法1. 反向格反向格是指对词语反向的使用，以突出对比和产生笑话效果。
例如，在英剧《神探夏洛克》中，夏洛克说：“Mycroft说，你是个八杆打不着的人，我想这就是为什么你是我的朋友。
”此处的“八杆打不着”是指很难接近，引出八杆子打不到的疏远关系，与“老朋友”意义相反，产生反差的笑话效果。
三、语境1. 知识累积知识累积是指将先前的知识与当前的语境相融合从而使幽默效果更加突出。
例如，在美剧《疑犯追踪》中，霍金斯警探指出，在系统中使用名字作为密码的行为是“编写代码的最基本的权变规则”。
该幽默是基于公众认知中安全性最低的密码方式与编程语言中基本的权变规则之间形成的冲突，进而形成一种幽默效果。
2. 相互出其不意相互出其不意是指对话中针对莫名其妙或想不到的题目而互相发表意见和观点，使对话变得幽默和引人注目。
对外国情景喜剧中言语幽默的修辞分析
对外国情景喜剧中言语幽默的修辞分析在外国情景喜剧中，言语幽默是常见的一种修辞手法。
通过巧妙运用修辞手法，喜剧演员可以创造出滑稽搞笑的对话，给观众带来欢乐。
以下是对外国情景喜剧中言语幽默的修辞分析：1. 双关语：双关语是一种常见的言语幽默修辞。
演员通过一个词语或短语同时具有两种意义，使得观众在听到之后会产生滑稽的效果。
在《老友记》中，乔伊经常用“how you doing”（你好吗）打招呼，当他对异性使用时，常常让人误会他的意思，产生喜剧效果。
2. 夸张修辞：夸张修辞是一种通过夸大事物的方式来引起观众的笑的修辞手法。
演员可以通过夸大形容词、副词或动作来制造滑稽的效果。
在《生活大爆炸》中，谢尔顿经常使用夸张的言语和举止，将他的社交不足和社交尴尬发挥到极致，带给观众丰富的笑声。
3. 反讽：反讽是一种通过与事实相反的说法来引起嘲笑或幽默效果的修辞手法。
演员可以使用反讽来让观众发现荒谬之处或者让他们对既定事物产生新的思考。
在《辣妹合唱团》中，演员通过讽刺娱乐圈和明星的行为，表达对虚伪和浮夸的嘲笑，让观众笑出声。
4. 反复，反问与预期：外国情景喜剧经常使用重复、反问和突变预期来制造幽默效果。
演员会反复强调某个词语或句子，使观众感受到滑稽的重复效果。
他们还会使用反问来引发观众思考，突变预期来打破观众的预期，达到搞笑的效果。
在《等待戈多》中，演员经常通过突然的转折，打破观众对情节和台词的预期，以此带来喜剧效果。
5. 幽默隐喻：隐喻是一种通过比喻的方式来引起幽默效果的修辞手法。
演员经常使用隐喻来描述或夸张某个情境或角色，并使观众发现其中的幽默之处。
在《办公室》，迈克尔·斯科特经常用荒唐的比喻来描述办公室里的工作和关系，以此来制造幽默效果。
美国情景喜剧老友记中双关语的妙用
科技信息SCIENCE &TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION 2010年第21期1双关语的定义英语语言中有一种常见的修辞，叫双关语，英文是pun,又称paronomasia,利用谐音，或者一词多义，或者特定的情景，带出两层或两层以上的含义，或者联想。
Oxford English Dictionary （1989：832）对pun 的定义是：“the use ofa word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations,or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings,so as to produce a humorous effect.”Webster ’s Third New International Dictionary （1981：1842）的解释是：“the humorous of a word in such a way as to suggest different meanings or applications or of words having the same or nearly the same sound but different meanings:a play on words.”从这些定义，我们可以看出双关语是a play on words （文字游戏），不是利用发音相似或相同的词汇，甚至是具有两个或多个含义的同一个词汇，或者句子，表达出两个或以上的含义，达到委婉含蓄，诙谐幽默的效果，这样，让听的人觉得既生动有趣，又点到为止，心领神会，十分有趣。
简单来说，双关语，言在此而意在彼。
所以，双关语无论是在文学作品，影视作品，广告，日常的生活场景中都得到广泛的应用。
言语行为理论下《老友记》中的言语幽默分析
言语行为理论下《老友记》中的言语幽默分析语言行为理论是言语学中最重要的理论之一，它探讨了人们之间的语言交流过程中如何产生、促进、控制和维护社会关系的问题。
言语行为理论的主要观点是，言语行为是指在语言交流中，人们之间通过言语表达来进行交流，以影响彼此的思想和行为。
本文将从言语行为理论的角度分析《老友记》中的言语幽默，以探讨它们在构建友谊关系中的作用。
《老友记》是一部美国喜剧电视剧，讲述了六个朋友在纽约市的生活。
他们之间存在着深厚的友谊，他们之间的言语幽默也是他们关系的重要组成部分。
他们之间大量使用言语幽默，以交流彼此的情感和想法，改变彼此的行为。
言语行为理论认为，言语交流是一个相互影响的过程，言语表达的功能是交流的媒介，通过它可以影响对方的情绪和行为。
言语行为理论提出，言语幽默是一种言语表达方式，可以增进双方的关系，促进友谊的建立。
在《老友记》中，角色之间的言语幽默是他们之间友谊的重要组成部分。
他们之间的言语幽默不仅可以消除紧张的气氛，还可以增进他们之间的友谊。
例如，在一集中，罗斯对菲比说，“你看起来很棒，你甚至可以在滑雪场上打滑板。
”菲比回答：“我可以打滑雪，但是滑雪场的服务员会说你在打滑板。
”这一幽默的对话不仅可以消除一时的尴尬，而且可以更好地提高他们之间的友谊。
言语行为理论认为，言语幽默是一种有效的言语行为，可以调节、维护和推动社会关系的发展。
在《老友记》中，角色之间的言语幽默不仅可以消除紧张的气氛，还可以增进他们之间的友谊。
言语幽默可以建立友谊，促进双方之间的任，增强友谊，从而提高友谊的持久性。
综上所述，言语行为理论认为言语幽默是一种有效的言语行为，可以调节、维护和推动社会关系的发展。
《老友记》中的言语幽默是六个朋友之间友谊的重要组成部分。
他们之间大量使用言语幽默，以交流彼此的情感和想法，改变彼此的行为，增进友谊，促进双方之间的任，增强友谊，从而提高友谊的持久性。
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双关语视角下《老友记》幽默对话的赏析摘要：在英语修辞学中，双关被看成是一种反讽的幽默修辞手法，巧妙地运用词语的谐音，一词多义或者语义相反等，在同一句话中传达不同的语句含义，凭借其诙谐幽默，生动风趣或者讽刺嘲弄的语言达到修辞的艺术效果。
本文将对美国《老友记》（friends）中的具体对话为例子，对其中运用的双关语言进行分析，比便可以对双关语言的特点有更深刻的理解，把握其文化内涵的意义，从而提高学习和运用英语的能力。
关键词：双关语；《老友记》；幽默；解读
中图分类号：i106.35文献标识码：a文章编号：1006-026x（2012）10-0000-01
在美国的生活中，《老友记》应该是家喻户晓的，虽然每一段都是短短的20分钟，可是主人公之间对话那诙谐幽默的语言，运用双关（pun）的修辞手法，可以使得大家开怀大笑，不仅可以锻炼大家的英语听力，同时还可以使我们对英语语言的特点和诙谐性进一步深刻的理解。
双关语是英语中常见的修辞手法之一，此类修辞常常运用词语谐音，一词多义或者意义相反等特点，在一句话中通过词语的变换，凭借其诙谐幽默，生动风趣或者讽刺嘲弄的语言达到修辞的艺术效果，让人哭笑不得。
英语双关语发生的二个基本条件是有双重情景可以发生的语境和有同音异义词的存在，下面我们就对《老友记》
主人公之间常见的几种双关语对话进行赏析。
一、同音反义双关语
同音反义双关语又被称为谐音双关，主要是根据词语的发音相同或者接近但是意思不同，从而形成一种诙谐的幽默。
比如当罗斯和瑞秋因为吵架二分手的时候，罗斯不愿意就这样分手就努力地挽回，然而瑞秋直接说到：“accept that”（接受现实把）进行回绝，但是罗斯听成了：“except what？”（除非还有什么？）在对话中“accept”与”except”的发音十分接近，透漏出罗斯根本不愿意分手，捉住每一个可以挽留的机会的心情。
另外在钱德发现乔伊脚踏两支船在和二个女孩同时在交往，其中一个女孩子还是自己暗恋的对象，于是积极地怂恿乔伊选择另一个女孩子进行交往，放弃自己暗恋的对象，乔伊对于钱德的建议感到莫名其妙，钱德只好对乔伊说到：“i just think that it is time for you making a choice . pick a lane.”（我想你应该是做出一个决定的时候了，爱你所爱吧！）谁料想乔伊竟然把 a lane 误听做成为一个女孩子的名字，于是反问道：“who is elane？”（谁是艾蓝？）同时也反映出乔伊的文化水平不高，道德观念薄弱的人物形象。
二、一词异义双关语
一词异义双关语又被称为词义双关语，就是根据词语的多义或者同样的句子在不同的语境中表达不同的意思，从而产生一种诙谐幽默的效果。
比如几个朋友在打牌的时候，罗斯说到：“i think you had better get out of the shower， cause i got a flush.”（我有同花顺，你们赶紧逃出浴室吧。
）flush是打牌中同花顺的术语，同时还可以表示冲马桶的意思。
罗斯拿到了同花顺，感觉自己一定会赢，因此就恐吓其他人赶紧逃出浴室，就用了flush表达冲马桶意思的双关语，给大家一种幽默的感觉。
又如情人节的时候，恋爱过后的三个女孩聚集在以其进行清理仪式，因为他们三个感觉自己以前交往的几个男朋友都是jerks （eggs蛋），于是他们决定烧掉所有前男友的东西。
瑞秋说到：“how did we deal with these jerks？ we are all kind people！”（我们当初怎么会和这些混蛋交往？我们可都是好孩子啊！）莫妮卡接道：“i don’t know the reason. maybe we are some kind magnet.”（我也不清楚，也许我们有某种特殊的魅力吧！）magnet在此处莫妮卡想表达的意思是对他人有吸引力的人或事，可是，菲比却把magnet理解成为另外一个意思：表示磁铁或者磁石，不假思索地回答道：“i accept i am. that’s the reason that i can’t wear a digital watch.”（我成人我就是，这就是我为什么不戴电子表的原因。
）按照常理一般人都不会理解错误的，但是剧终的菲比就是一个唠唠叨叨的形象，经常一语惊人或者牛头对马嘴，此处的双关语的运用就成功塑造了菲比的人物形象特征。
三、意思歧义双关语
句子和词语都有表层含义和说话者的真正用意，因此同样的语句可以表达出不同的含义。
比如当瑞秋打算将前未婚夫送给自己的戒指退还的时候发现戒指不见了，便问：“has anyone seen my engagement ring？”（有谁看见我的订婚戒指了？）表达的意思是想知道戒指放在哪里了，但是菲比理解成了瑞秋问大家感觉她的戒指看着怎么样，也是答道：“yes， it is beautiful.”（看过了，十分漂亮！）还有菲比找了一位科学家的男朋友—大卫，原本大卫打算和同事马克斯一起外出做科研工作，但是为了讨菲比的欢心，决定不再外出留在菲比的身边。
对此马克斯很看不过去，就称呼菲比为yoko（小野洋子）。
我们都知道小野洋子是beatles乐队主唱john lennon的第二任妻子，john lennon为了小野洋子整整五年时间没有在公开露面过，大家都认为她是导致beatles乐队解散的罪魁祸首。
在这里马克斯把菲比戏称为yoko，实际上是在讽刺菲比这样做会断送了大卫的美好前程，同时也是他们友谊破坏的罪魁祸首。
四、寓意延伸双关语
通过对某些词语的发音特征和结合词语等技巧，可以使听者展开丰富的联想，临场发挥，稍微的篡改，适当的引申含义，从而可以起到一种诙谐幽默的效果比如，乔伊打算给自己起一个艺名，于是咨询钱德，并告知钱德他的经纪人提醒他应该起一个比较中立的艺名。
钱德建议用joey switzerland作为艺名，因为瑞士一直是
欧洲的一个中立国，因此当乔伊说自己要取一个比较中立的艺名的时候，钱德就那瑞士来做乔伊的艺名开玩笑。
再则，大家都对莫妮卡的男朋友亚伦（alan）有着很好的印象，钱德就开玩笑说：“personally i could have a gallon of alan.”（我个人还是能喝下一加仑的亚伦。
）在这个句子里，gallon是一种计量单位，和alan的发音相近，表达了一种幽默的话语效果。
五、结语
英语语言的幽默千奇百怪，丰富多彩，期幽默的表现手法也是途径众多，本文就借《老友记》中的主人公之间的对话为素材进行分析和探讨，对语言的幽默进行赏析。
通过对情景生活喜剧的观看可以使语言学习者对英语进行深层次的文化挖掘和理解，从而提高学习者在史记生活中对英语语言幽默的运用。
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[3]彭昊文.幽默手段在美国情景喜剧中的运用——以《老友记》为例[j].长江大学学报（社会科学版），2010，（02）.
[4]桑玉萍.双关的语义生成及其在英语幽默中的应用[j].湖北广播电视大学学报，2009，（12）.
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