-1- VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** PHAN THỊ QUYÊN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE JOKES: FROM A PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE (Phân tích truyện cười Anh- Việt trên bình diện ngữ dụng học) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Course: 17 HA NOI- 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -2- VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** PHAN THỊ QUYÊN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE JOKES: FROM A PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE (Phân tích truyện cười Anh- Việt trên bình diện ngữ dụng học) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Course: 17 Supervisor: CHU PHƯƠNG VÂN M. HA NOI- 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -6- ABBREVIATIONS CP : The Cooperative Principle QUAL.
: Qualitative data analysis REL. : Manner EFL : English as a Foreign Language E. joke : English joke V. joke : Vietnamese joke TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com -7- LIST OF CHARTS Table Page Chart 1: Illocutionary acts of participants in English and Vietnamese jokes 24 Chart 2: Non- observance of maxims of participants in English and Vietnamese 25 jokes TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.15 -8- TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.vi LIST OF CHARTS.vii PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methodology of the study.
Format of the study. - 14 - CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Theory of jokes. Definition of jokes.
Theories of pragmatics related to jokes. Definitions of pragmatics. Speech act theory. Conversational implicature and context.
The cooperative principle. The maxim of quantity. The maxim of quality. The maxim of relevance.
The maxim of manner. Principles of conducting maxims. - 23 - CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Difficulties of joke analysis.
- 24 - TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Speech act analysis of the set- up in English and Vietnamese jokes. Maxim analysis of the punch line in English and Vietnamese jokes. Maxim of quantity.
Maxim of quality. Maxim of relevance. Maxim of manner. The analysis results.
The speech act analysis result of the set- up. The maxim analysis result of the punch line. Pragmatic analysis of English and Vietnamese jokes. - 37 - CHAPTER 3: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY.
Introducing pragmatic knowledge. Utterance teaching via English jokes. Utterance meaning teaching via English jokes. Culture and pragmatic teaching via English jokes.
Conversational maxim teaching via English jokes. Speech act teaching via English jokes. Suggestions for classroom activities. Speech act exercise.
Conversational maxim exercise. Sample speech act quiz. Some constructive suggestions for pragmatic teaching of jokes. Limitation of the study.
Suggestions for further study .I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale of the study One of the best ways to understand people is to know what makes them laugh. Golden) It is worth saying that we can laugh when reading or hearing jokes if we can understand what make us laugh. Hence, we should know the communication between the participants in jokes, the context jokes take place, and the language used.
Pragmatics, therefore, will let us know what make us laugh and then we may say jokes are interesting for our life. And we now also understand that we should pay more attention to the study of jokes pragmatically as semantic analysis, sociological analysis, etc. on jokes have been studied quite extensively over the years. Pragmatic analysis is, thus, a relatively new approach of language.
And quite different from other linguistic studies, pragmatics puts more attention on language users and the context in which the language is used. And in fact, in analyzing jokes pragmatically, we might find a harmony between language for humor, language users and contexts. It is so much hoped that the study may bring a good understanding of pragmatics and concepts of pragmatics via English and Vietnamese jokes. When analyzing jokes, the author is trying to reveal how the matters are interpreted in the jokes.
Another reason is that, as a teacher of English, the author wants to help Ha Tinh university learners of English not only read a regular text but understand its functions in context. The study is also hoped to offer a suggestion about the pragmatic reading of any jokes, which, in turn, help shaping a scientific view towards pragmatics. Lastly, the author wants to share a significant reference of jokes for others who are willing to make another further pragmatic research. Aims of the study The aims of this study are: To provide whether the theory of speech acts and theory of conversational maxims has explanatory power on humor in English and Vietnamese jokes.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.15 - 11 - To figure out a brief account of possible similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese jokes in terms of the speech acts and conversational maxims. To provide some proposals for further study and pedagogical implications for raising Ha Tinh university students’ pragmatic awareness. Scope of the study Many fields of pragmatics related to jokes need to be explored and a variety of jokes can be selected. However, due to the limited time, the study is confined to the following aspects: Only five English jokes and five Vietnamese jokes are selected to test the theoretical preliminaries, and the jokes chosen must have the set- up and the punch line (two way- communication).
Speech acts of Austin including locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary act are explored to interpret the set- up of English and Vietnamese jokes. Types of Searle’s illocutionary act including directives, commissives, expressives, representatives and declaratives are used to identify speech acts. Non- observance of conversational maxims looked at only due to flouting and violating. The inferences made in context to interpret the way of conducting conversational maxims of joke participants.
This is a linguistic study for academic purpose only. Methodology of the study The methodology employed is a qualitative research. This is a study of grounded theory. It has been acknowledged that with this method, the researcher as an instrument for gathering data during the study.
The data is analyzed inductively, selected in the form of words, and done before finding out the research questions. The process for the qualitative data analysis (QDA), Corbin and Strauss (1990: 62) will be: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.15 - 12 - Noticing: This step means gathering English and Vietnamese jokes and the theoretical preliminaries related to the topic. This is done by producing a record of interesting things and coding them. Then, a descriptive scheme is developed for the study.
Collecting: The second step means sorting the date into discrete parts under the analysis. The statistics are done to adopt percentages and scales based on the analysis results for each part to determine significance of data. Thinking: In this step, English and Vietnamese jokes are firstly examined closely with the theoretical background. Secondly, the constant comparisons are intended to identify similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese jokes.
Moreover, questions are always asked about the phenomena as reflected in the data to generalize findings for the study and provide pedagogical implications. The joke collection: Five sample English jokes are selected from an English linguistic book and two reliable websites: http://rd. Reader’s Digest, http://www. Five sample Vietnamese jokes are selected Vietnamese funny story books and two reliable websites: http://www.com, http://cuoi.net/truyen-cuoi/pstory.
The research questions: How are English and Vietnamese jokes analyzed pragmatically? What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese jokes as seen from a pragmatic perspective? What tips are utilized to improve the awareness of pragmatics of learners via the study? The hypotheses of the study are formulated All the types of speech acts proposed by Austin (1955) and Searle (1969) are found in English and Vietnamese jokes. Conversational maxims are broken to arouse humor. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.15 - 13 - Different breakings of maxims result in different ways of producing humor in English and Vietnamese jokes. Format of the study The study begins with declaration, acknowledgement, table of contents, and abbreviation.
The main body of the study consists of three parts. They are introduction, development and conclusion. Part one provides a brief account of relevant information about the rationale, aims, scope, methodology and format of the study. Part two includes three chapters Chapter 1: This chapter is about theoretical notions necessary for the study including the theory of pragmatics, concepts of pragmatics, and theory of jokes.
Chapter 2: This chapter offers an analysis of English and Vietnamese jokes one by one. Firstly, the speech acts and conversational maxims are applied to interpret the set- up and the punch lines of the jokes. Secondly, the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese jokes will be worked out in terms of speech acts and conversational maxims. Chapter 3: This chapter is about some implication of the study for EFL teaching and learning.
Part three includes concluding remarks, limitation of the study, and recommendations for further research. Apart from the three main parts, the references and the appendix of the study are included. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.15 - 14 - PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAl BACKGROUND This chapter will discuss several joke and pragmatic issues which serve as theoretical foundation for the study. First a brief review on theory of jokes such as definitions of jokes and incongruity theory.
Then theories of pragmatics related to jokes, mainly definitions of pragmatics, speech act theory, conversational implicature and context, cooperative principle, conversational maxims and principles of conducting maxims are presented. Theory of jokes 1. Definition of jokes According to Collins Cobuild English Dictionary (1987: 256), jokes are “something that is said or done to make people laugh, i.” Suls (1972) cited in Antony (1976: 37) proposed a model for the appreciation of jokes. This involves a two stage- process which relies on the generation and disconfirmation of a listener’s expectations.
Raskin (1985) cited in Gruyter (2001: 195) proposed a similar theory of humor, a joke begins by being compatible with one script, and then a script- switch trigger occurs which is inconsistent with the original script. The trigger is usually the punch line. The listener then searches for an alternative, more compatible script. The humor lies in the overlap between the two scripts.
Raskin (1994:100) uses the following joke to illustrate his point: "Is the doctor at home?" The patient asked in his bronchial whisper. "No," the doctor's young and pretty wife whispered in reply. "Come right in." According to Raskin, the joke body activates the doctor- patient script, but the punch line forces the cognitive agent to backtrack and reinterpret the joke in a lover script. Hockett (1972: 84) states that a joke consists of a build-up and a punch.
Similarly, Sherzer (1985: 216) defines a joke as “a discourse unit consisting of two parts, the set- up and the punch line”. The set-up (the initial portion) is normally built of a joke, while the punch line (the second part) is the final portion of the joke, which leads to incongruity with the set-up to provoke laughter and demands creating thinking to surprise the readers. The punch line is the funny part of the joke. It can change the situation of the joke in order to make people TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
It is the climax of the joke in which the amusing part takes place. Therefore, any type of the jokes should have the punch line so readers may laugh. In order to make the incongruous clearer, the following attentions will be given to the incongruity theory.