An Analysis of Humor in The Big Bang Theory from Pragmatic Perspectives

The cooperative principle proposes four maxims in communication. When any of the four maxims is violated or flouted, misunderstanding or implicature, and thus humor might be generated. Humor can also be studied pragmatically within the framework of the relevance theory, which proposes that communication is a process of ostension and inference and differentiates the maximal relevance and optimal relevance. According to RT, humor comes from the contrast between ostension and inference, maximal relevance and optimal relevance. This study attempts to employ theories in these two frameworks to analyze the verbal humor in the Big Bang Theory, so that Chinese audience can have a better understanding of this sitcom.