深圳大学继续教育学院 毕 业 论 文题 目：An Analysis of Cooperative Principles and Humorous Effects in Friends 班 级：姓 名：学 号：指导教师：日 期： iiAbstract: The purpose of this thesis is to exploit the mechanisms of the generation and perception of humor from the pragmatics perspective. This thesis discusses some humorous conversations in the American sitcom Friends and the philosopher’s theory, then finds out the relationship between humor and the Cooperative Principle. In detail, when the participants make a humorous conversation, they may flout the maxim of Quality, of Quantity, of Relevance or of Manner. Humorous conversation is sometimes in this case delivering a conversational implicature. Thus, this paper, furthermore, is likely to explore the implied or deeper meaning hiding in humor. To some extents, this paper assists English learners to better understand the ways in which humor occurs and the meaning conveyed by humor, in particular, to improve their ability of understanding and using American verbal humor because the humor in Friends is humor of unique American style. Key Words: Cooperation; Humorous; FriendsTable of ContentsPart One An introduction of Friends and Humor11.1 Research Background11.2 A Brief Introduction to Friends11.3 A Brief Introduction to Humor3Part Two An Analysis of Friends Depends on The Maxim of Quantity42.1 Make Your Contribution as Informative as Required42.2 Do Not Make Your Contribution More Informative as Required5Part Three An Analysis of Friends Depends on The Maxim of Quality53.1 Do Not Say What You Believe to be False53.2 Do Not Say That for Which You Lack Adequate Evidence6Part Four An Analysis of Friends Depends on The Maxim of Relation7Part Five An Analysis of Friends Depends on The Maxim of Manner85.1 Avoid Ambiguity85.2 Avoid Obscurity of Expression8Part Six Conclusion9Bibliography11Part One Introduction1.1 Research Backgroundcooperation and humor is a very intriguing and fascinating phenomenon of human society, which is multidimensional, complex and all pervasive. Therefore, many scholars and experts at all times and in all over the world have done profound research on it. The significant functions of humor have aroused the interest of many scholars. About 2,000 years ago, people began the research on humor. However, the study of humor is not a simple task for the reason that it is an interdisciplinary science drawing upon a wide range of academic disciplines including biology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, geography, history, linguistics, literature, education, family science, and film studies and so on. Moreover, there are different reasons and purposes for humor. One may wish to be sociable, cope better, seem clever, solve problems, make a critical point, enhance therapy, or express something one could not otherwise express by means of humor.Within the 20th century, linguistics has developed greatly in almost every area of the discipline from sounds, words and sentences to meaning and texts. Meanwhile, linguistic studies on humor have also extended considerably to social, cultural, and pragmatic concerns. One of the most noticeable achievements in linguistics over the past few decades is the development of pragmatics. It is not long before scholars apply pragmatics into humor analysis. The purpose of this thesis is to exploit the mechanisms of the generation and perception of humor from the pragmatics perspective. The significance of the study, First of all, for people who are interested in humor and pragmatics or studying this topic, this thesis may be able to help them as a means of reference to study about English humor as well as its relation with the function of speech. Moreover, it is very interesting to study comedy film-sitcom, since it can give different points of view in studying language. What the author means is that mostly people observe the phenomena of language in serious or ordinary situation but in comedic situation, there is a different set of situation where people sometimes may act uncooperatively or impolitely to achieve the humorous scene. 1.2 A Brief Introduction to FriendsFriend is a world famous American sitcom telling of the stories of six good friends and their respective private lives. The story takes place in Manhattan, New York. It presents most aspects of American society, for example, morality, social values, family values, sex values, religion,1government, institution, education, occupation, etc. and introduces people of all walks to the audiences, from cooks to professors, from blue collars to white collars. And the most important feature for the sitcom is its humorous dialogues among the characters. The sitcom Friends has six protagonists who recur in the sitcom all the way. What follows is a general introduction to them with the purpose to do better analysis on the humor in the sitcom.Rachel。