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【Abstract】： Humor is a kind of language art. This paper will analyse humorous utterances of Friends on the basis of cooperative principle to study the effect of humorous acts， aiming at improving the ability of appreciating English humor and reasoning abilities， and understanding the rules of English language.
1.Introduction
Humor originates from humoural medician ， which was said to control one’s mood and health. Humor is a kind of language art， a kind of representation of people’s attitudes expressed in a simple， funny language form according to their understandings to lives. Humor can represent a kind of wisdom of life， and it is the lubricant of interpersonal relationships. Taking the sitcom Friends as examples， the paper will study the humor effects in utterances with the means of discourse analysis， aiming at improving the ability of appreciating English humor and reasoning abilities.
2.A Brief Introduction to Friends
Friends is a popular sitcom in the United States . Friends describes the interesting and fantastic lives of six young people who live in the same flat in New York. They stick together under any circumstances， share each other’ s pains and happiness and grow up together.
Rachel Green， who is beautiful， gossipy， is a girl spoiled by her rich father. Monica Geller was Rachel Green’s best friend when they were in high school. She tries hard to achieve success so she changes jobs frequently， and she finally becomes the head chef at a well-respected restaurant. Phoebe Buffay， Monica’s former roommate， is a quirk but lovely girl. Phoebe usually satirizes the snide events in a boldly and abnormal way. Chandler Bing， Ross’ college roommate， is very kind and enthusiastic who marries Monica Geller. Joey Tribbiani， Chandler’s roommate， is an actor struggling for years in New York. Ross Geller is the elder brother of Monica and a paleontologist with an intellectual mind.
3. Humorous Utterances and Cooperative Principle
In 1975， America linguistic philosopher H.P. Grice published an excellent article named the cooperative principle. Grice holds that the speakers and hearers should obey the cooperative principle to cooperate with each other in real communications. The cooperative principle can be divided into four maxims as follows： the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. Humorous effects are created when the speaker violates them intentionally. In Friends， we can easily find some cases violating cooperative principle. 3.1 Humorous Uterances and Maxim of Quantity
The quantity maxim means that people should offer adequate information as needed， nothing more and nothing less. Giving more information than required and providing less information than required are not required. In the real communication， people usually say something lacking in information for some special purposes， so the hearer needs to infer the implied meaning of the speaker. Sometimes， the hearer’s guess is not the same as what the speaker really wants to express. Then the hearer may misunderstand the meaning of the speaker. When they finally understand the speaker’s true intention， there is a sharp contrast with the previous comprehension， thus resulting in the humorous effect.In Friends， for example， When Rachel bought a set of archaistic furniture from the Pottery Bam……
Monica： Rach， Phoebe hates Pottery Bam.
Joey： I hate Pottery Bam too. They nicked me out of there just because I sat on a bed.
Chandler： You took off your pants and climbed under the sheets！ （Laughter）
Joey： I was tired！
From the dialogue we can see Joey says he hates the pottery bam because they kick him out of there just because he sits on a bed. At first， the other friends will be dissatisfied with the store and agree with Joey. But from Chandler’s words， we know that Joey sits on the bed. Joey omits the necessary information， which is just the reason why he is thrown out of the shop. When the insufficient information is completed， we could not help laughing and the humorous effect is achieved.
3.2 Humorous Utterances and Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Quality claims that people should not say what they believe to be false， or people should make sure the utterances is true. But in order to enliven the atmosphere or reach some utterancesal effect， the speaker may sometimes violate this maxim and tell lies. So the rhetorical devices like exaggeration， irony， metaphor and so on comes out， the rhetorical devices are the manifestation of humor. For example in Friends， when Monica apologized to Rachel for having done something bad to her but Rachel seemed not to forgive her…
Monica： I feel terrible， t really do.
Rachel： Oh， I’m sorry， did my back hurt your knife？ （Laughter）
As we know， human’s back could not possibly hurt a steel knife， so Rachel says something that she believes to be false. Through this unusual statement， Monica will understand that Rachel will not forgive her.
1.Introduction
Humor originates from humoural medician ， which was said to control one’s mood and health. Humor is a kind of language art， a kind of representation of people’s attitudes expressed in a simple， funny language form according to their understandings to lives. Humor can represent a kind of wisdom of life， and it is the lubricant of interpersonal relationships. Taking the sitcom Friends as examples， the paper will study the humor effects in utterances with the means of discourse analysis， aiming at improving the ability of appreciating English humor and reasoning abilities.
2.A Brief Introduction to Friends
Friends is a popular sitcom in the United States . Friends describes the interesting and fantastic lives of six young people who live in the same flat in New York. They stick together under any circumstances， share each other’ s pains and happiness and grow up together.
Rachel Green， who is beautiful， gossipy， is a girl spoiled by her rich father. Monica Geller was Rachel Green’s best friend when they were in high school. She tries hard to achieve success so she changes jobs frequently， and she finally becomes the head chef at a well-respected restaurant. Phoebe Buffay， Monica’s former roommate， is a quirk but lovely girl. Phoebe usually satirizes the snide events in a boldly and abnormal way. Chandler Bing， Ross’ college roommate， is very kind and enthusiastic who marries Monica Geller. Joey Tribbiani， Chandler’s roommate， is an actor struggling for years in New York. Ross Geller is the elder brother of Monica and a paleontologist with an intellectual mind.
3. Humorous Utterances and Cooperative Principle
In 1975， America linguistic philosopher H.P. Grice published an excellent article named the cooperative principle. Grice holds that the speakers and hearers should obey the cooperative principle to cooperate with each other in real communications. The cooperative principle can be divided into four maxims as follows： the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. Humorous effects are created when the speaker violates them intentionally. In Friends， we can easily find some cases violating cooperative principle. 3.1 Humorous Uterances and Maxim of Quantity
The quantity maxim means that people should offer adequate information as needed， nothing more and nothing less. Giving more information than required and providing less information than required are not required. In the real communication， people usually say something lacking in information for some special purposes， so the hearer needs to infer the implied meaning of the speaker. Sometimes， the hearer’s guess is not the same as what the speaker really wants to express. Then the hearer may misunderstand the meaning of the speaker. When they finally understand the speaker’s true intention， there is a sharp contrast with the previous comprehension， thus resulting in the humorous effect.In Friends， for example， When Rachel bought a set of archaistic furniture from the Pottery Bam……
Monica： Rach， Phoebe hates Pottery Bam.
Joey： I hate Pottery Bam too. They nicked me out of there just because I sat on a bed.
Chandler： You took off your pants and climbed under the sheets！ （Laughter）
Joey： I was tired！
From the dialogue we can see Joey says he hates the pottery bam because they kick him out of there just because he sits on a bed. At first， the other friends will be dissatisfied with the store and agree with Joey. But from Chandler’s words， we know that Joey sits on the bed. Joey omits the necessary information， which is just the reason why he is thrown out of the shop. When the insufficient information is completed， we could not help laughing and the humorous effect is achieved.
3.2 Humorous Utterances and Maxim of Quality
Maxim of Quality claims that people should not say what they believe to be false， or people should make sure the utterances is true. But in order to enliven the atmosphere or reach some utterancesal effect， the speaker may sometimes violate this maxim and tell lies. So the rhetorical devices like exaggeration， irony， metaphor and so on comes out， the rhetorical devices are the manifestation of humor. For example in Friends， when Monica apologized to Rachel for having done something bad to her but Rachel seemed not to forgive her…
Monica： I feel terrible， t really do.
Rachel： Oh， I’m sorry， did my back hurt your knife？ （Laughter）
As we know， human’s back could not possibly hurt a steel knife， so Rachel says something that she believes to be false. Through this unusual statement， Monica will understand that Rachel will not forgive her.