Abstract:Cooperative Principle, which was proposed by Grice, a famous philosopher,  in 1967 to explain the regulation of human verbal communication, has been widely recognized. According to Grice, no matter what kind of cultural background the participants have, they are expected to observe Cooperative Principle so as to understand and communicate with each other very successfully. However, in our daily life, people often violate such a principle and it is precisely because of these violations that the hearer can infer the implied meanings according to the specific context. The latest American sitcom The Big Bang Theory is selected as the object of the study, which tells a story of four physics geniuses and a restaurant waitress. It is considered as the most popular sitcom since it was broadcast on Columbia Broadcasting System in America. It takes credit for its ubiquitous humor, which was mainly produced by the violations of Cooperative Principle. Through the analysis on the classic dialogues of violating Cooperative Principle, the study will further analyze the characters in the sitcom, make clear the conversational implicature and find out how verbal humor is generated by the violation of Cooperative Principle and its four maxims. The final aim is to point out that in real communication, speakers can violate Cooperative Principle to express some particular conversational meanings successfully without interrupting the normal communication.

Key words: Cooperative Principle; violation; sitcom

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Literature Review-2

2.1 The Definition of Cooperative Principle-2

2.1.1 The Maxim of Quality-2

2.1.2 The Maxim of Quantity-2

2.1.3 The Maxim of Relevance-2

2.1.4 The Maxim of Manner-3

2.2 The Development of Cooperative Principle-3

2.2.1 Its Overseas Development-3

2.2.2 Its Domestic Development-3

2.3 The Analysis of Violating Cooperative Principle-4

2.3.1 The Violation of Maxim of Quality-4

2.3.2 The Violation of Maxim of Quantity-5

2.3.3 The Violation of Maxim of Relevance-5

2.3.4 The Violation of Maxim of Manner-5

Chapter 3 The Analysis of Violation of Cooperative Principle in The Big Bang Theory-7

3.1 A Brief Summary of The Big Bang Theory-7

3.2 Examples of Violating Cooperative Principle in The Big Bang Theory-7

3.2.1 Examples of Violating the Maxim of Quality-7

3.2.2 Examples of Violating the Maxim of Quantity-8

3.2.3 Examples of Violating the Maxim of Relevance-10

3.2.4 Examples of Violating the Maxim of Manner-11

Chapter 4 Conclusion-13

References-15

Acknowledgements-16