Sự hài hước trong tập truyện cười Stories for Reproduction của L.A Hill và khả năng sử dụng tập truyện vào giảng dạy Tiếng Anh cho học sinh trường Trung cấp Thu

Finally, the study suggests some interesting activities designed for English language teaching and learning with the aim to use jokes as a useful material to motivate students.. Roles of

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

ĐẶNG NGỌC LY

HUMOR IN L.A HILL’S STORIES FOR REPRODUCTION AND THEIR POSSIBLE USES FOR TEACHING ENGLISH TO STUDENTS

AT THANH HÓA FISHERIES VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

Sự hài hước trong tập truyện cười Stories for Reproduction của L.A Hill

và khả năng sử dụng tập truyện vào giảng dạy Tiếng Anh cho học sinh

trường Trung cấp Thuỷ sản Thanh Hoá

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

ĐẶNG NGỌC LY

HUMOR IN L.A HILL’S STORIES FOR REPRODUCTION AND THEIR POSSIBLE USES FOR TEACHING ENGLISH TO STUDENTS

AT THANH HÓA FISHERIES VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

Sự hài hước trong tập truyện cười Stories for Reproduction của L.A Hill

và khả năng sử dụng tập truyện vào giảng dạy Tiếng Anh cho học sinh

trường Trung cấp Thuỷ sản Thanh Hoá

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr LÂM QUANG ĐÔNG

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this is my own research work conducted on the sources

listed in the References part of the study

Thanh Hóa, August 2014

Signature

Đặng Ngọc Ly

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would particularly like to express my thanks to my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông for his support, guidance and valuable critical feedback For the completion of this thesis, the author has benefited a lot from his courses, teachings, discussions and insights

I would like to send my special thanks to the staff of the Faculty of graduate Studies of VNU University of Languages and International Studies for their concern and useful lectures

Post-Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my family for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to uncover ways of humor creation in the collection

Elementary Stories for Reproduction by L.A Hill from both of linguistic and cultural perspectives It provides learners of English with better understanding of English jokes and funny stories To complete this research, the theoretical background of the factors creating humor is worked out for the interpretations The findings from the analysis have revealed the typical features that cause laughter in the collection Finally, the study suggests some interesting activities designed for English language teaching and learning with the aim to use jokes as a useful material to motivate students Therefore, learners of English can understand and make full use of funny stories to make English learning less challenging

socio-ABBREVIATIONS

SLL second language learning

L2 second language SLA second language acquisition NNSs Non-native speakers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS ivi

LIST OF TABLE iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Purposes of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Methodology 2

6.1 Research method 2

6.2 Subject of study 3

6.3 Procedure 3

7 Structure of the thesis 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theoretical background 4

1.1.1 Humor 4

1.1.2 Pun 5

1.1.3 Ambiguity 5

1.1.4 Lexical ambiguity 6

1.1.5 Grammatical/structural ambiguity 8

1.1.6 Pragmatic ambiguity 9

1.1.7 Stupidity/ foolishness 12

1.2 Roles of humor in teaching English as a foreign language 12

1.3 Previous studies on similar theme 13

1.4 Summary 14

CHAPTER II: MAJOR FACTORS WHICH CREATE HUMOR IN STORIES FOR REPRODUCTION 15

2.1 Violation of socio-cultural norms 16

2.2 Violation of conversational maxims 18

2.3 Foolishness 19

2.4 Pun 20

2.5 Presuppositions 21

2.6 Homonymy 22

2.7 Polysemy 24

2.8 Chapter summary 24

CHAPTER III: POSSIBLE USES OF L.A HILL‟S STORIES FOR REPRODUCTION 25

3.1 Teaching vocabulary 25

3.2 Raising cultural-awareness 27

3.3 Teaching speaking skill 29

3.4 Teaching writing skill 32

3.5 Other communicative activities 34

3.6 Chapter summary 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

1 Recapitulation 37

2 Pedagogic implications for teacher 38

3 Limitation and Suggestion for further research 38

REFERENCES 39

to support the idea that humor creates conditions conducive to learning” (Ferguson

& Campinha-Bacote, 1989; Hill, 1988; Schwarz, 1989; Warnock,1989; Walter, 1990) Many researchers and teachers believe humor can be a valued tool in the classroom For instance, Jill P Viers, in her writing Using Humor as a Teaching Tool (2008) pointed out that “humor can reduce stress and anxiety, create a

comfortable learning environment, and increase motivation, comprehension, and

retention of information” while motivation is widely recognized as one of the most

important factors affecting second language acquisition From my own experience, I can confirm that humor can increase attention, motivation, excitement, and interactions among students and between teacher and students therefore it can bring class together

In order to bring humor to the language classroom for the above recognized benefits, I have tried to find different materials that can be used for my students

Among those, the collection of jokes Stories for Reproduction of L.A Hill is a

highly valuable document that can be a really efficient tool during my teaching process The collection consists of 30 elementary short jokes with exercises which are very suitable to my students‟ level and can be exploited in different ways as complimentary to the core coursebooks to help them develop their English

For the above reasons, I decide to conduct this study so as to identify the

features that create humor in Stories for Reproduction by L.A Hill (Elementary

level, series 1) and how I can use them most effectively in my teaching English to the students at Thanh Hóa Fisheries Vocational School

2 Purposes of the study

As previously indicated, the study is set out to achieve the following objectives:

- To find out typical features that constitute humor in the collection Stories for

Reproduction by L.A Hill;

- To identify possible activities based on these short jokes so as to motivate students in their English acquisition

4 Scope of the study

This study only attempts to analyze the factors creating humor in the

collection Stories for Reproduction at elementary level, series 1 and it‟s possible

uses in the process of teaching English as a foreign language to the students of Thanh Hóa Fisheries Vocational School

5 Significance of the study

This study is conducted in the belief that my own and my students‟ knowledge of the English language and culture, particularly humor through the medium of English, can be enhanced, which definitely benefits both teachers and students alike Furthermore, activities that can be designed using the collection can serve as a useful source of reference and a valuable tool for English teaching and learning not only at my own institution but many others as well Using these activities in class will make English learning fun, enjoyable, full of laughter and ultimately easier and more effective

6 Methodology

6.1 Research method

The study will be conducted as follows:

i) Enumerating the features that create humor in the collection Within the constraints of this study, and given the English course for particular students at

my institution, I will focus just on the collection the Elementary, series 1

ii) Classifying the jokes into categories in terms of humor features; then describe and analyze them This will provide answer to the first research question

iii) Finally, possible activities will be suggested for the use of the collection in teaching English to the students In this way, answers to the 2nd research question will be presented

The major method employed in this study therefore is a qualitative one

- Secondly, 30 jokes will be analyzed to work out humor features; each joke will be analyzed in terms of those features

- Thirdly, based on the results of the analysis, suggested activities for improving students‟ English through these jokes can be proposed

7 Structure of the thesis

The thesis is composed of three main parts and references

Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the purposes, research

questions, significance, scope, methodology as well as the structure of the thesis

Part B is DEVELOPMENT which consists of three chapters

Chapter One: Literature Review

Chapter Two: Major factors which create humor in Stories for Reproduction Chapter Three: Possible uses of L.A Hill’s Stories for Reproduction

Part C is CONCLUSION In this part, a review of the study is presented,

together with implications for teaching and learning, limitation of the study and suggestions for further studies

The thesis is ended with REFERENCES

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the literature related to humor, general factors creating humor

in English jokes and previous studies are discussed in order to provide the study

with the sufficient theory background

1.1 Theoretical background

1.1.1 Humor

“Laughter is the best medicine” is a saying which is popular with almost all of

us Most of us would always come across people who are fond of jokes It can be claimed that all of us do like humor and would prefer humorous friends, and even humorous life-partners In everyday life, the individual human being suffers from a lot of stress and tensions School-going children are increasingly being burdened with exams and competition, college-goers are to look for jobs, bread-earners have

to be concerned about their families, and housewives have to care for all the domestic issues in their house Everyone is caught up in this vicious circle of life There, at times, seems to be no way out of all these Even though we may try to bring about a sense of real-life humor, circumstances do not permit it (Avanija Katiyar , 2011) People of all ages and cultures are able to experience humor Humor is considered as a form of entertainment and a form of human communication with its aim to make people laugh and feel relaxed Humor is also considered as a part of culture, ability or quality of a person, enrich the language of

a person A sense of humor is variable depending on age, sex, geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education and context

It is not disclaimed that humor is an important factor of teaching and learning Justifications for the use of humor include the promotion of understanding, attracting the attention of students, creating a positive attitude to the subject matter, and reducing anxiety Empirical studies of the connections between humor and learning are reviewed These indicate that humor, in case it is used harmoniously, can increase attention and interest and help to illustrate and reinforce what is being taught It is suggested that the presentation of humorous material involves skills which can be learnt through practice and that staff development programs should

provide opportunities for academics to acquire such skills (J P Powell & L W Andresen, 1985)

1.1.2 Pun

The English meaning of pun, which comes from the Italian word puntiglio

meaning “fine point” is the humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two

or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound so the pun

is a form of humor involving linguistic ambiguity Humorous effects created by puns depend upon the ambiguities words entail The ambiguities arise mostly in

homophones and homonyms For instance, in a sentence A happy life depends on a liver, liver can refer to the organ liver or simply the person who lives Similarly, in a famous saying Atheism is a non-prophet institution the word prophet is used instead

of profit to produce a humorous effect

Pun is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect

1.1.3 Ambiguity

According to Zhang Qing-liang in A Discussion on Ambiguity in English

(2007), ambiguity is defined as the fact that a word (or an expression) or a sentence,

before realization of stress, stop, intonation or other phonological means and without any more presuppositions or contexts than what the word or the sentence

itself creates, can be regarded as two or more different descriptive senses

That is why a single expression may lead to multiple interpretations In natural language many words, strings of words and sentences are ambiguous, simply because of the fact that numerous words cover several distinct meanings, or specific structural elements give rise to different readings That means that “an expression or utterance is ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way” (Löbner, 2002: 39)

It often happens that when we are talking, we may not realize there is any ambiguity there but when we have it written down and isolate every sentence from the context, we will find that many of the sentences are ambiguous; and the more parts we divide the whole into, the more ambiguity we have

also have more than one meaning through their unrelated use in more than one

category of speech, for example, can (a container of food – noun vs to be able to –

verb) Inattentive use of ambiguous words can lead to humorous or even awkward situations Lexical ambiguity is ambiguity attributable to the fact that some ambiguous words contained in the sentence causes the whole sentence to be ambiguous There are two type of lexical ambiguity: homonymy and polysemy

1.1.4.1 Homonymy

Knowing a word means knowing both its sounds and its meaning Both are crucial in determining whether words are the same or different If words differ in

pronunciation but have the same meaning, such as sofa and couch, they are different

words Likewise, words with identical pronunciation but significantly different

meanings, such as tale and tail, are also different words Spelling is not relevant, only pronunciation Thus, bat the animal and bat for hitting baseballs are different

words because they have different meanings although they are pronounced identically

Words like tale and tail are homonyms Homonyms are different words that are pronounced the same, but may or may not be spelled the same To, too, and two

are homonyms despite their spelling differences

Homonyms can create ambiguity A word or a sentence is ambiguous if it

can be understood or interpreted on more than one way The sentence I’ll meet you

by the bank may mean “I’ll meet you by the financial institution” or “I’ll meet you

by the riverside” Homonymy is one of most important sources of popular humor as

well as confusion:

“Waiter !”

“Yes, sir.”

“What is this ?”

“It’s bean soup, sir.”

“Never mind what it has been I want to know what it is now”

Bean, noun and been, past participle of to be are homonyms They are in the

same sound but different spelling

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least,

in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning

Homonymy can be further divided into three types:

- Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different

meanings, such as dove the bird, and dove, the past tense of dive

- Homophones are words that are identical in sound but differ in spelling and

meaning are called homophones, e.g air-heir, see-sea

- Full homonyms are words that are identical in sound and spelling are called

full homonyms, e.g match, n - a game, a contest and match, n - a short piece of

wood used for producing fire

Homonyms are good candidates for humor, as well as for confusion, e.g

“How is bread made ?”

“I know that” Alice cried eagerly “You take some flour.”

“Where do you pick the flower?” The White Queen asked, “in the garden or

in the hedges?”

“Well, it isn’t picked at all.” Alice explained “It’s ground.”

“How many acres of ground?” said the White Queen

The humor of this passage is based on two sets of homonyms : flower and flour and two meanings of ground Case of homonymy seems very few in a language system and very definitely to be matters of mere accident of coincidence

1.1.4.2 Polysemy

Polysemy is a property of a single word Polysemy is characteristic of most

words in English E.g I run home vs I run this office

A case of polysemy is one where a word has several clearly related senses, e.g mouth (of a river vs of an animal), the two senses are clearly related by the concept of an opening from the interior of some solid mass to the outside, and of a place of issue at the end of some long narrow channel Chimney (pipe of a tunnel-

like structure on a building for smoke to escape through vs narrow vertical space rocks up which a climber can wriggle by pressing against the sides), both senses contain the concept of a narrow vertical shaft in some solid material Cases of polysemy are numerous in a language system In the dictionary, the great majority

of lexical items are polysemous

Homonymy and polysemy are closely related and often treated together because on face value, what we see is various meanings are associated with the same forms They are distinguished from each other in terms of semantic relatedness If different meanings associated with one form are perceived as related, they constitute a polysemantic word; if these meanings are not related in any way, they are treated as homonyms However, in practice it is difficult to draw a clear line between homonymy and polysemy The difference between a polysemy and

a homonym is difficult to determine

1.1.5 Grammatical/structural ambiguity

Structural ambiguity is ambiguity does not lie in the words but rests on two

or more possibilities of relationship of modification among words contained in the sentence

Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one

underlying structure, such as the phrases Tibetan history teacher, a student of high moral principles and short men and women, and the sentences The girl hit the boy with a book and Visiting relatives can be boring These ambiguities are said to be

structural because each such phrase can be represented in two structurally different

ways, e.g., [Tibetan history] teacher and Tibetan [history teacher] Indeed, the

existence of such ambiguities provides strong evidence for a level of underlying

syntactic structure Consider the structurally ambiguous sentence, The chicken is ready to eat, which could be used to describe either a hungry chicken or a broiled

chicken It is arguable that the operative reading depends on whether or not the

implicit subject of the infinitive clause to eat is tied anaphorically to the subject the chicken of the main clause

It is not always clear when we have a case of structural ambiguity Consider,

for example, the elliptical sentence, Perot knows a richer man than Trump It has

two meanings, that Perot knows a man who is richer than Trump and that Perot knows man who is richer than any man Trump knows, and is therefore ambiguous

But what about the sentence John loves his mother and so does Bill? It can be used

to say either that John loves John's mother and Bill loves Bill's mother or that John loves John's mother and Bill loves John's mother But is it really ambiguous? One

might argue that the clause so does Bill is unambiguous and may be read

unequivocally as saying in the context that Bill does the same thing that John does, and although there are two different possibilities for what counts as doing the same thing, these alternatives are not fixed semantically Hence the ambiguity is merely apparent and better described as semantic under determination

1.1.6 Pragmatic ambiguity

Another type of ambiguity explored in jokes has its roots in pragmatic rule that govern discourse (Grice 1975) In this type of ambiguity, the minimal ambiguous string is longer than in any of the above types of linguistic ambiguity The two readings result from non- or misapplication of Grice‟s cooperative principle of conversation or any of the Gricean maxims (Grice 1975; Pepicello 1987; Yamaguchi 1988; Attardo 1990) As an illustration, consider joke :

Two farmers had known each other all their lives, but their conversations were usually restricted to “Good morning” or “Nice day” One afternoon, however, the first farmer asked:

“Hi, Pete, what did you give your horse when he had the colic?”

“Turpentine,” said Pete

“Thanks”, said his friend

Two weeks later they met again

“Didn’t you tell me, Pete, that you gave your horse turpentine when he had the colic?”

“Yes,” said Pete

“Well, I gave mine turpentine and he died.”

“So did mine,” said Pete (Misztal 1991:506)

Jokes are regarded to involve pragmatic ambiguity when they produce two readings different in pragmatic function while the sentence structure, lexical items

and phonetic strings in both readings are identical To be more specific, the funniness of these jokes are created on the basis of a surprise aroused when the intention and the result of the event conflict That is to say between the two speakers, there exists a misunderstanding or communication breakdown in

interpreting the exact pragmatic transaction or the intentional use of language 1.1.6.1 Violation of socio-cultural norms

Norms are the agreed-upon expectations and rules by which a culture guides the behavior of its members in any given situation Of course, norms vary widely across cultural groups Americans, for instance, maintain fairly direct eye contact when conversing with others Asians, on the other hand, may avert their eyes as a sign of politeness and respect

Sociologists speak of at least four types of norms: folkways, mores, taboos, and laws Folkways, sometimes known as “conventions” or “customs,” are

standards of behavior that are socially approved but not morally significant For example, belching loudly after eating dinner at someone else's home breaks an American folkway Mores are norms of morality Breaking mores, like attending church in the nude, will offend most people of a culture Certain behaviors are considered taboo, meaning a culture absolutely forbids them, like incest in U.S culture Finally, laws are a formal body of rules enacted by the state and backed by the power of the state Virtually all taboos, like child abuse, are enacted into law, although not all mores are For example, wearing a bikini to church may be offensive, but it is not against the law

Members of a culture must conform to its norms for the culture to exist and function Hence, members must want to conform and obey rules They first must internalize the social norms and values that dictate what is “normal” for the culture; then they must socialize, or teach norms and values to, their children If internalization and socialization fail to produce conformity, some form of “social control” is eventually needed Social control may take the form of ostracism, fines,

punishments, and even imprisonment

Socio-cultural norms are rules that a group or society uses to determine what

is appropriate and inappropriate in behavior, expression, and values If one does not

follow the rules, one can suffer consequences such as exclusion from the group The norms can change over time and according to the particular members of the group

1.1.6.2 Violation of conversational maxims

Here are a summary of the four conversational maxims:

- Maxim of quantity: is concerned with the amount of information (taken in its broadest sense) an utterance conveys

 Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the conversation)

 Do not make your contribution more informative than is required

- Maxim of relation: be relevant

The point of this maxim is that is not sufficient for a statement to be true for it to constitute an acceptable conversational contribution

- Maxim of quality: is concerned with truth-telling, and has two parts:

 Do not say what you believe to be false

 Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

- Maxim of manner: has four components:

 Avoid obscurity of expression

 Avoid unnecessary ambiguity

 Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity)

 Be orderly

(Grice, 1975 : 45)

When only one of the maxims above is violated, misunderstanding can happen

1.1.6.3 Presupposition

In everyday sense of presuppose, to presuppose something is to assume

something, or to take it for granted in advance, but not to say it Since assuming something is not normally considered an act but rather a state, presupposing is best viewed as a state and not an act Related to (pragmatic) presupposing is (pragmatic)

presupposition : that which is assumed or taken for granted Clearly,

presuppositions are not acts, though they are related to them This characterization

is pretty vague, but the phenomena cited in current linguistics under the label of

(pragmatic) presupposition are quite varied, and our characterization has at least

virtue of reflecting a common denominator among many different kinds of cases 1.1.7 Stupidity/ foolishness

This is one more way to create humor in funny stories Foolishness expresses

in one‟s actions, the most typical sample of this is an extremely famous film character Mr Bean acted by British actor Rowan Atkinson, or one‟s sayings which are very common in jokes in many languages Foolishness may originates from unequal knowledge levels, various cultures, dialect, misunderstanding or even cognition

1.2 Roles of humor in teaching English as a foreign language

In the past few years researchers have begun to show an interest in humor and language play as it relates to second language learning (SLL) Tarone (2000) has suggested that second language (L2) play may be facilitative of SLL, in particular

by developing sociolinguistic competence, as learners experiment with L2 voices; and by destabilizing the interlanguage system, thus allowing growth to continue She recommends research examining the ways in which adult L2 speakers interacting outside the classroom play with language as a way of learning more about this issue Using case study methodology to document the ways in which L2 verbal humor was negotiated and constructed by three advanced non-native speakers (NNSs) of English as they interacted with native speakers (NSs) of English, this study contributes to this knowledge base by showing patterns of interaction that arise during humorous language play between NSs and NNSs and how these may benefit second language acquisition (SLA) Results suggest that language play can be a marker of proficiency, as more advanced participants used L2 linguistic resources in more creative ways Language play may also result in deeper processing of lexical items, making them more memorable, thus it may be especially helpful in the acquisition of vocabulary and semantic fields

It is my contention that humor is one important type of sign vehicle that the teacher may use to correct or supplement information about themselves that was communicated in earlier behavior Because teachers are so significant a part of a classroom situated activity system, their humorous expressions of self may also be

viewed as strategies that affect the tenor of evens in the immediate present of that system

Practically speaking, teachers who wish to use humor as a strategy to facilitate instruction or maintain order should have a rudimentary understanding of the sociological processes connected with it For humor, when inappropriately use, it may become a double-edged knife and may worsen relations with students

The joke is potential for a humorous situation The joke can reduce students‟ boredom and allow students to interact with others naturally and may create good competition among them The element of surprise from joke frequently makes the class atmosphere more pleasant, increasing interaction among students and teacher, making learning more meaningful and enjoyable, a useful tool to get students‟ attention

A joke is a device that creates linguistic awareness in the classroom The different activities presented here are just some of the procedures to be explored in order to show students that learning a foreign language is actually fun Humor transforms the ambience of the class when students enjoy sharing their playful strategies with others When everyone benefits, the acquisition of a foreign language becomes “easy”, and learners become motivated and creative

1.3 Previous studies on similar theme

Regarding the linguistic theories of humor and ambiguity, several previous studies have been conducted in the linguistic study (Zhang Qing-lang, 2007; Robert Lew , 1996 ; María Teresa Sanschez Roura , 1995) These theorists mainly focus on how the humor is achieved by the use of language, especially by ambiguity

In A discussion on Ambiguity in English (2007), Zhang Qing-lang attempted

to study the definition and classification of ambiguity, the factors underlying ambiguity according to the research goal, method and criterion Lexical ambiguity

is associated with polysemy and homonymy, syntactic ambiguity is the result of different grouping of elements, and semantic ambiguity results from the different logical relationships between elements

Robert Lew at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, in Exploitation of Linguistic Ambiguity in Polish and English Jokes (1996), claimed that : Whether

jokes based on pragmatic ambiguity should be treated on a par with syntactic, lexical and phonological ambiguity is debatable If translatability is to be taken as a valid test for linguistic jokes, then jokes exploring pragmatic ambiguity should be excluded On the other hand, there are many instances of jokes based on syntactic ambiguity which are translatable, though obviously not as universally as pragmatic jokes If the distinction between linguistic and non-linguistic jokes is to be upheld, it

is best kept so as to exclude pragmatic jokes

Beside, María Teresa Sanschez Roura (1995) in Syntactic Ambiguity as a Device in British Humour asserted that the ambiguity at the syntactic level in the

English language focuses on its resourceful applications in the creation of jokes Such ambiguity is therefore regarded as something to be exploited in language rather than avoided One important conclusion will be that British humor should be regarded as “strange” by speakers of other languages, who can only access to it by means of poor, or should we say, difficult translations, since not all types of ambiguity are translatable across languages The study is divided into three sections, dealing firstly with bracketing of constituents and labelling of categories and functions; and secondly, focusing on transformational relationships, whereby two underlying structures are related to one surface structure The illustrations are real jokes collected from a variety of popular jokes books

1.4 Summary

These previous studies provide general background knowledge to deal with the research questions The examples above prove that humor is a very attractive and complicated problem And due to the roles of humor in everyday life, there is reason in applying it in class to teach English as a foreign language, specifically using 30 jokes in Stories for Reproduction by L.A Hills to teach English to the students at Thanh Hóa Fisheries Vocational School

CHAPTER II: MAJOR FACTORS WHICH CREATE HUMOR IN STORIES

FOR REPRODUCTION

Basing on the theoretical background presented in the previous chapter, we can classify the 30 jokes of the collection into seven groups of factors which create humor The first group contains various forms of violation of socio-cultural norms, which accounts for 40 percent; 20 percent is the proportion of violations of conversational maxims; approximate 3 percent is proportion of presupposition The second group is foolishness which accounts for 17 percent 10 percent is proportion

of pun The last group of lexical ambiguity including two linguistic phenomena homonymy and polysemy account for approximate 3 percent for each

Table 1 below clearly illustrates these figures

Factors creating humor Stories numbered Proportion

Lexical ambiguity Homonymy 20 ~3%

Pragmatic

ambiguity

Violation of conversational maxims

6, 9, 10, 22, 24, 25 20%

Violation of cultural norms

More detailed analyses of each of these factors are presented hereafter

2.1 Violation of socio-cultural norms

Socio-cultural norms, in a way, are some kind of „standards‟ or stereotypical expectations imposed by a certain society or cultural group on its individual members They are unwritten rules that guide behaviors, or are accepted behaviors

in any given society; they include values, attitudes and beliefs, etc Violations of those norms may result in an individual being funny, ridiculous, even outcasted to the community Therefore, violations of socio-cultural norms lend themselves to

very high use in creating humor, as evident in the 43% of Hill‟s Stories for Reproduction in Table 1

Different kinds of socio-cultural norms have been used in these stories, the first of which is gender stereotypes For instance, women are expected to be careful, meticulous, considerate; they are supposed to be good at cooking, have fine tastes in clothing, etc So the following story is a good lesson to a wife:

Elizabeth always cooked the dinner when she and her husband, Tom, got home, and when they had meat, Tom always cut it up when they sat down to eat One evening, while Tom was cutting the meat up, Elizabeth said to him, “When we were first married, Tom, you always gave me the bigger piece of meat when you cut

it, and you kept the smaller one for yourself Now you do the opposite : you gave me the smaller piece of meat and keep the bigger one for yourself Why do you do that? Don’t you love me anymore?” Tom laughed and answered, “Oh, no, Elizabeth It isn’t that! It’s because you’ve learned to cook now!”

On the contrary, men are generally believed not to know much about cooking They seem to be endowed with the privilege of being fed by their wives,

so whenever wives are away, husbands will be in big trouble, as the following story shows:

One morning, Mrs Petty, before going out, said to her husband, “I’ll leave you some food for your lunch Is that all right?”

“Oh, yes” her husband answered, “That’s quite all right What are you going to leave for my lunch?”

“This tin of fish,” Mrs Petty said