1。1 Definition and Functions of Humor

Humor—this word looks very common in our daily life, but how to define it? What is its theoretical concept? But, it is difficult to make sure accurately what humor is。 What is the logic behind humor? Isn't it so common that we just cannot think about it or we know it but we do not know how to say it because we meet it too frequently? Anyhow, it is difficult to make an accurate definition about humor, it is a hard task to answer how humor behaves。 Like Congreve (1984) says: "To define humor is difficult for it is of infinite variety" (Palmer, 1994:39)。 There are so many linguists and philosophers who have tried their best to find the essence of humor, including how to define it。 According to the etymology of humor, the origin is in the humor medicine of the ancient Greeks, the word’s meaning is fluid or liquid。 Based on encyclopedia, the present meaning of humor is "employed as a general term to denote anything comic, or anything that makes us laugh。" In Modern Chinese Dictionary(2004:1520), humor is defined as something interesting or playful and having deep meaning or thought-provoking。 In early twentieth century, Chinese scholar Lin Yutang (林语堂) translated "humor" as "you mo" into Chinese, he is the first person to define that。 He also thought that "humor is a popular art form to express one's viewpoint and even perceptions of the real world"(胡范铸，1987:7-8)。

Different people think dissimilarly, which will have many kind of opinions。 According to the hereinabove very authoritative concepts, we can easily find that some of them pay attention to the part interesting or funny, like English and Chinese while British and American countries make a widespread definition on humor。 They think that we should define humor by the entertainment spirit which is shown in humor, not the manifestation。 But many Chinese scholars incline to narrow down the definition of humor。 They think that humor is not only to let people laugh, but also make its special influence。 In China, many men of letters focus their attention to the ways and styles, the values of the culture and the functions in society。 To be brief, definitions may be different, however we still find something in common: to make people laugh or feel amused is the nature of humor。

The functions of humor are various and involve all aspects in our daily life。 It plays a significant role in communication, using it can make people feel positive and be relaxed。 So they can talk better than the ordinary way since humor will make a more harmonious atmosphere。 When people face difficulties, humor will also help them to be more confident and positive。 Besides, humor can also be used as a kind of invisible power to make people conquer their fear or weakness。 From that we can see that humorous language can show someone’s wisdom and charisma。 At same time, we often see people using the humor to criticize or exhort others, but no harm。 From that we can see in even worse situation if we use humor properly we still make people feel good。 In brief, humor is clearly significant and helpful in our daily life。

1。2 Evolution of Humor Study

Humorous language reflects one's excellent language application ability, and embodies one's active use of language。 In recent twenty years, some western linguists made rnultiaspect study on humor, such as Raskin, Attardo, Pocheptsov and so on。 Raskin (1985) put forward the "cooperative principle of joke", considering that humor in communication is controlled by principle of conversation and humor principle。 Based on the Incongruity-Resolution, he raised the Semantic Script Theory。 It was the first humor theory in the meaning of cognitive linguistics。 Attardo (1991) also tries to make a comprehensive explanation on humor from the perspective of pragmatics。 He made an explanation on the operation mechanism of some humor jokes by using Grice's conversational cooperative principle。 This paper will introduce the study of humor from the conventional and modern aspects。