The Comparison Study of English Humor and Chinese Cross Talk by Epistemics

Abstract

For several decades, English humor and Chinese cross talk have been studied from the field of epistemics. The main factors making the differences between them are different epistemic gradients between the speaker and the recipient. Both of them would present their respective epistemic status through their epistemic stance, i.e. different grammatical syntax. As both the speaker and the recipient occupy different positions on an epistemic gradient (from more knowledgeable K+ to less knowledgeable K-), the current study applied three kinds of grammatical syntax and illustrated the speaker’s moment-by-moment expression of speaker’s epistemic domain, including declarative syntax, tag questions, and interrogative syntax from both English humor and classical Chinese cross talk. Through the analysis of the dialogues, the study revealed the following aspects. First, both speakers and recipients compete for epistemic status during their interaction. They would like to adopt different epistemic stances to show that they are more informative than their partners. Second, humor is the essential part of both English humor and Chinese cross talk, which can be easily understood even though it is in different media. Third, the ultimate purpose of English humor and Chinese cross talk is to create a harmonious atmosphere and maintain good social relations. (Taiyuan Normal University, Jeonju University)