Abstract:In recent years, studies have shown that researchers at home and abroad are trying to analyze English ambiguity from different angles, such as transformational generative perspective, logical semantics perspective, binding-principle perspective, perspective of graphics-background theory and so forth, which make domestic and foreign research of English ambiguity expand in its width. Undeniably, the formalist linguists, functionalist linguists and structuralist linguists have exerted themselves to study English ambiguity in their respective fields. Overall, however, the vast majority of scholars have laid their time and energy in syntactic analysis of English ambiguity, which resulted in obviously insufficient study for a specific level, type or its meticulous division, meanwhile few scholars have studied the concrete applications of English ambiguity. We know that ambiguity is a quite common language phenomenon which would appear every corner of our daily life and can not be avoided. While, what it brings to us is not only misunderstanding or embarrassment, it could also show us its positive effects on its specific utilization. So it could be fairly crucial for linguists to work hard to combine positive aspects of ambiguity with other disciplines. I believe that the study of English ambiguity can be combined with fields like English teaching, English translation, the Production of films, TV plays and literature which in my mind must make them promote and complement each other and bring new vitality to the development of these areas. Consequently, I’d like to pay some attention to the specific application of English ambiguity in this article. We all know that Friends has swept the world over 10 years, however, people’s enthusiasm towards it got a sharp rise instead of cooling down. Not only more and more people watched it, but also the number of people who occupied themselves with in-depth study of Friends is increasing. At home and abroad the studies for the Friends mostly concentrated on the analysis of its humor from the perspective of pragmatics, the humor effect from the angle of subtitle translation, or cultural differences between China and the United States from a situational perspective. There are not many studies of verbal humor in Friends from "ambiguity", while this article will choose to dissect Friends from the very subtle perspective of "ambiguity", which would help us know more about the specific applications of "ambiguity" and allow people to feel the special charm of "ambiguity" in depth, either.

Keywords: ambiguity; Friends; humor

摘要:最近几年的研究表明，国内外的学者们正在尝试从不同的角度来分析英语歧义现象，比如逻辑语义学视角、转化生成视角、图形-背景理论视角、约束原则视角等等，这就使得国内外对英语歧义的研究在宽度上有了拓展。不可否认，功能主义语言学家、形式主义语言学家以及结构主义语言学家都试图在他们的各自领域对英语歧义现象进行剖析。但总体来看，国内外学者对英语歧义的研究绝大多数还是停留在对歧义的句法分析上，对于其类型或者具体层面等的细化研究则显得明显不足，也很少有学者研究英语歧义的应用问题。我们知道，歧义是语言的一种普遍现象，是大量存在、不可避免的。然而，歧义给我们带来的不只是误解及尴尬，它在具体运用层面也是有着积极意义的。所以，探讨怎样将英语歧义的积极意义与其它学科结合起来对于语言学家们来说亦可以是一个非常重要的领域。笔者认为英语歧义的研究可以和英语教学、英语翻译、影视文学作品创作等领域相结合，这样必定可以为这些领域的发展带来新的生机。因此，本文笔者将会对英语歧义的具体应用进行一定程度的探讨。大家都知道《老友记》风靡全球已逾十载，然而人们对于它的热情丝毫未减，不仅观看它的人数越来越多，深入研究它的人也是与日俱增。目前国内外对于《老友记》的研究多从语用学的角度对其幽默加以阐释，亦有从字幕翻译角度看其幽默效果，或者从情境角度看中美文化差异的。从“歧义”这一细微角度解读《老友记》中的言语幽默的研究还不是很多，而本文就将选择从“歧义”的视角来探讨《老友记》中的言语幽默，从而剖析英语歧义的一些具体应用，也让人们能更深入地领略“歧义”的特殊魅力。

关键词：歧义；《老友记》 ；幽默