Abstract:Verbal humor is an important part of language culture which can make people feel happy and relieve stress. Having a good sense of humor is a representation of wisdom for people. The interpretation of humor is necessary in daily communication. The present thesis attempts to analyze verbal humor in Friends and interpret humor from relevance theory. Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory is based on two principles and the concept of relevance which are suitable to explain the humor. Verbal humor is classified into three main categories, meaning deviated humor, sound deviated humor and syntax deviated humor. This present paper confirms the feasibility that how verbal humor is expressed and produced from relevance theory. It provides new perspective to help the audience appreciate humor utterance in Friends. Moreover, understanding of the mechanism of humor can make people avoid embarrassment in international communication.

Keywords: Humor; Friends; Relevance Theory

摘要:言语幽默作为语言文化中的重要组成部分，它不仅使人们感到心情愉快，而且可以缓解人们生活中的压力。同时，人们具有良好的幽默感也成为一种智慧的表现。所以体味幽默也成为了日常交际的必要。本文试图从关联理论角度分析美剧老友记中的幽默言语。文中Sperber和Wilson的关联理论是基于其两个原则和相关概念，其适用于解析幽默。文中把言语幽默分文三大类：语意偏差幽默、语音偏差幽默、句法偏差幽默。通过解析以上分析证实了关联理论的阐释幽默的可行性。文中从关联理论对幽默的解读，为观众提供了一个新的视角欣赏老友记中的幽默言语。此外，关联理论下的幽默产生机制也为人们在交际活动提供一定的帮助，避免可能出现的尴尬。

关键词：幽默；老友记；关联理论