美剧台词中的修辞学分析以《生活大爆炸》为例.docx

美剧台词中的修辞学分析以《生活大爆炸》为例.docx

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美剧台词中的修辞学分析以《生活大爆炸》为例

Abriefanalysisoftherhetoricaldevicesin

Americansituationcomedies

--AcasestudyofTheBigBangTheory

Time:

29/05/13ID:

王小亚1015010302

Abstrast:

RhetoricaldevicesarewidelyusedinAmericandramas,especiallyinTheBigBangTheory,awell-knownAmericansit-com（situationcomedy）.Thecomedyfocuseson“sciencetalent”,anditisfullofdialogueswiththousandsofsciencewords.Thedictionandsentencevarietyofdifficultdialoguescontributetothehumorousplotsinthecomedy.ThispaperaimsatanalyzingtherhetoricaldevicesfrequentlyusedinTheBigBangTheory,suchasirony,metaphor,euphemism,repetition,rhetoricalquestionsandsoon,inordertofindoutthereasonsforthehumorousfactorsinthiscomedy.

Keywords:

TheBigBangTheory,rhetoricaldevices,Americansit-coms,humor

摘要：

修辞手法广泛应用于美国情景喜剧中，且在著名美剧《生活大爆炸》中尤为常见，《生活大爆炸》以“科学天才”为话题，其对话中包含无数科学名词，该剧对话中的词语和句型多样性丰富了剧情的幽默色彩。

本论文旨在通过分析该剧中常用的修辞手法，如反讽、隐喻、委婉、反复等，分析出《生活大爆炸》幽默因素背后的原因。

关键词：

生活大爆炸；修辞手法；美剧；幽默

Ⅰ.Introduction

1.1AbriefintroductionaboutTheBigBangTheory

1.2Abriefintroductionaboutthemaincharacters

1.3LanguagefeaturesofthedialoguesinTheBigBangTheory

Ⅱ.Literaturereview

2.1PreviousstudiesonAmericansit-coms

2.2PreviousstudiesonthelinguisticfeaturesofTheBigBangTheory

Ⅲ.Methodology

Ⅳ.TypicalrhetoricalexpressionsinTheBigBangTheory

4.1Irony

4.2Euphemism

4.3Metaphor

4.4Repetition

Ⅴ.Conclusion

.Introduction:

1.1AbriefintroductionaboutTheBigBangTheory

Asit-com,ashortenedwordofsituationcomedy,isagenreofcomedywhichhasastorylineandongoingcharactersin,essentially,acomedicdrama.Thesituationisusuallythatofafamily,workplace,oragroupoffriends.

TheBigBangTheoryisoneofthemostpopularAmericandramasaroundtheworld.ItisasituationcomedymadebyCBS（ColumbiaBroadcastingSystem）.Therearesixseasonsand142weeklyepisodesintotal,andallofthemhaveachievedhighaudiencerating,notonlyintheUSA,butalsoinothercountriesintheworld.Thiscomedydescribesthedailylifeoffourscientistsandonewaitress.Theyliveonthesamefloorinanapartmentblockandtheyareneighborswithcloserelationship.

1.2Abriefintroductionaboutthemaincharacters

Themaincharacter,Sheldon,isatalentedphysicalscientist,whoseIQisashighas187.However,thissciencegeniusisnotsosmartinhisdailylife.Heisamysophobia,andheisafraidofbeingdisturbed.Sheldon’sdormmate,Leonard,isalsoabrilliantphysicalscientist.BothofthemhaveextremehighIQandpoorEQ.Theycaneasilyexplainthesciencetheoriesintheirownresearchfiled,buthardlyknowhowtocommunicatewithothers.

AnotherimportantcharacterisHoward,andheisoneofthebestfriendsofthesetwobookworms.Howardregardshimselfasaperfectcombinationofwisdomandappearance,andhehasamaster’sdegreeinMassachusettsInstituteofTechnology.

Rajeshisalsotheirbestfriend.HeisanastronomerwhocomesfromIndia.Heissoshythathedoesnotdaretotalktoagirlwithoutthehelpofalcohol.

ThemainfemalecharacterinthiscomedyisasimplegirlnamedPenny.Shedreamstobeafamousactress,butcanonlybeawaitressinafastfoodrestaurant.Pennyisbraveandoutgoing,andhercharacteristicistotallydifferentfromthefourphysicalscientists.

ThesepeoplealwaysgathertogetheratSheldon’sapartment,andtheirlivesarefulloflaughter.

1.3LanguagefeaturesofthedialoguesinTheBigBangTheory

Therearemanydialoguesinthiscomedy.Thefourscientists’wordsarecomplexanddifficulttounderstand.Becauseoftheirspecialposition,theirdialoguesarefullofsciencewords.Sheldonspeakslogicallyanddirectly.Leonard’swordsarealwaysreasonablebutambiguous.Howardtalksaboutdirtywordsfrequently,whileRajeshspeakinIndianEnglish.Withregardstopenny,asawaitress,sheusessimplewordsandinformalsentencesallthetime.

Theirdialoguesarehumorousandvivid.Everyfiveminutestheaudiencewillbecheeredupbytheirfunnywords.Theyuseirony,repetition,metaphorandsoontomockandsatirizeagainsteachother.

Ⅱ.Literaturereview

2.1PreviousstudiesonAmericansit-coms

Situationcomedyidconsideredas“themostwell-informedartisticformtoaudienceofcontemporaryAmericanandtheworld”（DavidMare,1984）.

MuBing（慕冰，2010）hasmentionedthat，Americansit-comsarefoundalmostexclusivelyontelevisionasoneofitsdominantnarrativeformswhichpossesssomeoftheirownfeatures:

First,asoneoftheclosetformsofarttoourlife,sit-comspursuenotonlytherealnessofart,buttheauthenticallyoflife.Sosit-comsusuallyconsistofrecurringcharactersinacommonenvironmentsuchasahomeorworkplaceanditscontentsarecloselyrelatedtopeople’severydaylife.

Second,mostAmericansit-comsaregenerallyhalf-hourprogramsinwhichthestoryiswrittentorunatotalof22minutesinlength,leaving8minutesforcommercial.Americansit-comstypicallyhavelongseasonrunsofmoreepisodesduetothewaytheyareproduced.

Third,sit-comsusuallyincludelaughtracks.Alaughtrack,alsoknownaslaughtersoundtrack,laughtertrack,LFN（laughterfromnowhere）,cannedlaughterorlaughingaudience,isapre-recordeffectinsertedintomostsit-comsnottapedinfrontofaliveaudience.Thelaughtrackisgenerallyaddedinpost-production—thatis,duringeditingaftertheshowistaped.Laughtrackshavethesameeffectwithstudioaudiences,withthepurposeoftellingtheaudiencewhenitistimetolaugh.

2.2PreviousstudiesonthelinguisticfeaturesofTheBigBangTheory

Beingsosuccessfulandpopular,TheBigBangTheoryhaswontheaudience’sfavor.Asaresult,studiesandresearchesarecarriedoutinmanywaysfromvariousperspectivesbymanyresearchers.

XuLiyan（徐丽艳，2010）haswrittenapaper,inwhichEuphemismisexploredtofigureouttheeffectivenessinsitcoms.Shepointedoutthatmanyeuphemismsareadaptedinthissit-com,andthisrhetoricaldevicehasplayedanimportantroleinbuildinghumorousatmosphere.

Besides,GaoHui（高辉，2010）hasstudiedthissit-comfromtheperspectiveofpragmatictheoryinordertofindouthumor,andheexplainedthepoweroflanguagecooperativeprincipleinhispaper.

Atthesametime,ZhangDongbin（张东宾，2011）hasstudiedthecontractiveanalysisofhumorinsit-comsFriendsandTheBigBangTheoryfromtheperspectiveofgrammaticalmetaphor.Hecomparesthetwosuccessfulsit-comswitheachotherandfindsoutthatgrammaticalmetaphorsarewidelyusedinthedialoguesofthesetwocomedies.

ZhangXue（张雪，2012）haswrittenapaperinwhichshefocusesonthestudyonmetaphorsinTheBigBigBangTheoryfromthecognitiveperspective,whichhascontributedtothestudyofthelinguisticfeaturesinthissit-com.

Inaddition,somescholarshaveadaptedtherelevancetheorytoexploreverbalhumorinthissit-com,aswellasthelinguistichumor,culturalhumoranduniversalhumor,soastohaveabetterunderstandingonthelinguisticbeautyofthedialogues.

Ⅲ.Methodology

Allofthedialoguesinthistermpaperarecollectedfromthefamoussit-comThebigBangTheory.Firstly,Ichosesomeepisodeswhicharefulloffunnydialogues,andthenIwatchedtheseepisodesaswellasthesubtitlescarefully,inordertofindthemostrepresentativeexamplesforthisresearch.

Becauseofthespecialpositionsandpersonalpreferencesofthemaincharacters,thereareplentyofwordsandphraseswhichcomefromvarioussciencetheories,computergames,Westerncultureandhistory,etc.therefore,afunctionaldictionaryisreallyusefulandnecessary.Atthesametime,resultingfromculturedifference,someofthedialoguesaredifficultforusChinesepeopletounderstand.Inordertohaveabetterunderstandingofeverysentence,Ialsosurfedontheinternettolookintothesymbolicmeaningofsomecomplicatedwordsandvernacularlanguage.

ManyEnglishlearnersandscholarshavestudiedthelinguisticfeatures,choiceofwords,sentencestructuresofthedialoguesinAmericansituationcomedies.Nevertheless,fewofthemhavemanagedtoanalyzetherhetoricaldevicesinsit-coms,especiallyinTheBigBangTheory.Therefore,Ifocusontheanalysisoftypicalrhetoricaldevicesusedinthissit-com,andtrytofindoutthelinguisticreasonsforthepopularityofthesuccessfulTVseries.

Ⅳ.TypicalrhetoricalexpressionsinTheBigBangTheory

Rhetoricaldeviceshavebeenwidelyusedinpoetry,novel,drama,lyricsandsoon,whichcanstrengthenthemeaningandenhancethefeelingaswellasleavingaunforgettableimpressiontothereader.Nowadays,thetermsthathavebeenusedforcenturiestodescribefigurativelanguageintraditionalwritingscanalsobeappliedtoeverydaylanguageandeventoAmericansit-coms.Inthistermpaper,IwillfocusonthetypicalrhetoricalexpressionsusedinTheBigBangTheory.Iwillspecificallyillustratetheuseofirony,euphemism,metaphor,parallelism,hyperbole,repetitionandrhetoricalquestions.

4.1Irony

MuBin（慕宾，2012）pointedoutthat,inironythetransferistotheoppositemeaningwithinasemanticallylinkedset.Thusironically,“bad”means“good”.Theuseofironyisprimarilytoconveytotheaudienceanincongruitythatisoftenusedasatoolofhumorinordertodeprecateorridiculeanideaorcourseofaction.AccordingtotheOxfordEnglishDictionary,anironyisafigureofspeechinwhichtheintendedmeaningistheoppositeofthatexpressedbythewordsused;usuallytalkingtheformofsarcasmorridiculeinwhichlaudatoryexpressionsareusedtoimplycondemnationorcontempt.

Example1,Episode2,Season1

（Pennyhas