Abstract: Humor is the art of language and can be found everywhere in various languages, which acts as the flavoring ingredient and plays an important role in interpersonal relationship. If people talk with each other in a humorous way, everyone will be happy and the atmosphere of the conversation will be agreeable. As a result, the cause and the principle of humor are worth studying. Knowing the causes and principles of humor enables English users to understand English humor better. Nowadays, with the process of globalization, English has become the most widely used language in the world. The thesis mainly analyzes English humor in terms of pragmatics. Cooperative Principle (CP) and Speech Act Theory (SAT) are the important components of pragmatics. In the thesis, I use many examples of humor and explain them in detail from the perspective of CP and SAT to enable non-native English speaker to have better understanding of English conversational humor.
Keywords: humor; English; pragmatics; Cooperative Principle; Speech Act Theory
摘要：幽默是语言的艺术，在世界各种语言中都被广泛用。它是生活的调味剂，在人际关系中扮演着非常重要的角色，在人们的谈话中，如果以幽默的方式来表达，气氛就会十分融洽。当今世界，随着一体化进程的加快，英语已经成为使用最广泛的语言之一，恰当地掌握并运用英语幽默，对于活跃交流气氛、塑造自身形象都会产生积极地促进作用。本文主要从语用学角度分析英语会话幽默的产生，而合作原则以及言语行为理论是语用学的重要组成部分，灵活地掌握这些原则和理论，就会使英语使用者更好地理解英语幽默。文章中列举了许多英语幽默的例子，并对这些例子进行了详细的分析，从而更好地加深读者对英语会话幽默的理解。
关键词：幽默; 英语会话幽默; 语用学; 合作原则; 言语行为
