| Abstract: | 從認知解讀機制探索外語幽默意涵─西語笑話分析 幽默可就廣義和狹義區分為情景幽默和言語幽默兩類，後者是本研究關注的焦點。言語幽默屬一種特殊的語言交際形式，它是一個意圖與意義之間通過言語交相呼應的複雜過程，其特殊性在於：在文字表層的背後，隱藏著豐富的意義組合，幽默言語的效果即是這些意義經概念整合後的結果。幽默的實現主要取決於受話者，亦即他必須根據話語本身的信息、覺察說話者的意圖、且具備相關的背景知識，進行一連串的認知心理活動，從而達到獲取幽默的目的。 理解外語中的幽默言語對語言學習者而言常是頗具挑戰性的考驗。由於幽默言語涵蓋的範圍甚廣，本研究僅針對笑話一類進行探討。按照Long & Graesser (1988) 及 Schmitz(2002)的界定，幽默言語就產生效果的原因可分成三種：常識性幽默(universal humor)，文化性幽默(culture-based humor)及語言性幽默(linguistic humor)，而其解讀難度亦依序遞增。第一種係指可由上下文及一般常理知識推論而得之幽默；第二種乃是以獨有之文化背景為前題而發展出的幽默；第三種則是因一語言其語音、詞彙或文法上的特性所造成的幽默。幽默言語常見於一般對話及各式文章裏，其中，又以第二及第三種幽默意涵的理解能力(humor competence)為外語學習者所必備，因為一則它有助外語學習者認識目的語社群的普遍價值觀及風俗民情，一則它對語言學習者字彙的增加、多義詞的聯想、同音異義詞的辨別、及文法規則的應用均有俾益。 本研究實驗以已有西語短文閱讀能力之西語學習者為施測對象，依不同語言能力(年級)分為初級(大二生)，中級(大三生)，和高級(大四生)三組各四十名。每組皆閱讀適合其程度之西語笑話三十則，隨機取一組中之一半填答A測驗卷，另一半填答B測驗卷。此實驗的目的有二：一、了解中國學生對西語不同類型的幽默意涵理解能力如何？印證難度排序是否一如上述？並根據結果在教學上視所空缺的知識予以補充；二、嘗試偵測出中國學生未能成功領會西語幽默的內在因素，並從認知機制的角度尋求解釋。
The comprehension of humor in foreign language from the cognitive perspective－analysis of Spanish jokes The humor can be divided, according to a broad sense and a narrow one, in two classes: situational humor and verbal humor, respectively. In the present paper we are interested in the second one. The verbal humor is a special kind of communication with a complex interaction process between the intention and the meaning, there is a lot of information behind the words, which is the final result of blending concepts, and the humorous effect will not be produced until the final result is completed. The accomplishment of the humor depends mainly on the hearer, this is to say, he must do many cognitive activities, basing on the words meaning, the intention of the speaker and the background knowledge to infer the unsaid and to understand the humor. The comprehension of verbal humor in foreign languages is often a difficult task for the nonnative speakers. Since the verbal humor is too generic, in this paper we will focus only on jokes. According to Long & Graesser’s (1988) and Schmitz’s (2002) categories, verbal humor is classified in three groups: universal humor, cultural-based humor and linguistic humor, and the comprehension difficulty follows this order. The first one is the humor caused by some paradox; the second one is based on cultural reasons, and the third one derives from the phonological, lexical or grammatical features of a language. The verbal humor is very common in conversations and texts, it is indispensable for language learners to acquire the “humor competence” to be able to understand, especially, the humor of the second and the third group, since, on the one hand, this helps them to know the customs and socio-cultural practices of the society of that language and, on the other hand, it helps them also in the vocabulary, semantics, phonology and grammar. The experiment is for the Spanish learners who are able to read short texts in this language, we divide them into three groups of 40 people according to their level (course) of Spanish: elementary, intermediate and advanced. Each group reads 30 jokes compiled fitting to their respective level and, later, a half of each group is randomly designated to the questionnaire A and the other half the questionnaire B. The objectives of this experiment are the following: 1. To test the capacity that the learners have to catch different classes of humor and to verify the order of comprehension difficulty; 2. To try to detect the internal causes of that they fail to understand the humor and to seek cognitive explanations. |
