论文总字数：43412字

摘 要

List of Figures v

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Purpose of the study 1

1.3 Organization of the thesis 2

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 The definition of sarcasm 3

2.2 Previous study on multimodal sarcasm 4

2.3 Previous study on The Big Bang Theory 6

3. Methodology 8

3.1 Data 8

3.2 The analytical model 8

4. An Analysis of Multimodal Sarcasm in The Big Bang Theory 10

4.1 Conflicts between discourse and behavioral mode 10

4.2 Conflicts between discourse and situational context 13

4.3 Conflicts between discourse and cultural mode 16

4.4 Behavioral mode 17

4.5 Summary 18

5. Conclusion 19

5.1 Summary of major findings 19

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 20

References 21

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the people who have offered me help and encouragement during the course of my thesis writing.

First and foremost, my heartfelt gratitude and respect would be extended to my supervisor Dr. Xiang Mingjian for his rigorous academic attitude, extensive professional knowledge, and insightful suggestions. He has been generously offering me guidance throughout my undergraduate period. His noble personality and rigorous scholarship particularly impress me, which will benefit me all my life.

My sincere thanks also go to Nanjing Tech University and the School of Foreign Languages and Literature, which provide a good learning and living environment for me. Besides, I also want to extend my thanks to the other distinguished teachers who have offered me instructions in Nanjing Tech University. Their instructions have laid a solid foundation for me to carry out my own research.

My classmates also encourage me a lot, and we spend a happy undergraduate period together, thank you!

Last but not least, I want to express my thanks to my parents who always give me love and support unconditionally, which are my motivations to make progress.

Abstract

Sarcasm is widely used in literary works and daily life, while the early study on sarcasm only focuses on the recognition and function of its verbal manifestation. With the deepening of research, an increasing number of scholars realize that sarcasm is not only limited to the verbal mode, so the study of multimodal sarcasm began to attract people's attention. This thesis aims to explore how different modes can constitute sarcasm by presenting a case study of multimodal sarcasm in four seasons of The Big Bang Theory (seasons 8-11) from a Cognitive Linguistics perspective.

First of all, this thesis identifies the multimodal markers of irony and sarcasm appearing in these four seasons (cf. Attardo et al., 2003). Then it analyzes the conflicts between multimodalities and underlying meaning of prototypical examples on the basis of Zhao Xiufeng’s (2019) conflict representation system of multimodal irony. Unlike Zhao’s image-words interpretation, this thesis analyzes the intonation, facial expressions and other modes that appear in the sitcom to further develop the conflict representation system.

It is found that not only in discourses and context, conflict also exists between discourses and behavioral mode including the speakers and listeners’ facial expression, tone and gestures. By completing the types of conflicts between discourse and situation and the specific modalities, Zhao’s representation system has been revised and further developed to account for multimodal sarcasm. Furthermore, when it comes to the interpretation of multimodal sarcasms, the meaning of a single mode is interpreted first and then its underlying meaning in combination with other modes is analyzed. Finally, the conclusion is drawn that intonational clues can express the speakers’ feeling more accurate than the semantic clues, and the behavioral cues can imply the speakers’ intention more obvious than intonational clues, thus confirming Attardo et al.’s (2003) hierarchy of interpreting multimodal irony and sarcasm.

Key words: multimodal sarcasm; multimodal markers; conflict representation system; hierarchy; The Big Bang Theory

中文摘要

反讽被广泛应用于文学作品和日常生活中。然而以前学者对反讽的研究多关注在其言语表现形式的认识和作用。现在随着研究的深入，越来越多的学者意识到，反讽不仅限于言语模态，于是多模态反讽的研究开始走入人们的视线。本文试图从认知语的角度，针对《生活大爆炸》4季（8-11季）中的多模态反讽进行研究，探讨不同模态之间如何相互作用构成反讽。

首先依据Attardo 为代表的学者提出的多模态反讽标志，针对4季中出现的多模态反讽标志进行记录并探索是否存在新的多模态反讽标志。其次，基于赵秀凤（2019）提出的多模态反讽的冲突表征系统，尝试分析实例中模态之间的对立关系及其含义。不同于赵秀凤的图文解读，本文将结合情景剧中出现的语调，面部表情等模态进行分析，从而进一步发展冲突表征体系。

本研究发现冲突不仅存在于话语与语境，还存在于包括语境，说者和听者行为（语调，面部表情，手势）的情景模态与话语之间。通过补充话语与情景冲突体系的类型和其中的具体模态，修正了赵秀凤提出的表征体系，进一步发展了多模态反讽的冲突表征系统。此外，分析实例时，通过先解读单个模态含义，再结合多模态的方式解读其真正的含义。最后，研究发现语调比语义更能表达说话者感受，而说话者的神态比语调更能表达其真正意图，因此而验证了Attardo（2003）等人总结的意义理解层次体系。

关键词：多模态反讽；多模态标志；对立表征系统；层次体系；生活大爆炸

List of Figures

Figure 3. 1 A conflict representation system of multimodal irony 9

Figure 4. 1 Sheldon’s priase and Leonard’s worry 11

Figure 4. 2 Sheldon’s worry and his friends’ smile 12

Figure 4. 3 Penny’s thank with low tone and her blank face 12

Figure 4. 4 Penny’s blank face interpreted as interested 13

Figure 4. 5 “Watch out” and slowly rolling ball 14

Figure 4. 6 Sheldon complaining himself 14

Figure 4. 7 Catching bouquet absent from wedding ceremony 15

Figure 4. 8 Burning a car to get nut off 15

Figure 4. 9 A hug and thank for the one kissed fiance 16

Figure 4.10 Man: high heels amp; Woman: flats 17

Figure 4.11 Sheldon’s reaction 18

Figure 5. 1 A conflict representation system of multimodal sarcasm (developed version) 20

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

The Big Bang Theory is a popular sitcom that was released in 2007 and ended in 2019 with 12 seasons. It shows the fun life between a number of young people with distinct characteristics and conveys love and warm friendship to prospective audience. The interesting interactions and conflicts between a smart physicist who lacks social communication skills and his friends can often attract and amuse the audience. Because of its well-designed settings and the performers’ wonderful acting, it has been awarded outstanding multi-camera picture editing for a comedy series and outstanding technical direction, camera work, video control for many times. Besides, the actor who plays the physicist has also won the outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for several times. Therefore, the outstanding setting and their wonderful behaviors can contribute to the collection of corpus for this study.

The Big Bang Theory, famous for its interesting conversations, has drawn the attention of humor scholars. Consequently, there has already been abundant research on humor based on this sitcom. For instance, dubbed laugh sound is a clear sign of humorous expressions. What’s more, the wide use of sarcasm produces humorous effects. Given the genre of The Big Bang Theory, more than verbal material, the actors' tone, can also be taken into consideration (Zhao, 2019). Therefore, in this thesis multimodality such as facial expressions, actual situation and the tone are on the list of analyzing sarcasm.

1.2 Purpose of the study

The sitcom is a multimodal text featuring multiple symbolic systems like text, sound, image and so on. Traditionally, most studies focus only on the single mode of text and ignore its multimodal features (Luo, 2019). Some scholars also point out that the study of multimodal sarcasm is still in its infancy, future research needs to take into account multimodal factors (Chen, 2017; Zhao, 2019). Although Attardo et al. (2003) summarized lots of markers of multimodal sarcasm and find a hierarchy in understanding the meaning of multimodal sarcasm, few studies have carried on.

This thesis attempts to address the following questions.

1) How do we identify multimodal sarcasm in The Big Bang Theory?

2) Can the conflict representation system of multimodal irony be applied to a more complicated sample? If can, how to develop the system according to the analysis of sitcom?

3) Can the hierarchy (behavioral cues gt; intonational clues gt; semantic clues) concluded by Attatdo et.al (2003) be confirmed in the way to overrule the meaning of the sentence?

1.3 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is composed of five chapters. In this introduction part, I presented the research background and the purpose of this study

Chapter two reviews relevant literature. I will first give the definition of sarcasm and point out the differences between sarcasm and irony. Given the focus of this thesis, I will also review previous research on multimodal sarcasm and relevant previous study on The Big Bang Theory in this chapter.

In Chapter Three, I present the data and methodology of the study. I will introduce the corpus used for analysis and how I will analyze the data collected.

In Chapter four, I will analyze a few selected examples. It will be discussed that how it can be identified as multimodal sarcasm and what the real meaning and their attitudes towards the context.

Chapter five is the concluding section. I will summarize the major findings and point out the limitations of the present study. Finally, I will also provide some suggestions for future study.

2. Literature Review

The literature review of this thesis contains three parts. First is the previous study on irony and sarcasm, and the second is particularly focused on the study on multimodal sarcasm, as well as the third is the previous analysis of the America sitcom, the Big Bang Theory.

2.1 The definition of sarcasm

The word ‘sarcasm’ originates from the Greek σαρκασμός (sarkasmos), which is taken from σαρκάζειν, meaning ‘to tear flesh, bite the lip in rage, sneer’. Besides, about its derived terms, sarcastic, Ivanko and Pexman (2003) pointed that the greater the incongruence between what the listener expects to hear and what they actually hear, the greater their likelihood to perceive a statement as sarcastic. The study on sarcasm firstly starts from the irony in text. If we find the difference between irony and sarcasm in WikiDiff, we can get the following interpretation. Irony is a statement that may actually mean something different from, or the opposite of what is written literally when taken in context. While sarcasm is one of the forms of humor, which is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis and insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one’s intended meaning.

However, the words “irony” and “sarcasm” are not be defined clearly. Attardo et al. (2003) stated that they use the terms “irony” and “sarcasm” interchangeably, which seems that there is no distinct difference between irony and sarcasm. Woodland and Voyer (2011) conveyed that “Sarcasm” is used as a short version for sarcastic irony. Furthermore, Taylor (2017) published a paper discussing the different words’ usage in the UK and Italy and the behaviours are described between irony and sarcasm, from which we can deduce that the distinction between irony and sarcasm may differ from different social culture. Joana and Garmendia (2018) wrote in irony that sarcasm pays an important way to the study on irony. Besides, sarcasm plays a supporting role on the pragmatic scene. Analyzing sarcasm can develop the study of irony. Zhao Xiufeng (2019) ever said the definition of irony can differ from each scholar’s perspective, but the basic cognition is consistent. First, the deep structure implies a kind of contrast and paradox. Second, it has strong appraisal meaning. Third, the input and understand rely on language context and shared background knowledge between communicators. So here in this thesis, irony is used to refer to verbal conversation from which ironic and sarcastic intend can be conveyed. And sarcasm is often associated with multimodal sarcasm like ironic conversation, facial expression, uncommon tone and other modes that convey the opposite meaning or different intent to its literally meaning or intent.

2.2 Previous study on multimodal sarcasm

The research on multimodal sarcasm starts from its verbal manifestation, this section reviews the previous research on irony. The main characteristics of the semantic study of irony are focusing on the semantic structure of isolated sentences, not considering the subjective and objective factors, such as the communicative environment and the communicative subject.

Since the 1960s, the study of irony has attracted scholars in many different subjects. Mueck’s (1969, 1970, 1983) Trichotomy of irony, Booth’s (1974) Dichotomy of irony, Fish’s (1989) Dynamic Interpretation of irony and Rorty’s (1989) Free Interpretation Hypothesis of irony are the most representative in the non-linguistic domain. In linguistics, irony is studied from the perspectives of semantics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics in terms of its recognition and comprehension (Zheng, 2004).

Cutler (1974) divides irony into two types. One appears in the immediate context but not necessarily the previous context, while the other must refer to the previous context. In order to achieve the ironic effect, the speaker use a certain tone of voice to make the hearer doubt the literal words in a certain way.

The pragmatic study of irony began with Paul Grice, who puts forward the Cooperative Principle with four conversational maxims. Grice (1975) holds the view that the irony flouts the Maxim of Quality and implies the opposite meaning. Additionally, Grice agrees with Plato on that irony can be used as disguise. While Kaufer (1981) argues that not only flouting maxims of Cooperative Principle, but other maxims can produce irony. Furthermore, Leech (1983) thinks that Grice’s Cooperative Principle cannot explain the reason why people express their real intentions indirectly, and he also points out that different social groups follow different conversational maxims during communication. Therefore, Leech proposed the politeness principle as a necessary supplement.

Additionally, the mention theory of irony put forward by Sperber and Wilson (1981) is one of the most influential theories in the study of irony (Zeng, 2004). They propose that the understanding of irony depend on three factors, that is, a recognition of the utterance as echoic, an identification of source of opinion echoed and a recognition that the speaker’s attitude to the opinion echoed is of rejection or disapproval.

On the basis of the relevance-theoretic approach to context, Yus (2000) complements Echoic-Interpretation Theory of Irony with a model of contextual activation and criterion of optimal accessibility to irony. Leading contextual sources and supportive contextual sources play an important part in understanding irony. The upper limit of contextual support and the lower limit of contextual absence can help recognize ironic intention. The irony intention can be recognized immediately when the upper limit of context support is exceeded. While the listener cannot recognize the irony intention, if the lower limit of contextual absence is not reached, even if the speaker tries to convey his negative attitude and highlight the echo of his words. He claims that the identification of irony can be sped up by multiple activation of contextual sources and it depends on the number and quality of incompatibilities detected by the hearer in multiple mental activation of the available contextual sources (Hu, 2008).

Echoic interpretation theory combines pragmatics and cognition to study irony in a dynamic way, which shifts the study focus from the production of irony to the comprehension of irony. It provides a more convincing explanation for the understanding of irony than the traditional pragmatic model. Compared with the traditional pragmatic model, echoic theory helps us to understand more about the nature of irony, its operation mechanism and its understanding process. The echoic theory can also explain some irony phenomena that the pragmatic model of irony fails to explain (Fang, 2005).

In 2003, Attardo et al. conducted a study on multimodal markers of irony and sarcasm in Television situation comedies. Markers include phonological markers, facial makers. Specifically, intonation, pitch, nasalization, speech rate, laughter, and raised or lowered eyebrows, wide open or squinting or rolling eyes, winking, nodding, smiling, pointing, blank face can be a cue to identify sarcasm. The new way they have shown to considerate the multimodal nature of the clues for ironical intention, which is essential for a proper evaluation of the clues used to signal irony. They also pointed out that facial expression is one of the markers of irony and sarcasm. Facial signals of ironical intent include eyebrows, eyes, winking, nodding, smiling and blank face. Blank face infers to no smile, no grimance, no eyebrow rasing and no frown. Futhermore, they also find a hierarchy as following: behavioral cues gt; intonational clues gt; semantic clues in the way to overrule the meaning and point out that futher research needs to confirm this claim.

Woodland J. amp; Voyer D. (2011) investigated the tone of voice in the perception of sarcasm in short utterance. They conducted an experiment on how they rate sarcasm perceiving and their response time when context and tone congruent or incongruent. For example reading positive context with sincere tone is congruent, and with sarcastic tone is incongruent.

Henry S. Cheang and Marc D. Pell (2011) conducted a research if the listener can recognize a certain intention even in another unfamiliar language. Finally they found that sarcasm indeed has a unique expression in speech which is different from other attitudes. However, different from common cognition, the recognition of sarcasm by voice varys in important ways across languages, and actually the cross-linguistic recognition of this attitude is poor.

Chen Meiting (2017) found that situation, body languages, exaggerated performance and other non-linguist factors are para-linguistic factors and also can cause ironic effect.

As mentioned before that sarcasm plays a supporting role on the pragmatic scene. Analyzing sarcasm can develop the study of irony. (Joana amp; Carmendia, 2018). Also they said multimodal sarcasm differs from verbal irony in that the ironic intent and surface meaning no longer rely on each other. In multimodal communication, two modes may convey different meanings and then construct tension or paradox.

Zhao Xiufeng (2019) based on the basic theory of social semiotics, constructs a conflict representation system of multimodal sarcasm and analyzed the multimodality of irony in advertisement.

2.3 Previous study on The Big Bang Theory

The study about the Big Bang Theory is a hot topic among scholars in different subjects. Roughly calculated, 437 results whose thesis is this sitcom are found in CNKI and about 98.86% of these studies are in the latest decade. Here, the study from pragmatic perspective will be reviewed.

请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：43412字