Author(s)

Suya Zhang, Jianhua Ji, Junling Wang and Furong Yang

Corresponding Author

Suya Zhang

ABSTRACT

Humor law is very important in the tact principle. Humor law includes several maxims, and the maxim of going by chance and giving up is an important way to produce humor. Generally speaking, this law is realized by the ways of arising to fall, lining drop, and falling after having a rest etc. Lining drop refers to a kind of utterance structure that turns suddenly after listing regularly. Its structural formula is “A1, A2 …An, -A (B)”. Based on the analysis of several examples, the humor generation mechanism is studied from the perspective of cognitive schema in this paper. It can be concluded that the maxim of lining drop uses the means of “induction and overthrow” and “contrast to conventional reasoning” to produce humor.

KEYWORDS

Cognitive schema, lining drop, humor