Contrastive Analysis of Chinese and Western Verbal Humor

Verbal humors are indispensable parts of culture. Researchers have analyzed the differences from cross-cultural perspective, few have considered their similarities. This thesis analyzes the similarities between Chinese and Western verbal humors from the fuzzy speech, fuzzy meaning, fuzzy sentence semantics and further compares differences regarding topics, objects, expressing styles and occasions. From these perspectives, this thesis explores the culture reasons from attitudes towards hierarchy and life philosophies. Thus, the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western verbal humors can promote the understanding of the other culture, as well as improve the cross-cultural awareness for effective communication.