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摘要： Humor is a verbal art that embodies the wisdom of human communication. In the film and television works， it plays an important role in giving audience entertainment. Grice proposes the “cooperative principle” to guide people to complete the communication effectively. As a successful carrier of verbal humor， film dialogue provides a large number of typical materials for its pragmatic research and analysis.
關键词： Cooperative Principle; dialogues in The Secret life of Pets; verbal humor
Introduction
As a special language art， humor lies in various situations. As Nash mentioned： “Humor is the distinctive features of human beings.” （Nash， 1981：1）. This essay is to analyze English humor from Grice’s Cooperative principle. Through the analysis， we will know how to generate humor and why a short conversation in the film The Secret Life of Pets can bring us so much entertainment. At the same time， we will know more about how to create humor and how to appreciate humor in The Secret Life of Pets .
Chapter 1 Cooperative Principle
In Logic and Conversation H.P. Grice （Grice，1975：45） states that， “our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks， and would not be rational if they did. They are characteristically， and to some degree at least， cooperative efforts and each participant recognizes in them， to some extent， a common purpose or set of purposes， or at least a mutually accepted direction”. Grice calls the Cooperative Principle （CP） and introduced four categories of maxims：（1）Quantity： Make your contribution as informative as is required （for the current purposes of the exchange）; do not make your contribution more informative than is required.（2）Quality： Try to make your contribution one that is true; do not say what you believe to be false; do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.（3）Relation： Be relevant.（4）Manner： Avoid obscurity of expression; Avoid ambiguity; be brief （avoid unnecessary prolixity）; be orderly. （Grice， 1975：45）.
Chapter 2 The Secret Life of Pets
The Secret Life of Pets is released on 8， July， 2016. Directed by Chris Renaud and produced by Meledandri， p.g.a.， it is a comedy， animation， family and adventure movie. The interesting story and funny dialogues bring to its success. Human beings all like raising different kinds of pets， like dogs， cats， lizard， rabbit， parrot and so on. But at the same time， people are busy in working. They have to leave their pets at home. Max is a cute dog who is loved by his host Katie. However， another dog Duke appearances， they fight for the love of their host. Unfortunately， they were caught by the bad organization. From then on， they have to fight with the bad together and finally become close friend. Chapter 3 Analysis of Verbal Humor in the Secret Life of Pets from the Cooperative Principle
According to Grice， all speakers， no matter what the cultural background he is should obey the Cooperative Principle （Grice， 1975）. However， there are still some circumstances in which the speakers do not obey the cooperative principle. In fact， any apparent violation of the maxims of the Cooperative Principle can actually lead to some invisible intention to the speakers一in this circumstance， the listeners may then infer some inner information which are communicated but unsaid by the speakers. Speaker needs to say something adequate evidence. In the Secret Life of Pets some examples can be given：
Example 1
------Max： Hi Chloe. Do you ever wonder where they go during the day？
------Chloe： Hey， Max. I just… don’t really care.
------Max： Maybe it’s you， but Katie and I have a different relationship. You know， you are a cat. Because nobody could ever love a cat the way they love a dog…
Max loves his host deeply. When host leaves home， he feels upset and waiting his host coming back. When Chloe visits him， he tries to pour out his heart. However， his friends don’t care the host at all. He feels embarrassed， and the dialogue happens. Animals are not clearly about how human beings treat their pets. Max says something lacking of adequate evidence.
Example 2
------Duke： Your bed is gorgeous. Maybe one night you get the bed and the next I do.
------Max： You get an old blanket. That suits you. You’re an old blanket kind of a dog.
Providing more information when answering questions can lead to the humorous effects. According to the maxim of quantity， Max should just reply Duke yes or no， but he didn’t. Max clearly violates it. He gives too much information than required to show his bad feelings with Duke. However， here the humorous effect comes. Animals also have the same feelings as human beings like envy， unhappy and sensible.
Example 3
------Duke： Oh， my god. What happened to you？
------Cat： I had a fight， alright？ With a big stupid dog. He lost.
And sometimes the utterance maybe accompanies by more than one violation of maxim. Duke finds an ugly cat and wants to know what happened. The cat tells him the unhappiness experience with the dog. And even tells the result of the fight. This dialogue shows the violation of quantity and relation.
Example 4 ------Max： So， have a kind of feeling that someone suddenly catch your eye， and you want to date with her...
------Snowball： Ah， yeah， I heard that.
According to the maxim of manner， the answers should avoid ambiguous. However， in this utterance， Max suddenly found himself fall in love with Snowball， and then try to give some clues to her. But， Snowball has no feeling to him at all. So she just responds， “I heard that” obey the maxim of manner which requires to avoid obscurity of expression and ambiguity. This kind of violation makes the audience laugh.
Conclusion
The whole thesis has introduced the reason of study， the significance of the study as well as the definition， classification of humor. Based on the Grice’s cooperative principle， this thesis tried to analyze the examples of verbal humor in the American animated films. So after reading this thesis， the appreciation of the The Secret Life of Pets can be got. However， there are still many limitations in the thesis， all the examples collected in the thesis were chosen by the author， it is clear that there must be some subjectivity reason to the choosing standard. The author hoped these analyses can help readers to understand the humor deeply.
References
[1]Congreve W.1984. The distinction between Wit and Humor [A]. Comedy： Developments in Criticism [C] Ed. D. J. Palmer. New York： Macmillan Press LTD.
[2]Freud， S. 1976. Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious [M].London： Penguin Books.
[3]Grice， H.P.1975. Logic and conversation [M]. NY： Academic Press.
[4]Grice， H.P.1975. Logic and Communication [A].Cole， P. & Morgan， J. （eds）. Syntax and Semantics [C]， vol， 3. New York： Academic.
[5]https：//v.qq.com/x/cover/gd4ls0ntz1hgf0d.html.
[6] Leech， G.1983. Principles of Pragmatics [M].London： Longman Group Ltd.
[7]Nash， W.1985. The Language of Humor [M].New York： Longman Group Limited.
[8]陳春华（1999）.会话幽默的语用分析[J].洛阳：解放军外国语学院学报.
[9]胡范铸（1987）.幽默语言学习[M].上海：上海社会科学院出版社.
[10]刘福长（1987）..从“合作原则”看英语幽默的产生[J].广州：现代外语.
關键词： Cooperative Principle; dialogues in The Secret life of Pets; verbal humor
Introduction
As a special language art， humor lies in various situations. As Nash mentioned： “Humor is the distinctive features of human beings.” （Nash， 1981：1）. This essay is to analyze English humor from Grice’s Cooperative principle. Through the analysis， we will know how to generate humor and why a short conversation in the film The Secret Life of Pets can bring us so much entertainment. At the same time， we will know more about how to create humor and how to appreciate humor in The Secret Life of Pets .
Chapter 1 Cooperative Principle
In Logic and Conversation H.P. Grice （Grice，1975：45） states that， “our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks， and would not be rational if they did. They are characteristically， and to some degree at least， cooperative efforts and each participant recognizes in them， to some extent， a common purpose or set of purposes， or at least a mutually accepted direction”. Grice calls the Cooperative Principle （CP） and introduced four categories of maxims：（1）Quantity： Make your contribution as informative as is required （for the current purposes of the exchange）; do not make your contribution more informative than is required.（2）Quality： Try to make your contribution one that is true; do not say what you believe to be false; do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.（3）Relation： Be relevant.（4）Manner： Avoid obscurity of expression; Avoid ambiguity; be brief （avoid unnecessary prolixity）; be orderly. （Grice， 1975：45）.
Chapter 2 The Secret Life of Pets
The Secret Life of Pets is released on 8， July， 2016. Directed by Chris Renaud and produced by Meledandri， p.g.a.， it is a comedy， animation， family and adventure movie. The interesting story and funny dialogues bring to its success. Human beings all like raising different kinds of pets， like dogs， cats， lizard， rabbit， parrot and so on. But at the same time， people are busy in working. They have to leave their pets at home. Max is a cute dog who is loved by his host Katie. However， another dog Duke appearances， they fight for the love of their host. Unfortunately， they were caught by the bad organization. From then on， they have to fight with the bad together and finally become close friend. Chapter 3 Analysis of Verbal Humor in the Secret Life of Pets from the Cooperative Principle
According to Grice， all speakers， no matter what the cultural background he is should obey the Cooperative Principle （Grice， 1975）. However， there are still some circumstances in which the speakers do not obey the cooperative principle. In fact， any apparent violation of the maxims of the Cooperative Principle can actually lead to some invisible intention to the speakers一in this circumstance， the listeners may then infer some inner information which are communicated but unsaid by the speakers. Speaker needs to say something adequate evidence. In the Secret Life of Pets some examples can be given：
Example 1
------Max： Hi Chloe. Do you ever wonder where they go during the day？
------Chloe： Hey， Max. I just… don’t really care.
------Max： Maybe it’s you， but Katie and I have a different relationship. You know， you are a cat. Because nobody could ever love a cat the way they love a dog…
Max loves his host deeply. When host leaves home， he feels upset and waiting his host coming back. When Chloe visits him， he tries to pour out his heart. However， his friends don’t care the host at all. He feels embarrassed， and the dialogue happens. Animals are not clearly about how human beings treat their pets. Max says something lacking of adequate evidence.
Example 2
------Duke： Your bed is gorgeous. Maybe one night you get the bed and the next I do.
------Max： You get an old blanket. That suits you. You’re an old blanket kind of a dog.
Providing more information when answering questions can lead to the humorous effects. According to the maxim of quantity， Max should just reply Duke yes or no， but he didn’t. Max clearly violates it. He gives too much information than required to show his bad feelings with Duke. However， here the humorous effect comes. Animals also have the same feelings as human beings like envy， unhappy and sensible.
Example 3
------Duke： Oh， my god. What happened to you？
------Cat： I had a fight， alright？ With a big stupid dog. He lost.
And sometimes the utterance maybe accompanies by more than one violation of maxim. Duke finds an ugly cat and wants to know what happened. The cat tells him the unhappiness experience with the dog. And even tells the result of the fight. This dialogue shows the violation of quantity and relation.
Example 4 ------Max： So， have a kind of feeling that someone suddenly catch your eye， and you want to date with her...
------Snowball： Ah， yeah， I heard that.
According to the maxim of manner， the answers should avoid ambiguous. However， in this utterance， Max suddenly found himself fall in love with Snowball， and then try to give some clues to her. But， Snowball has no feeling to him at all. So she just responds， “I heard that” obey the maxim of manner which requires to avoid obscurity of expression and ambiguity. This kind of violation makes the audience laugh.
Conclusion
The whole thesis has introduced the reason of study， the significance of the study as well as the definition， classification of humor. Based on the Grice’s cooperative principle， this thesis tried to analyze the examples of verbal humor in the American animated films. So after reading this thesis， the appreciation of the The Secret Life of Pets can be got. However， there are still many limitations in the thesis， all the examples collected in the thesis were chosen by the author， it is clear that there must be some subjectivity reason to the choosing standard. The author hoped these analyses can help readers to understand the humor deeply.
References
[1]Congreve W.1984. The distinction between Wit and Humor [A]. Comedy： Developments in Criticism [C] Ed. D. J. Palmer. New York： Macmillan Press LTD.
[2]Freud， S. 1976. Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious [M].London： Penguin Books.
[3]Grice， H.P.1975. Logic and conversation [M]. NY： Academic Press.
[4]Grice， H.P.1975. Logic and Communication [A].Cole， P. & Morgan， J. （eds）. Syntax and Semantics [C]， vol， 3. New York： Academic.
[5]https：//v.qq.com/x/cover/gd4ls0ntz1hgf0d.html.
[6] Leech， G.1983. Principles of Pragmatics [M].London： Longman Group Ltd.
[7]Nash， W.1985. The Language of Humor [M].New York： Longman Group Limited.
[8]陳春华（1999）.会话幽默的语用分析[J].洛阳：解放军外国语学院学报.
[9]胡范铸（1987）.幽默语言学习[M].上海：上海社会科学院出版社.
[10]刘福长（1987）..从“合作原则”看英语幽默的产生[J].广州：现代外语.