This paper, by analyzing differences of language humor carefully, is intended to solve the following problems:

(1)What are the differences in humor between Chinese and English?

(2)What are the causes of these differences from cross cultural perspective。

The whole article is pided into five parts。 The first part is brief introduction。 In this part, it generally introduces what the topic is about and the importance of humor。 Meanwhile, it puts forward the problems to be solved in this paper。 Then it analyses the whole structure of this paper。

In the second part, here is about literature review。 In previous researches, many scholars have made much efforts in humor from different perspective。 This part may list some of them and study their theories and viewpoints carefully。 It may use them for preference and present new angle。

In the third part, the thesis goes to a contrastive study of Chinese and English humor。 It includes differences in topics, interlocutors, functions and expression forms。 Among these, functions and expression forms may account for the most part。 As a result, examples are very important and used to explain the differences between them。

In the fourth part, emphasis is paid on causes of differences of Chinese and English humor。 There may be various reasons why humors are different between Chinese and English, for example, social historical backgrounds, religious influence, inpidualism and collective, hierarchy concepts and ways of thinking。文献综述

In the fifth part, it is also the last part。 It comes to conclusion。 After researching on this topic, much may be gained about knowledge and awareness。 Solutions need to be put forward, since the most important thing is not solution but mutual understanding。

2。 Literature Review

Humor is very important in daily communication。 Humor has a long history both in China and western。 In English, the word humor is derived from “humor” in Latin, which is originally a physiology term in ancient Greek and means “Body fluid”。 Body fluid consists of blood, mucus, yellow bile and black bile。 The doctor believes that a man’s health and temperament depends on the proportion of composition of the four portions。 The theory of temperament has a big influence in ancient Greek, middle ages and the renaissance。 When a man is in depression, it indicates that black bile is excessive in body and the best solution is laughter in a big smile。 Then the word is evolved into the meaning of “interesting”, and is widely used owing to Ben Jonson, English humanism dramatist。

In China, humor is first mentioned and translated by Wang Guowei。 In 1924, Lin Yutang, an famous writer, confirms “幽默” as the translation of humor。 Although this version has controversial debate at first, it is finally accepted by people and has been in use until now。 Lin Yutang advocates humor in his book and mentions that humor is a flash of wisdom and all humor is derived from the wisdom of the people。 (Lin 38)

 There are differences between Chinese humor and western humor, such as in topics, purposes, forms, contents and so on。 There are obvious cultural distinctions between the English and Chinese humor due to different values, customs, life styles and traditions。 These all belong to cultural differences。 Many scholars have made great contributions to humor research and humor literary works, such as Chinese famous writer Lin Yutang, Lu Xun and so on, and there are authors whose writing styles are humorous, such as western famous writer Mark Twain, O。Henry, etc。 Their articles are witty and peppered with good one-liners。 From the past times to recent years, there are many scholars, philosophers, sociologists and linguists who have done many studies and discussions about this issue from various perspectives。来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766*