| Introduction | 第1-12页 |
| Chapter One General Reflection on the Study of Humor | 第12-24页 |
| ·Definitions of humor | 第12-13页 |
| ·Taxonomies of humor | 第13-15页 |
| ·Origin and development of humor in English and Chinese | 第15-19页 |
| ·Origin of English humor | 第15-16页 |
| ·Origin of Chinese humor | 第16页 |
| ·Development of English humor | 第16-18页 |
| ·Development of Chinese humor | 第18-19页 |
| ·General review of the study on humor | 第19-24页 |
| ·Three basic conventional humor theories | 第20-21页 |
| ·Modern linguistic theories of language humor | 第21-24页 |
| Chapter Two Linguistic Formation-mechanism of Humor in English and Chinese | 第24-40页 |
| ·Humor produced by ambiguity | 第24-28页 |
| ·Humor produce by phonological ambiguity | 第25-26页 |
| ·Humor produced by lexical ambiguity | 第26-27页 |
| ·Humor produced by semantic ambiguity | 第27-28页 |
| ·Humor produced by rhetoric | 第28-31页 |
| ·Humor produced by rhyme | 第28-29页 |
| ·Humor produced by alliteration | 第29-30页 |
| ·Humor and puns | 第30页 |
| ·Humor produced by metaphor | 第30-31页 |
| ·Humor and pragmatics | 第31-40页 |
| ·Speech Act Theory and humor | 第31-33页 |
| ·Cooperative Principle and humor | 第33-37页 |
| ·Humor produced by violating Maxims of Quantity | 第34-35页 |
| ·Humor produced by violating Maxims of Quality | 第35页 |
| ·Humor produced by violating Maxims of Relation | 第35-36页 |
| ·Humor produced by violating Maxims of Manner | 第36-37页 |
| ·Relevance Theory and humor | 第37-40页 |
| Chapter Three Humor: A Reflector of Culture | 第40-52页 |
| ·Connotation of context | 第40-41页 |
| ·Types of context | 第41-44页 |
| ·Context of situation | 第41-43页 |
| ·Context of culture | 第43-44页 |
| ·Culture | 第44-47页 |
| ·Definitions of culture | 第44-45页 |
| ·Characteristics of culture | 第45-46页 |
| ·Cultural stereotype | 第46-47页 |
| ·Language and culture | 第47-48页 |
| ·Language, culture and humor | 第48-52页 |
| Chapter Four Understanding and Transcending Linguistic and Cultural Obstacles | 第52-63页 |
| ·Linguistic features of English and Chinese | 第52-55页 |
| ·Ideographical vs. alphabetical | 第52-53页 |
| ·Inflectional vs. non-inflectional | 第53-55页 |
| ·Reasons leading to cultural obstacles in understanding humor in English | 第55-59页 |
| ·Disparity in social structure | 第55-57页 |
| ·Disparity in culture value | 第57-58页 |
| ·Disparity in philosophy of life | 第58-59页 |
| ·Acculturation and SLA | 第59-63页 |
| ·Acculturation Model | 第60页 |
| ·Acculturation, social distance and psychological distance | 第60-63页 |
| Chapter Five Conclusion | 第63-65页 |
| Notes | 第65-66页 |
| Bibliography | 第66-69页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第69页 |
