The Origin of Grammar in Punch Lines

Grammatical origin is an important concept that is unavoidable in the development of linguistics.This paper first introduces the linguistic categorization by Taylor in 2001.Then, evidence is provided to demonstrate the fact that punch line prototypes are distributed in different languages, such as those in English and Chinese.By comparing contrasts between English and Chinese punch lines, the essential features of grammatical roots can be revealed.For example, English punch line reflects the origin of grammar in terms of structure, orientation, and patterns, which is different from that of Chinese due to differences in cognition.In conclusion, the real source of entertainment comes not only from the collision between the old perception and the new reality, but also from the paraphrase of the natural origin of grammar in respect of the humor prototypes that the humor subject is able to paraphrase, namely, its own grammatical origin.