Recontextualizing Humor

Author: Villy Tsakona
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501511920
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
Humor may surface in numerous and diverse contexts, which at the same time determine how humor works, its form, and its functions and consequences for interlocutors. Adopting a sociolinguistic and discourse analytic perspective, this study is aligned with approaches to humor exploring the variety of humorous genres, the wide range of sociopragmatic functions of humor, and the more or less dissimilar perceptions speakers may have concerning what humor is, what it means, and how it works. The chapters of this book propose a new theoretical approach to the analysis of humor by bringing context into focus. Furthermore, the study explores how we can teach about humor within a critical literacy framework creating classroom space for everyday humorous texts that are part of students’ social realities, and simultaneously taking into account that humor may yield multiple, disparaging, and often conflicting interpretations. This book is intended to appeal to humor researchers from various disciplines (such as linguistics, media studies, cultural studies, literary studies, sociology, anthropology, folklore) as well as to professionals or researchers in education.

The Multimodal Performance of Conversational Humor

Author: Elisa Gironzetti
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 902725785X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
This volume is the first monograph exploring the functions of visual cues in humor, advocating for the development of a non-linguocentric theory of humor performance. It analyzes a corpus of dyadic, face-to-face interactions in Spanish and English to study the relationship between humor, smiling, and gaze, and shows how, by focusing on these elements, it is possible to shed light on the “unsaid” of conversations. In the book, the humorous framing of an utterance is shown to be negotiated and co-constructed dialogically and multimodally, through changes and patterns of smiling synchronicity, smiling intensity, and eye movements. The study also analyzes the multimodal features of failed humor and proposes a new categorization from a dialogic perspective. Because of its interdisciplinary approach, which includes facial expression analysis and eye tracking, this book is relevant to humor researchers as well as scholars in social and behavioral sciences interested in multimodality and embodied cognition.

Exploring the Sociopragmatics of Online Humor

Author: Villy Tsakona
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027246793
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
This monograph explores the diverse sociopragmatic functions and meanings of humorous discourse in various online contexts affecting its use. To this end, an analytical model is proposed which takes into consideration the aspects of context which are relevant to the production and reception of humor, and hence to its sociopragmatic analysis. The model is employed for addressing research questions such as the following: Why may an utterance/text be intended and perceived as humorous by some speakers and fail for others? How and why may speakers attempt to regulate language use through humor? Why and how may the same humorous utterance/text engender diverse and contradictory interpretations? How do speakers create social groups and project social identities through humor? How could the sociopragmatic analysis of humor form the basis for teaching about humor within a critical literacy framework?

Interactional Humor

Author: Béatrice Priego-Valverde
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110983281
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Book Description
The central question explored in this volume is: How is humor multimodally produced, perceived, responded to, and negotiated? To this end, it offers a panorama of linguistic research on multimodal and interactional humor, based on different theoretical frameworks, corpora, and methodologies. Humor is considered as an activity that is interactionally achieved, regardless of whether the interaction in which it is embedded is face-to-face, computer-mediated, with a human or a robot, oral or written. The aim is to analyze both the linguistic resources of the participants (such as their lexicon, prosody, gestures, gazes, or smiles) and the semiotic resources that social networks and instant messaging platforms offer them (such as memes, gifs, or emojis).

The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts

Author: Esther Linares Bernabéu
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 902724975X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in interactional humour from social and pragmatic perspectives, with fascinating results. Released more than a decade later than Norrick and Chiaro (2009) Humor in Interaction, The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts gathers some of the most recent work on humour in interaction, with contributions taking (meta)pragmatic approaches to the analysis of various genres of interactive humour in both online and offline settings. This volume illustrates that a range of methodologies and perspectives can be applied to the study of such a complex phenomenon. These include analyses with a cognitive orientation and with multimodal approaches, work based on Relevance Theory, the General Theory of Verbal Humour, and Conversation Analysis, among others. In addition, all the authors represented here are recognised experts on the subject, and in most cases, are leading specialists in their respective fields. The book can be of use not only to scholars who study the linguistics of humour in interaction but also to students who wish to pursue research in the area.

Linguistic Theories of Humor

Author: Salvatore Attardo
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111280454
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Book Description
Linguistic Theories of Humor appeared thirty years ago. It attracted a lot of attention and ended up being one of the most quoted books in the linguistics of humor. Partly due to its broad coverage which includes both theoretical and socio-pragmatic aspects and partly due to the depth of its bibliography it remained an indispensable reference in many areas, despite the growth of the field. The original fully corrected text is supplemented by a long essay, in which the author revisits the topics of the book to discuss how three decades have shifted the perspective of the field.

De Gruyter Handbook of Humor Studies

Author: Thomas E. Ford
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110755807
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 612

Book Description
The De Gruyter Handbook of Humor Studies consolidates the cumulative contributions in theory and research on humor from 57 international scholars representing 21 different countries in the widest possible diversity of disciplines. It organizes research in a unique conceptual framework addressing two broad themes: the Essence of Humor and the Functions of Humor. Furthermore, scholars of humor have recognized that humor is not only a universal human experience, it is also inherently social, shared among people and woven into the fabric of nearly every type of interpersonal relationship. Scholars across all academic disciplines have addressed questions about the essence and functions of humor at different "levels of analysis" relating to how narrowly or broadly they conceptualize the social context of humor. Accordingly, the editors have organized each broad thematic section into four subsections defined by "level of analysis." The book first addresses questions about individual psychological processes and text properties, then moves to questions involving broader conceptualizations of the social context addressing humor and social relations, and humor and culture. By providing a comprehensive review of foundational work as well as new research and theoretical advancements across academic disciplines, the De Gruyter Handbook of Humor Studies will serve as the foremost authoritative research handbook for experienced humor scholars as well as an essential starting point for newcomers to the field, such as graduate students seeking to conduct their own research on humor. Further, by highlighting the interdisciplinary interest of new and emerging areas of research the book identifies and defines directions for future research for scholars from every discipline that contributes to our understanding of humor.

Transgressive Humor in Classrooms

Author: David E. Low
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040008771
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
In this innovative book, David E. Low examines the multifaceted role of humor in critical literacy studies. Talking about how teachers and students negotiate understandings of humor and social critique vis-à-vis school-based critical literacy curriculums, the book co-examines teachers’ and students’ understandings of humor and critique in schools. Critical literacy centers discussions on power and social roles but often overlooks how students use transgressive humor as a means to interrogate power. Through examples of classroom interactions and anecdotes, Low analyzes the role of humor in classroom settings to uncover how humor interplays with critical inquiry, sensemaking, and nonsense-making. Articulated across the fields of literacy studies and humor studies, the book uses ethnographic data from three Central California high schools to establish linkages and dissonances between critical literacy education and adolescents’ joking practices. Adopting the dialectic of punching up and punching down as a conceptual framework, the book argues that developing more nuanced understandings of transgressive humor presents educators with opportunities to cultivate deeper critical literacy pedagogies and that doing so is a matter of social justice. Essential for scholars and students in literacy education, this book adds to the scholarship on critical literacy by exploring the subversive power of humor in the classroom.

Humour Theory and Stylistic Enquiry

Author: Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031403878
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
This edited book brings together scholarly chapters on linguistic aspects of humour in literary and non-literary domains and contexts in different parts of the world. Previous scholarly engagements and theoretical postulations on humour and the comic provide veritable resources for reexamining the relationship between linguistic elements and comic sensations on the one hand, and the validity of interpretive humour stylistics on the other hand. Renowned Stylistics scholars, such as Michael Toolan, who writes the volume’s foreword against the backdrop of nearly four decades of scholarly engagement with stylistics, and Katie Wales, who in this volume engages with Charles Dickens, one of the most eminent satirists in English literature, as well as many other European and African authors who have worked ceaselessly in the area of humour and language, weigh in on the topic of language and humour in this volume. Together, they provide a variety of interesting perspectives on the topic, deploying different textual sources from different media and from different regions of the world. Part of the book’s offering includes integrative stylistic approaches to humour in African, European and American written texts, examinations of social media and political humour in Nigeria, Cameroon and Zimbabwe, pragmatics and humorous stance-taking, incongruity as comedy in works of fiction, and a unified levels of linguistic analysis approach to the investigation of humour. This book will be of interest to academics and students of Linguistics, Stylistics, Communications and Media Studies, and Humour Studies. Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria

Humor 2.0

Author: Salvatore Attardo
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1839988576
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
The book shows how humor has changed since the advent of the internet: new genres, new contexts, and new audiences. The book provides a guide to such phenomena as memes, video parodies, photobombing, and cringe humor. Included are also in-depth discussions of the humor in phenomena such as Dogecoin, the joke currency, and the use of humor by the alt-right. It also shows how the cognitive mechanisms of humor remain unchanged. Written by a well-known specialist in humor studies, the book is engaging and readable, but also based on extensive scholarship.