Linguistics of Humor - An Introduction

This book is the first comprehensive and systematic introduction to the linguistics of humor. Salvatore Attardo takes a broad approach to the topic, exploring not only theoretical linguistic analyses, but also pragmatic and semantic aspects, conversation and discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and interactionist and variationist sociolinguistics. The volume begins with chapters that introduce the terminology and conceptual and methodological apparatus, as well as outlining the major theories in the field and examining incongruity and resolution and the semiotics of humor. The second part of the book explores humor competence, with chapters that cover semantic and pragmatic topics, the General Theory of Verbal Humor, and puns and their interpretation. The third part provides an in-depth discussion of the applied linguistics of humor, and examines social context, discourse and conversation analysis, and sociolinguistic aspects. In the final part of the book, the discussion is extended beyond the central field of linguistics, with chapters discussing humor in literature, in translation, and in the classroom.

The volume brings together the multiple strands of current knowledge about humor and linguistics, both theoretical and applied; it assumes no prior background in humor studies, and will be a valuable resource for students from advanced undergraduate level upwards, particularly those coming to linguistics from related disciplines.

List of contents

• Preface


• List of figures and tables


• Part I: Humor Studies


• 1: Humor studies: A few definitions


• 2: Methodological preliminaries


• 3: Theories of humor and their levels


• 4: Incongruity and resolution


• 5: Semiotics of humor


• Part II: Humor Competence


• 6: The semantics of humor


• 7: The General Theory of Verbal Humor


• 8: Pragmatics of humor


• 9: Verbal humor


• Part III: Humor Performance


• 10: The performance of humor


• 11: Conversation analysis: Humor in conversation I


• 12: Discourse analysis: Humor in conversation II


• 13: Sociolinguistics of humor


• Part IV: Applications


• 14: Humor in literature


• 15: Humor and translation


• 16: Humor in the classroom


• 17: Conclusion


• Glossary


• References


• Index

About the author

Salvatore Attardo is Professor of Linguistics at Texas A&M University - Commerce. He works primarily on the linguistics of humor, and on issues relating to implicatures, irony, and rationality, and more generally on Neo-Gricean pragmatics. He was Editor-in-Chief of HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research for ten years. His publications include Linguistic Theories of Humor (De Gruyter, 1994), Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis (De Gruyter, 2001), and, as editor, The Encyclopedia of Humor Studies (Sage, 2014) and The Handbook of Language and Humor (Routledge, 2017).

Summary

This book is the first comprehensive and systematic introduction to the linguistics of humor, exploring not only theoretical linguistic analyses, but also topics from applied linguistics. It will be a valuable resource for students from advanced undergraduate level upwards, particularly those coming to linguistics from related disciplines.

Additional text

Attardo successfully anticipates what target audiences want to know, what questions they may have, and what narrative style is optimal for them to understand the linguistics of humor. The target audience will surely benefit from this outstanding work...Reading this book while reflecting on one's own research, linguistic researchers studying humor can get insightful information.

Report

This elementary book is well structured and presented for readers without prior training in humor studies. Overall, it provides a clear foundation for understanding humor's embedding in linguistic practice, and its distinct (yet overlapping) cognitive, emotional, and physiological/embodied manifestations. As awkward as it can sometimes be to explain a joke, I enjoyed every aspect of this enlightening, eye-opening book. Joseph Comer, Language in Society

Product details

• Authors: Salvatore Attardo, Salvatore (Professor of Linguistics Attardo
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.06.2020
• EAN: 9780198791287
• ISBN: 978-0-19-879128-7
• No. of pages: 496
• Series: Oxford Linguistics
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics