Humor in literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 319-339
Author(s):  
Salvatore Attardo

This chapter considers applications of the linguistics of humor to literary texts. It considers in particular applications of the Semantic-Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) and the General theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), under two approaches: the expansionist approach, which applies the SSTH as is to larger texts, and the revisionist approach, which introduces a set of other tools for the analysis of longer texts, among which is the distinction between punch lines and jab lines. Other approaches are also considered including narratological, stylistic, and register humor.

Author(s):  
Salvatore Attardo

Interest in the linguistics of humor is widespread and dates since classical times. Several theoretical models have been proposed to describe and explain the function of humor in language. The most widely adopted one, the semantic-script theory of humor, was presented by Victor Raskin, in 1985. Its expansion, to incorporate a broader gamut of information, is known as the General Theory of Verbal Humor. Other approaches are emerging, especially in cognitive and corpus linguistics. Within applied linguistics, the predominant approach is analysis of conversation and discourse, with a focus on the disparate functions of humor in conversation. Speakers may use humor pro-socially, to build in-group solidarity, or anti-socially, to exclude and denigrate the targets of the humor. Most of the research has focused on how humor is co-constructed and used among friends, and how speakers support it. Increasingly, corpus-supported research is beginning to reshape the field, introducing quantitative concerns, as well as multimodal data and analyses. Overall, the linguistics of humor is a dynamic and rapidly changing field.


Author(s):  
Tony Veale

AbstractHumor and incongruity appear to be constant bedfellows, for at the heart of every joke one can point to some degree of absurdity, illogicality, or violation of expectation. This observation has lead many theories of humor to base themselves around some notion of incongruity or opposition, most notably the semantic-script theory (or SSTH) of Raskin and the subsequent general theory (or GTVH) of Attardo and Raskin. But correlation does not imply causality (a reality used to good effect in many successful examples of humor), and one should question whether incongruity serves a causal role in the workings and appreciation of humor or merely an epiphenomenal one. It remains a key question for humor researchers as to whether listeners react to incongruities by constructing humorous interpretations, or whether they collaboratively create these incongruities as a result of opportunistically constructing humorous interpretations.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Corduas ◽  
Salvatore Attardo ◽  
Alyson Eggleston

The article presents statistical evidence for the claim that the distribution of humor in Oscar Wilde's Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Douglas Adams's The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not random and differs significantly between both texts. Using the methodology of the General Theory of Verbal Humor, all the instances of humour in both texts were identified and recorded. The distance between each instance was then calculated and subjected to analysis. The statistical model used to prove the hypotheses is explained in some detail and some hypotheses to explain the findings are presented. The significance of the finding that the distribution of humour in long texts is not random is found to lie in having introduced a new fact in need of explanation through literary theories.


Author(s):  
Elliott Oring
Keyword(s):  

AbstractFor more than a quarter of a century, the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH) and its successor, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), have been employed to characterize the factors that define a joke, to describe the components of jokes and their interrelationships, and to provide a model for the analysis of joke texts. But these theories have never been adequately scrutinized. When approached from the perspective of


Author(s):  
Robert Kristein

Die Ontologie fiktiver Objekte in fiktionalen Texten gehört zu den am meisten diskutierten Problemstellungen einer allgemeinen Fiktionalitätstheorie. Der Beitrag geht von Überlegungen Rudolf Hallers zum Realgehalt fiktiver Gegenstände aus und verbindet diese mit dem Modell der Possible Worlds Theory (PWT). Eine besondere Stärke dieser Theorie liegt darin, dass sie nicht allein zur Analyse der borders of fiction, die zwischen Realund Textwelt liegen, beiträgt, sondern insbesondere eine exaktere Differenzierung innerhalb der Textwelt selbst erlaubt, indem sie fragt, was auf Ebene einer Textual actual world (TAW) möglich, unmöglich und notwendig ist. Auf diese Weise lassen sich die Wunschwelten einzelner Figuren und ihre Konfrontation mit dem, was innerhalb einer Textwelt ›tatsächlich‹ aktualisiert wird, näher beschreiben und, wie im Fall von Ovids Exilgedichten Tristia, das literarische Spiel mit den unterschiedlichen Ebenen von Fiktivität analysieren. <br><br>The ontology of fictional objects in fictional literary texts is one of the most debated issues of a general theory of fiction. This contribution starts out from considerations by Rudolf Haller, connecting them with the model of the Possible Worlds Theory (PWT). A particular strength of this theory is that it does not only analyse the borders of fiction, which lie between the real and the text world, but that it offers in particular a more accurate differentiation within the text world itself by drawing attention to the issue of what is possible, impossible and necessary within a Textual actual world (TAW). In this way, for example, the ‘Wunschwelt’ of individual characters and their confrontation with what will be possible or actual within a particular text world, can be described in detail and, as in the case of Ovid’s exile poems Tristia, the literary play with different levels of fictitiousness can be analysed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sajjad Kianbakht

In the present research, we discuss Humour Studies within Linguistics, focusing mainly on linguistic theories of humour including the Semantic Script Theory of Humour (SSTH; Raskin 1985), and the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH; Attardo 1994, 2017b). The study demonstrates different types of cultural conceptualisations (Sharifian 2017a, 2017b) that the interlocutors draw upon, such as cultural categories, cultural metaphors, and cultural schemas to create humour, and we argue that the General Theory of Verbal Humour does not account for culturally-constructed verbal humour. Hence, we argue that it is necessary to fill this gap in the most prevailing theory of verbal humour, the General Theory of Verbal Humour, by demonstrating how cultural conceptualisations must be considered in identifying and analysing instantiations of humour, in moving towards a comprehensive theory of culturally constructed humour.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliott Oring

Abstract The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) has dominated the discussion of humor theory for the last quarter of a century. It generated a great deal of interest in humor studies by scholars both within and outside the discipline of linguistics. Problems are resident in GTVH, however, which have been inherited from its predecessor the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH). Script Opposition and Script Overlap are not adequately defined, nor are they sufficient for the identification of a joke-carrying text. The resource of the Logical Mechanism posited by GTVH may have complicated rather than simplified the matter as the list of proposed mechanisms are too loosely defined and woefully incomplete. The Ontological Semantics Theory of Humor (OSTH) has promised to demonstrate the adequacy of the linguistic theories of humor by the ability of computers to process natural language input to discriminate between joke-carrying and non-joke-carrying texts. That promise, also decades old, remains to be fulfilled, and it is questionable whether it can be fulfilled if based on SSTH and GTVH platforms.


Author(s):  
Leite, Marli Quadros

Our goal in this article is to analyze the Postillas de grammmatica geral applicada á lingua portugueza pela analyse dos classicos, ouguia para a construcção portugueza (Apostilles of General Grammar as Applied to the Portuguese Language Through the Analysis of the Classics, or, a Guide to Portuguese Construction) (1868 [1862]), by Francisco Sotero dos Reis (1800-1871), in order to investigate to what extent the author applies the foundations of the general theory to the exploration and interpretation of excerpts syntax from literary texts of the Portuguese language collected for analysis. We will be working with theory, methods and techniques from the História das Ideias Linguisticas (History of Linguistic Ideas) (Auroux 2006, 2009; Colombat, Fournier, Puech 2017; Leite 2018), which leads us to treat the grammatical fact selected for analysis as an effect, and as a cause the theory that served the interpretation given by the grammarian to that fact.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Crimston ◽  
Matthew J. Hornsey

AbstractAs a general theory of extreme self-sacrifice, Whitehouse's article misses one relevant dimension: people's willingness to fight and die in support of entities not bound by biological markers or ancestral kinship (allyship). We discuss research on moral expansiveness, which highlights individuals’ capacity to self-sacrifice for targets that lie outside traditional in-group markers, including racial out-groups, animals, and the natural environment.


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