The Linguistics of Humor

Description

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.

• Includes a glossary and a detailed introduction to the relevant terminology and conceptual and methodological apparatus
• Accessible to students with no background in humor studies
• Offers wide-ranging coverage that includes theoretical analyses, issues in applied linguistics, and topics that extend beyond the central field of linguistics

About the Author(s)

Salvatore Attardo, Professor of Linguistics, Texas A&M University-Commerce

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).

Table 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

Reviews

"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

"The book-a must for linguists and humour scholarsalike -is intended to assess the current state of research and "set it out clearly in as comprehensive a framework as possible" (p. 384)." - Władysław Chłopicki, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, The European Journal of Humour Research

"Indispensable, both as a text and for deep reading and reflection, giving comprehensive insight into how linguistics applies to humorous communications and the wider realms of humour theory and analysis. This book reflects a lifetime of reading and thinking on the complex and puzzling topic—what is the nature of humour and how do we research it?" - Jessica Milner Davis, University of Sydney

"It is often held to be a scientific ideal that we draw from multiple disciplinary perspectives in advancing our understanding of complex social phenomena such as humour, but we fall short of that ideal for the most part. Professor Attardo shows us how it should be done. In The Linguistics of Humor, he offers us a masterful and insightful overview that will help both those new to the field, as well as seasoned researchers, navigate the rapidly growing field of humour studies. Throughout the volume he integrates different theoretical and methodological perspectives, resulting in something that is much more than the simple sum of its parts. This is a must-read for anyone interested in humour studies." - Michael Haugh, University of Queensland

"No doubt the most comprehensive treatment of the linguistic study of humor. Attardo succeeds, in particular, in showing how the phenomenon (or better, phenomena) of humor involve(s) the full complexity of what people do with language." - Jef Verschueren, University of Antwerp

"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." - Baiyao Zu, Brill