A Discourse Analysis Study of Comic Words in the American and British Sitcoms

Abstract

This paper investigates discourse analysis and its role in studying comic words and their meaning in different contexts. This study aims at showing the relation between discourse analysis and comedy or comic words, presenting the types of comedy and comic words and how they give meaning of mocking, teasing and sarcasm, presenting the difference between mocking, teasing and sarcasm, displaying interjections and their relation with comic words, in addition to analyzing the data in terms of tables. It is hypothesized that many people do not know the meaning of discourse analysis and comedy. Second, they do not have the capacity to differentiate between comedy, mocking, sarcasm and teasing. They also do not know how to use comic words in expressions. Above all, many of them cannot analyze a particular episode properly and people cannot know the intentions of the speaker concerning comic words. The value of this study is for people who are interested in linguistics. The data used in this study are the American sitcom ‘Friends’ and the British one titled ‘Bottom’. The data is analyzed on the basis of the theories of the Cooperative Principle and Taflinger model. The results of “Friends”, the American sitcom and “Bottom”, the British one, show that there are many comic words. The characters use interjections or onomatopoeia to communicate laughter and excitement. The use of teasing is also emphasized by the use of other comic words like: a*s, breasts, and idiot for presenting jokes and laughter sense.