Resolving Ambiguity of Some Egyptian Political Jokes Contemporaneous with 2011 Revolution

Hanan Ebaid

doi:10.5539/ells.v7n4p25

Abstract

This paper focuses on resolving ambiguous jokes that were contemporaneous with 2011 revolution in Egypt. It observes that some jokes are easily understood by some and are unintelligible to others. The current study is a qualitative descriptive research that depends on collecting and analysing qualitative data. The data is classified into three groups each of which represents a group of ambiguous jokes corresponding to a degree on a proposed scale of specificity. This scale comprises linguistic and socio-pragmatic aspects that contribute to disambiguating such jokes and achieving the humorous effect. It finds that understanding a joke in general and an ambiguous one in particular depends not only on linguistic aspects. It also finds that the integration of the scale of specificity into the analysis proves crucial. The degrees on the scale help explain why a joke is understood by some and incomprehensible to others. Those degrees are relative in that what is deemed as a general degree may be regarded as a specific one to others.

Highlights

The Egyptian people are well known for their sharp sense of humour even in critical circumstances like the 2011 revolution that has been abundant in struggle, bloodshed and suffering
The data is classified into three groups each of which represents a group of ambiguous jokes corresponding to a degree on a proposed scale of specificity
The degrees on the scale help explain why a joke is understood by some and incomprehensible to others. Those degrees are relative in that what is deemed as a general degree may be regarded as a specific one to others

Summary

Introduction

The Egyptian people are well known for their sharp sense of humour even in critical circumstances like the 2011 revolution that has been abundant in struggle, bloodshed and suffering. The present study mainly deals with the disambiguation of some Egyptian political jokes contemporaneous with the aforementioned revolution. It attempts to address the following issues. Showing that despite the fact that jokes are essentially meant to be entertaining and humorous, some fail to achieve this. This is sometimes ascribed to a recipient’s inability to grasp the full import of a joke because of his/her unfamiliarity with some words or lack of apt socio-pragmatic information needed for its comprehension. Displaying the need for a tool like a scale of specificity that helps explain and interpret an ambiguous joke

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Conclusion