General Theory Of Verbal Humor Research Articles

Audiovisual Translation of Persian Humour on Social Media

Using a blend of methods including existing subtitling models in Audiovisual Translation (AVT), Functionalism in Translation Studies, the General Theory of Verbal Humour, Cultural Linguistics (CuL) and careful analysis of numerous examples of Persian humour on social media, i.e. Instagram, the present research aims to demonstrate that there is a compelling argument to be made for updating traditional approaches to translation, subtitling in particular (cf. Zabalbeascoa, 2019). The findings of this study show that in today’s globalised world, in which social media and new technologies are influencing the translation process, the core model of translation, subtitling in particular, in all its actuality, seems to be incomplete, as cultural conceptualisations underlying lexical items are lost in translation. Cultural conceptualisations that are, however, central to meaning construction and humour perception in the target culture. Cultural conceptualisations that are, thus, crucial for translators’ daily task. The study suggests that in order to meet the concerns of the translation profession today, in this globalised world with its new ways of communication, and for successful intercultural communication, cultural conceptualisations underlying lexical items be incorporated into Audiovisual Translation (AVT), subtitling models (cf. Zabalbeascoa, 2019).

The co-construction of humor in computer-mediated teacher-student communication

This paper investigates the way online humorous exchanges are jointly constructed and recognized by a teacher and her students. It focuses on the role humor studies play in understanding issues related to Computer-mediated Communication (CMC). The data consist of synchronous discussions of 11 Tunisian learners of English and their teacher via instant messaging on Skype. The analysis uses the notion of script oppositions (SOs) in the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) and offers an account for the internal structure of exchanges; how the exchange begins with a serious mode, how it gradually develops into a humorous play frame, and how inferences are drawn. The study reveals that humor is created by activating binary SOs and shows that the teacher/student dynamics can make joking online more difficult to interpret than joking among peers. With reference to the analysis of the specific context of the CMC discussions, a serious set up of a humorous sequence created by a teacher can leave students uncertain toward the playfulness of the sequence. A playful set up, on the other hand, makes participants engage in a joint fantasy and build new layers of meaning as the conversation develops.

Translating English humor into Chinese subtitles: a semiotic perspective

This semiotically-oriented study examined the Chinese subtitle translations for humor in English sitcoms and highlighted the interactions between the verbal and the visual modes. Drawing on the General Theory of Verbal Humor and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this study examined three script opposition types: normal vs. abnormal, actual vs. nonactual, and possible vs. impossible; furthermore, it analyzed three logical mechanism categories: false specification or exemplification; exaggeration or false analogy; and false reasoning on time, space, cause, or condition. It focused on the Chinese subtitles for English verbally-visually expressed humor in the English sitcom Modern Family (Season 5) and found that literal translation and explicitation are the two predominantly employed translation procedures to render script opposition and logical mechanism. This study further demonstrates that the two key concerns for subtitling English verbally-visually expressed humor are highlighting the incongruities embodied in script opposition and triggering the semiotic resolutions represented in logical mechanisms. These findings elucidate the relevance of visual elements for subtitling humor both among subtitle translators and researchers.

Exploring the Construction of Identities in Written Humorous Narratives by L2 Learners of Greek

The aim of this paper is to explore how adult learners of Greek as a second language construct their identities through humorous written narratives. Analyzing 135 written humorous narratives with Bamberg’s (1997) narrative positioning model and the knowledge resources of script opposition and target from the General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo 1994, 2001), we detect two main categories: (a) narratives of legitimizing identities and (b) narratives of resistance identities. Here we discuss one narrative of each category in which narrators position themselves towards aspects of the Greek sociolinguistic context. Humor emerges as a basic tool for identity construction and stance expression, as narrators either align themselves with dominant values of the L2 context or disassociate themselves from it.

Disparaging Wives through Humor: A Linguistic Analysis of Jokes on Pakistani Social Media

Abstract
 Humor is a tool to develop and to strengthen mutual relationships among people. Humor sometimes is used to show superiority of a person, sect, caste or gender to other. This particular study about the linguistic structure of randomly selected jokes is made in order to highlight different stereotypes that are associated with the Pakistani wives. For this purpose a corpus of 60 jokes is developed by collecting jokes randomly in Urdu languge related to wives, using facebook pages,“Husband & Wife jokes” and “Laughing colours” and then twenty jokes are further selected under specific themes for analysis. These jokes are translated into English language and then analyzed using the Atordo’s and Raskin’s model of (GTVH) general theory of verbal humour (1991). This study also throws light on the fact that the stigmas attached with pakistani wives in the form of jokes are widely accepted and enjoyed even by wives themselves that is giving way to their disparaged identity in our society. Hence, the aim of this study is to make the Pakistani women and the wives aware of the intensity of this situation and to provoke them to reject this practice of their disrespect and exploitation through verbal humour. This study will also prove helpful for the future reserch in order to check and make variations in the attitude of the participants and the receivers of the jokes to discourage jokes which are the source of disresopect for any other sect or gender.
 Key words: Verbal humor, GTVH, wives in jokes,

Indonesian humorous status in social media: An application of script-based semantic theory of humour

This paper aims to analyse Indonesian humorous status in social media by applying the Script Semantic Theory of Humour (SSTH) and the parameters called Knowledge Resources (KRs) of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH). It is conducted by applying a qualitative method since the purpose of this study is primarily to describe and to establish the variation in a situation, phenomenon, problem, or event without quantifying them. The data is taken from Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp account followed by the first writer of this study for eight months. There are 17 statuses to be analysed, in which, seven statuses consist of 21 phrases analysed by applying SSTH theory, while the other 10 statuses consist of 14 phrases as set-up stages, 18 phrases, and three pictures as punchline stages analysed by applying GTVH theory. From the data being displayed, regarding the Superiority theory, it is found that people generally laugh because of other people’s misfortunes, and it emphasizes one’s superiority to the shortcomings of others. The people will laugh at individuals who are inferior or ugly, because they feel happy, and feel superior to them. Based on Release/Relief theory, humorous status also stems from regenerating something painful into something light-hearted. It is an indication of the misfortunate aspects of life. From the Incongruity theory, it is found that humour appears when there is an oddity between the concepts prepared in certain situations and the real events that are thought to be related to the concept. The paper further elaborates the findings and discuss them in detail.

Towards a comprehensive theory of culturally constructed humour

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.

A Pragmatic Analysis of the Discourse of Humour and Irony in Selected Memes on Social Media

The aim of this study is to examine how memes peculiar to Nigerians on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram employ language to convey humour and irony. Memes can be aptly conceptualized as internet-based entertainment contents principally propagated through social networking and micro-blogging sites which come in varied forms like pictures and written texts, written texts that may or may not be conversational in nature, videos, animations and GIFs. This study adopts a qualitative eclectic approach in its analysis of conversational memes which served as data gathered from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Guided by the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH), thirty (30) conversational memes were purposively selected for discussion using the guises or forms of humour as the unit of analysis on the one hand and discussions situated within empirical and theoretical postulations on the other hand. Findings from the study showed that all the reactions to the originating posts exhibit some form of incongruity and were also verbally ironical. The nature of the originating posts in line with the speech act classification were also found to be expressives and assertives. The study further revealed that three guises of humour namely sarcasm, witticism and pun were prominent in the reaction to the originating posts with sarcasm constituting the major guise of humour used while also pointing out that users on Twitter use humour more than those on Facebook and Instagram.

“That’s the Metaphor You’re Going for?” Deliberate Metaphor and Humor

Abstract This paper aims at discussing the function of deliberate metaphors in humorous narratives due to the similarities in mechanisms underlying both elements of language. This corpus-based analysis has shown the relation between deliberate metaphors and elements of the knowledge resources of the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH). The study has revealed that if deliberate metaphors are part of humorous narratives, they are more likely to be the source of the funniness rather than the transit system which conveys the metaphors themselves. With this in mind, it is possible to assess the extent to which deliberate metaphors contribute to humor.

Digital Literacy via Readers’ Responses towards Humor Presented in “9GAG Memes”

Language education by using digital literacy via reader response approaches towards humor presented in social media will attract the student attention during learning process. The purpose of this research is to analyze the text produced by learners in order to explain how they provide responses towards humorous, fearing, annoying, pitiful, and confusing memes.This research is a qualitative research. The approach of the research is descriptive approach. This research was a readers response analysis focusing on descriptive qualitative. The data collecting done by observation, documentation and questionnaires. The subject of the study are students of SMA Negeri 1 Pecangaan Jepara. The method applied in this research is General Theory of Verbal Humor and Reader ‘s Response Theory as the approach in which the researcher related the contexts of the data to the data analyzed in order to make replicable and valid inferences from data to its context. The result of the research shows digital literacy skill of the XII grade of SMA Negeri 1 Pecangaan Jepara students is quite good. The reader accepts the aspects of humor through their current contribution on their response inside their peer group.

Post-revolutionary humorous representations of Americans in Royall Tyler’s The Contrast (1787)

The paper focuses on the analysis of humour as a means of doing American identities in the first American comedy, Royall Tyler’s “The Contrast” (1789) (Downer 1960) which introduced to the American stage the archetypal Yankee in the character of Jonathan. I will show that Tyler’s stage portrait of the Yankee, as well as other portraits of Americans in the play, are not one-sided caricatures but rather complex and engaging representations. I will follow the General Theory of Verbal Humour (henceforth GTVH) (Attardo and Raskin 1991; Attardo 1994, 2001) taking a close look mostly on the target(s) of “jab lines”. Other “knowledge resources” will be addressed as well, so that the humour of the selected extracts is fully demonstrated. Among other theoretical tools, the GTVH can prove a valuable tool for the analysis of a comedy in that it will enable me to pronounce clearly the playwright’s targets of humour.

Metapragmatic stereotypes and humour: interpreting and perceiving linguistic homogeneity in mass culture texts

The present study concentrates on the potential of mass culture texts to impose specific metapragmatic stereotypes (Agha 2007) through humour on the wider audience. Metapragmatic stereotypes constitute speakers’ internal models of how language should or should not be used; such models guide speakers’ own language use and enable them to make evaluations about their own language behaviour or that of others. In this context, I explore the dominant metapragmatic stereotypes for humorous mass culture texts’ interpretation and perception. To this end, I analyse a humorous Greek TV advertisement of a telecommunications company. Drawing upon Coupland’s (2007) conceptualization of style and the General Theory of Verbal Humour (Attardo 2001), I intend to show that humour reflects, sustains, and reproduces the dominant metapragmatic stereotypes of linguistic homogenization and monolingualism (Blommaert & Rampton 2011). Then, I explore how the audience perceives the representation of stylistic choices in mass culture texts and more specifically in the analysed advertisement. My informants were 96 students of the last two grades of elementary school. The recipients’ responses show that their metapragmatic stereotypes are aligned with the dominant ones: they approach stylistic choices as strictly-defined systems used in specific social contexts and they expect the alignment of TV fictional characters with linguistic homogeneity. My findings suggest that humour stigmatises specific styles as well as that the audience perceives the respective (and reinforced through humour) metapragmatic stereotypes as guidelines for “correct” stylistic use. Furthermore, it seems that through humour such stereotypes usually go unnoticed in mass culture texts and may even become naturalised, as they are framed in a “trivial” and “non-serious” manner.

How to kill with a smile – how to smile about a kill: violent clowns as double incongruity

This article applies the General Theory of Verbal Humor and its expansions to the friendly clown and transfers it to scary materials represented through the figure of the evil, violent clown. It demonstrates that the clown’s effects of exhilaration and fear both rely on incongruity mechanisms and which similarities and differences exist between humorous and scary material. This article focuses on the violent but funny clowns of the Pilo Family Circus and develops the notion of double incongruity to explain why it is possible to laugh about a destructive and brutal clown and how potential recipients process this incongruity type cognitively.

The predictable semiotic essence of humor

AbstractThis short paper responds to Oring’s renewed and detailed criticism of the General Theory of Verbal Humor (2019). While conceding the need for some clarifications and elaborations in multidisciplinary collaboration, it mainly points to misunderstandings and misdirections of that criticism.

An Analysis of Verbal Humor Found in Sitcom Tetangga Masa Gitu

AbstractNowadays, humor is something that has significant role in daily life. Humor can be found in any aspects in human life, such as in education, literature, and also entertainment. One of various entertainment in Indonesian Television that contain humor is situation comedy. This research pay attention in analyzing verbal humor by using theory of Shade (1996) and analyze the types of verbal humor by using General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH). The method used in the research is descriptive method. The result of the study shows that there were 81 verbal humor found in sitcom Tetangga Masa Gitu: Pun (1,2%), Joke (2,4%), Satire (32,2%), Anecdote (1,2%), Irony (34,5%), Sarcasm (8,3%), Tall tale (8,3%), and Wit (110,7%). There were no Riddle, Limerick, Parody and Farce in this object. The verbal humor that found in both object was analyzed by using six parameters of Knowledge Resources (KRs) of GTVH. The six parameters are Script Opposition (SO), Logical Mechanism (LM), Situation (SI), Target (Ta), Narrative Strategy (NS), and Language (LA).Key words: Verbal Humor, Types, GTVH, Six Knowledge Resources

An Analysis of Verbal Humor in Ini Talk Show

One of the ways to express the idea or opinion in communication is through humor. It is not only to express the idea, humor also can be functioned to entertain, one of them through television program, talk show. This research aimed to compare the types of verbal humor that found in Ini Talk Show. This research was descriptive comparative. The data were the clauses which consist of verbal humor within transcribed video. The total of video were 5 videos. The data were analyzed by using theory of Shade (1996) and General Theory of Verbal Humor (1991). Theory of Shade (1996) was used to analyze the types of verbal humor and General Theory of Verbal Humor (1991) used to analyze the types of verbal humor that found in both object. The result of the research showed that there were 192 numbers of verbal humor found in Ini Talk Show. It is found that 10 out of 12 types of verbal humor found in Ini Talk Show. It means, the hosts of the show were good in creating humorous situation in the show.

Gender stereotypes depicted in online sexist jokes

This research aimed to explore gender stereotypes depicted in online sexist jokes collected from laughfactory.com. Linguistically speaking, jokes as a subtype of humour have become a common phenomenon in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, not all jokes can bring positive vibes for everyone. Yet, these forms of jokes are still commonly found, especially on the Internet. Some online sources, including websites of jokes, present a lot of collections of jokes for fun, but a number of the jokes are categorized as sexist jokes, which might also be regarded as offensive in a certain context. Data were collected from the laughfactory.com website and then were analysed by using the three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH). Results showed that the majority of the humours observed were targeted at women (90%) and a small number was targeted at men (10%). Women were stereotyped as sexual objects, emotionally expressive beings, homemakers, being talkative, being stupid or brainless, and belonging to a lower class than men. Men, on the other hand, were stereotyped as worse than women.

Breaking frame and frame-shifting in Bassem Youssef’s satirical TV show al-Bernāmeg

This paper reviews how humor is made in terms of three theoretical models. First, it draws on the contribution of the structural semantics to the understanding of the text of the joke, especially the related notion of isotopy and the linear organization of the text of the joke. Second, this paper discusses humor in light of the Semantic Script Theory of Humor (SSTH), and the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH). Third, this paper draws also on two pragmatic and discursive approaches, namely Grice’s cooperative principle, and Simpson’s model of satire as a discourse. This paper argues that semantic incongruities and their resolutions, as well as the violations of the cooperation principle can be best apprehended in light of the frames theory as developed in social sciences by Erving Goffman and frameshifting theory as it has been developed by Seana Coulson. The aim of this paper is to reveal the mechanism used toproduce humorand laughter in one of the most popular satirical shows in the Arab world, Bassem Youssef’s al-Bernāmeg. The focus is not only on what humor/satire does (ridicule, mockery, attack of targets, overstepping of boundaries…), but also on how it does it (violation of codes, breaking frames, frame-shifting, conceptual blending) and why these discursive strategies are used (implications in light of historical and cultural context). This paper also argues that the generation of humor can be based broadly on breaking frames, which is inclusive of incongruity (both verbal and contextual), but studied in a multimodal content where incongruity is based on breaking and shattering frames that are constructed in verbal and visual forms. Humor generation is conducted through a continuous chain-like process of building, shattering, and rebuilding frames. It also deals with the frame-shifting and conceptual blending mechanisms at the level of interpretation and the construction of the meaning of humor. The aim is to account for the creative and flexible use of language for satiric purposes and thus to enhance the ability of traditional frame-based systems, including script-opposition theory to account for such flexibility in light of context and with reference to background.

Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited

AbstractThe 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.

Parsing satirical humor: a model of cognitive-linguistic satire analysis / Raščlanjivanje satiričkog humora: primjer kognitivnolingvističke analize satire

Even though not all satire needs to be funny, it is the humorous element that makes it amusing. This paper attempts at explaining the humorous element along with the inner working of satire from a Cognitive Linguistic viewpoint. This paper proposes an integrated Cognitive-Linguistic approach to verbal and visual satire, and the humor ensuing therefrom. By employing Blending Theory and General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), the aim is to structure a comprehensive ready-made model for future satire analysis. The present study analyses satire in the fake news TV format of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, a highly potent resource of both verbal and visual type of satire and humor. The results of the study elicit three main features of the satirical discourse of the show – ridicule, visual input, and cultural reference. Besides having significance for satire research, the results of the paper also raise questions on the general understanding of language.