This paper shows that a semantic theory of offers, despite assertions to the contrary, an adequate description of how particular instances of are linked to the narrative in which they appear. After Victor Raskin's script-based semantic theory of is summarized, and adopted as the starfing point of the analysis in this paper, the in two short stories is described in terms of their semantic properties. In this paper, is said to reside not simply in jokes but in joke-like constructions, for which the term nodal points of humor is used. These nodes can be identifiedby thepresence ofa semantic script Opposition which is evoked, either explicitly or implicitly. Moreover, the scripts that characterize a node as humorous are the same as those that make the nodes coherent with the rest of the narrative. In the last section of this paper, generalizations are made about the pattern of script activation and reactivation in both stories. Imprecision and an inability to integrale into a larger framework plague attempts made in the past to explicate comic narratives. Jerry Palmer, in bis article Theory of comic narrative: semantic and pragmatic elements (1988), correctly identifies the two prevalent types of theories about comic narrative and their failures. The first uses traditional categories of literary analysis, such as character, plot, and genre, but fails to account precisely for the formal, especially the linguistic, features of comic narrative. For this reason, the first type cannot explain why a particular passage of discourse elicits a humorous response. The second theory, which concentrates upon the semantic properties of humor, treats the comic narrative as a structure embedded with a series of jokes (Palmer 1988: 111). Although semantic theories come closer to explaining the why Humor 5-3 (1992), 233-250. 0933-1719/92/0005-0233 $2.00 © Walter de Gruyter Brought to you by | University of South Carolina School of L (University of South Carolina School of L) Authenticated | 172.16.1.226 Download Date | 6/1/12 5:38 PM