LINGUIST List 13.2095

Thu Aug 15 2002

Diss: Discourse Analysis: Okada "Linguistic..."

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

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1. moeko, Discourse Analysis: Okada "Linguistic Approaches..."

New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: University of Lancaster
Program: PhD in Linguistics and Modern English Language
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2001

Author: Moeko Okada 

Dissertation Title: 
Linguistic Approaches to the Analysis of Humour in Modern English
Dramatic Comedy

Linguistic Field: 
Pragmatics, Ling & Literature, Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Science

Subject Language: English

Dissertation Director 1: Jonathan Culpeper
Dissertation Director 2: Mick Short


Dissertation Abstract: 

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and explore linguistic
approaches to humour in modern English dramatic comedy. My research
questions are: 1) What are the comical elements in dramatic comedy?
2) How well do frameworks and concepts in linguistics account for the
comical elements in dramatic comedy?
 
Humour has been a neglected area in linguistics until very recently,
although it has been an object of study in many other disciplines.
Even though humour is dealt with in linguistic studies, many of them
tend to pay attention to smaller units, such as the lexical or
sentence level. Though I will start my analyses with humour at the
small units, my focus will be on humour at the level of discourse as a
whole.

This study necessarily involves an 'interdisciplinary' approach with
linguistic, psychological, sociological and philosophical elements,
because all these aspects affect the way people comprehend and
perceive humorous texts. As the keystones of my thesis, I will take
Foregrounding theory from Stylistics, and Incongruity theories from
Humour Studies. After I have discussed some preliminary issues
(i.e. three major theories of Humour, Stylistics, Drama, Bergson's
theory, etc.), I will present my analyses of linguistic humour in
modern comedy in terms of the four approaches: the traditional
linguistic approach, conversational approach, pragmatic approach, and
cognitive approach. In each approach, I will include brief reviews of
the eminent theories, some analyses of comedy extracts by means of
those theories, and an evaluation of the approach. To conclude the
thesis, I will present an analysis of a modern British comedy (Clouds
by Michael Frayn) in order to explain elements of humour by taking the
interdisciplinary approach.