LINGUIST List 3.392

Sat 09 May 1992

Calls: ESCOL, Humor

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1. , ESCOL 92 Call for Papers
2. Salvatore Attardo, Humor and Communication: Call for Papers

 CALL FOR PAPERS

 ESCOL 92
 at SUNY Buffalo

 November 13-15, 1992

 Deadline for Submitting Abstracts: September 4, 1992

 Invited Speakers:
 William Croft, University of Michigan
 Nina Dronkers, VA Medical Center, Martinez & UC Davis
 Ray Jackendoff, Brandeis University
 John Ohala, University of Alberta & UC Berkeley
 Keren Rice, University of Toronto
 Russell Tomlin, University of Oregon
 Anthony Woodbury, University of Texas, Austin

 Abstracts of papers in all areas of linguistics and from any
theoretical perspective are solicited. We are especially interested in

receiving abstracts in the following areas:

 ---Functional and Cognitive Linguistics
 ---Indigenous Languages of the Americas
 ---Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics &

 Experimental Linguistics
 ---Lexical Semantics
 ---Universals & Typology
 ---Discourse Analysis

10 copies of an anonymous one-page abstract, along with a card stating
the title of the paper and the author, should be sent to:

 ESCOL 92
 Department of Linguistics
 685 Baldy Hall
 SUNY Buffalo
 Buffalo, NY 14260

Twenty minutes will be allotted for the presentation of each paper.
Abstracts should be received by September 4, 1992. Information on
registration and housing will be available in late September.
For information, contact Matthew Dryer (LINDRYERUBVMS.BITNET)
or Betty Brown (LINBETTYUBVMS.BITNET),
or the Department at (716) 636-2177, fax 636-3825.

			 CALL FOR PAPERS

			HUMOR AND COMMUNICATION

		SEMINAR at SCA, 1992 NATIONAL MEETING

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

The seminar will be held Wednesday, October 28th (9:30-5:30) in
Chicago preceding the Speech Communication Association National
Meeting.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

It has been established that humor is a widespread phenomenon,
encompassing many, if not all, areas of human communication. While
research in various areas is advancing, several general
communication-related issues within the realm of humor remain to be
explored in full. From another perspective, the study of humor is a
particularly interesting topic for communication, since humor usually
highlights the communicative mechanisms it exploits and thus provides
insights that can later be generalized to the discipline at large.
The following are some topics that the SCA seminar participants may
want to address.

1) How does humor communicate? What are the mechanisms that make
communication through humor possible?

	a) In order to solve the paradox of defining humor as a
non-cooperative mode of communication, a cooperative-cum-humor mode
has been postulated (Raskin 1985, Attardo 1990). Is this the complete
picture? How is communication affected/distorted by this particular
situation?

	b) Jokes can convey factual information, both on the referents
of the texts (Zhao 1988) and on the participants of the communicative
interchange, their perception of the situation, social hierarchies at
play, etc. What are the modalities and mechanisms of this process?

2) What does humor communicate? Humor can be used to convey meaning
independent from the denotation of the humorous utterance (see for
example Drew 1987 on teasing) or to avoid face-threatening situations
(Mulkay 1988). Is the range of the messages carried by humor
unlimited or is there an inherent "content" to a humorous message just
because it is humorous?

3) Rhetoric(s) of humor. How humor is used by speakers to further
their goals (within and outside of the communicative exchange). Humor
as a tool for persuading, for diverting attention, for in- and
out-bonding, etc.

4) Discourse analysis of humorous exchanges. The organization of a
humorous exchange. How does a humorous conversational turn fit into a
communicative exchange? How are jokes and humorous narratives
introduced in conversation, and how do they affect its course? The
differences between canned jokes and conversational jokes.

5) Semiotics of humor. Humor can be achieved verbally, visually,
behaviorally, musically, etc., or by any combination of the above. On
the other hand, nature is never funny in and of itself (although it
may be perceived as such). In other words, humor is intimately
connected to the human faculty of using signs. Is it possible to
build a general semiotics of humor? How do the various types of humor
above differ and how are they alike?

6) Cultural differences in the use of humor in communication. There
are both impressive examples of variation across cultures (for
example, ritual humor is common in many societies (Apte 1985) but
almost absent in present-day Western culture) and cross-cultural
invariants (for example the dumb-joke, cf. Davies 1990). Are there
universals in humorous communication, or is the range of variation
unconstrained culturally?

REFERENCES:

Apte, Mahadev. 1985. _Humor and Laughter_ Ithaca and
London: Cornell University Press.

Attardo, Salvatore. 1990. The violation of Grice's Maxims in
Jokes. In Hall, Kira et al. (eds.) _Proceedings of the 16th
Berkely Linguistics Society conference_ 355-362.

Davies, Christie. 1990. _Ethnic Humor around the World_
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Drew, Paul. 1987. Po-faced receipts of teases. _Linguistics_ 25.
219-253.

Mulkay, Michael. 1988. _On Humor. Its Nature and its Place
in Modern Society_ Cambridge: Blackwell.

Raskin, Victor. 1985. _Semantic Mechanisms of Humor_ Dordrecht:
Reidel.

Zhao, Yan. 1988. The Information Conveying Aspect of Jokes. _HUMOR.
International Journal of Humor Research_ 1: 3. 279-298.

For information contact:

Alan Harris 	 aharrisvax.csun.edu
or
Salvatore Attardo p5omace.cc.purdue.edu

Submissions to:
Alan C. Harris, Ph. D. telno: off:
Professor, Communication/Linguistics 818-885-2853/2874
Speech Communication Department hm:
California State University, Northridge 818-780-8872
SPCH CSUN fax: 818-885-2663
Northridge, CA 91330

Deadline for submissions: ASAP and not after July 1st, 1992.