LINGUIST List 14.2408

Fri Sep 12 2003

Diss: Pragmatics/Discourse Analysis: Ermida

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

Directory

  • iermida, Humour, Language and Narrative

    Message 1: Humour, Language and Narrative

     Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 11:46:35 +0000
    From: iermida <iermidailch.uminho.pt>
    Subject: Humour, Language and Narrative


    Institution: University of Minho at Braga Program: English Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2002

    Author: Isabel Ermida

    Dissertation Title: Humour, Language and Narrative: Towards a Discourse Analysis of Literary Comedy

    Linguistic Field: Pragmatics Discourse Analysis

    Subject Language: English (code: ENG )

    Dissertation Director 1: Victor Raskin Dissertation Director 2: Emilia Pedro

    Dissertation Abstract:

    This thesis aims to investigate and discuss the ways in which humour is linguistically and pragmatically rendered in English literary narratives. Being an elusive and controversial object of analysis, humour takes on further configurational complexities in the corpus under focus. Be it on the linguistic, narrative, literary or communicative levels, humorous short stories require an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological background. Although the title of this work generically reads "discourse analysis", insights from other disciplines - such as morpho-syntax, lexico-semantics, narratology and conversational analysis - also come into play.

    The first chapter consists of a critical review of the conceptual and lexicological evolution of humour throughout history, as well as the polemics relative to its definition. Besides, it looks into the three main theories of humour - namely Disparagement, Release and Incongruity - with special emphasis being laid on their linguistic applicability. The important dimension of humour as a communicative act is also discussed.

    The second chapter focuses on the specifically linguistic resources of which humour makes use. By quoting varied examples, taken from the corpus and beyond, this discussion tries to assess the humorous potential that the different levels of linguistic analysis conceal. Therefore, sounds, morphemes, words and sentences, as well as questions regarding collocational and logical games, are analysed so as to foreground the vital issue of ambiguity, which keys different types of pun and comic effect.

    The third chapter concentrates on the textual dimension of humour, seeking to unveil the general principles which render humorous texts a specific genre. On the double level of the joke and the comic tale, this comparative analysis tries to evaluate the relevance of the linguistic theories of the joke (especially Raskin's and Giora's) for the understanding of longer and far more complex textual sequences.

    In view of the gaps detected in current analysis, but also taking into account the applicability of some of the contributions reviewed, the fourth chapter seeks to complement the theoretical background discussed so far, by searching for more complete analytical and methodological tools. On the "text / utterance" level, it makes a critical, albeit succinct, approach to narratological issues, highlighting those that are operative for the analysis of humorous stories. On the "context / uttering" level, it discusses a few crucial points - illustrated with examples from the corpus - relative to the pragmatics of comic narratives.

    The fifth and last chapter puts forward a model of analysis of humorous narratives. It is "alternative" to the extent that it emphasizes a non-linear approach to textual information, and it consists of five semantico-pragmatic principles, which hypothetically regulate all comic narrative texts. This model is applied deductively to the seven texts selected. The analysis of each of these departs from a descriptive account of its linguistic and structural organization, so as to eventually assess its degree of conformity to the model proposed. This procedure aims at confirming the existence of meaning and discourse regularities in literary narrative comedies, which transcend their thematic, stylistic and formal diversity.