The Linguistics of Humor

This book is the first comprehensive systematic introduction to the linguistics of humor. Assuming no background in humor studies at all, and an elementary knowledge of linguistics, all the terminology and conceptual apparatus of humor studies are introduced, as well as all the linguistic concepts necessary to understand the most up-to-date formulations in the linguistics and applied linguistics of humor. The book is not limited to the theoretical linguistic analyses of humor (for example the General Theory of Verbal humor or the Isotopy Disjunction Model), but has a broad approach encompassing pragmatics, conversation and discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, interactionist and variationist sociolinguistics. Chapters on puns, on the main theories of humor, the semiotics of humor, and on the incongruity-resolution model elucidate the foundations of humor studies, while chapters on the performance of humor, on humor in conversation and discourse, provide the first-ever in-depth discussion and synthesis of the field of the applied linguistics of humor. Chapters on the translation of humor, and on humor in the classroom and in literature broaden the discussion to applications in fields other than linguistics. For the first time ever in a discussion of the linguistics of humor all the fields of linguistics, theoretical and applied alike are given equal treatment and theoretical importance. Thus this book is both a summary of the acquired knowledge about humor and linguistics and a proposal to unify most of the strands of research in a coherent vision.