The article proposes a general theory of verbal humor, focusing on verbal jokes äs its most representative subset. The theory is an extension and revision ofRaskin's script-based semantic theory of humor and of Attardo's five-level joke representation model. After distinguishing the parameters of the various degrees of similarity among the joke examples, six knowledge resources informing thejoke, namely script oppositions, logicalmechanisms, situationst targets, narrative strategies, and language, are put forward. A hierarchical organization for the six knowledge resources is then discovered on the basis of the asymmetrical binary relations, of the proposed and modified content l tooldichotomy, and, especially, ofthe hypothesized perceptions ofthe relative degrees of similarity. It is also argued that the emerging joke representation model is neutral to the process ofjoke production. The proposed hierarchy enables the concepts of joke variants and invariants, introduced previously by Attardo, to be firmed up, generalized, and äug· mented into a full-fledged taxonomy indexed with regard to the shared knowledge resource values (for example, two jokes may be variants on, that ist sharing, the same script oppositions and logical mechanisms). The resulting general theory of verbal humor is discussed in the light of its relations with various academic disciplines and areas ofresearch äs well äs with the script-based semantic theory of humor, special theories of humor, and incongruity-based theories.

Script theory revis(it)ed: joke similarity and joke representation model

This article examines verbal humour in routine interactions within professional workplaces, using material recorded in four New Zealand government departments. The problem of defining humour is dis...

Politeness, Power and Provocation: How Humour Functions in the Workplace:

Laughter in Interaction is an illuminating and lively account of how and why people laugh during conversation. Bringing together twenty-five years of research on the sequential organisation of laughter in everyday talk, Glenn analyses recordings and transcripts to show the finely detailed co-ordination of human laughter. He demonstrates that its production and placement, relative to talk and other activities, reveal much about its emergent meaning and accomplishments. The book shows how the participants in a conversation move from a single laugh to laughing together, how the matter of 'who laughs first' implicates orientation to social activities and how interactants work out whether laughs are more affiliative or hostile. The final chapter examines the contribution of laughter to sequences of conversational intimacy and play and to the invocation of gender. Engaging and original, the book shows how this seemingly insignificant part of human communication turns out to play a highly significant role in how people display, respond to and revise identities and relationships.

/pdf/laughter-in-interaction-3cksrbizse.pdf

Laughter in Interaction

The paper argues for the importance of recognising carework as a form of bodywork. It discusses why this central dimension has been neglected in accounts of carework, pointing to the ways in which community care has traditionally been analysed, the resistance of social gerontology to an overly bodily emphasis, and the conceptual dominance of the debate on care. Drawing on a study of the provision of help with bathing and washing for older people at home, it explores the body dimension of the activity, looking at how careworkers negotiate nakedness and touch, manage dirt and disgust, balance intimacy and distance. Finally, the paper draws together some of the key themes of this bodywork: its designation as ‘dirty work’, its hidden, silenced character, the low occupational esteem in which it is held and its gendered nature.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0144686X99007801

Carework as a form of bodywork

Organizations often engage in discursive struggle as they attempt to shape and manage the institutional field of which they are a part. This struggle is influenced by broader discourses at the societal level that enable and constrain discursive activity within the institutional field. We investigate this relationship by combining a study of political cartoons, as indicators of the broader societal discourse around immigration, with a case study of the Canadian refugee system, a complex institutional field. Our analysis reveals the complex intertextual and interdiscursive relations that characterize and surround institutional fields, and shows how discursive struggle in the refugee determination system is shaped by, and shapes, broader societal discourses.

/pdf/no-joking-matter-discursive-struggle-in-the-canadian-refugee-1a2935zilh.pdf

No Joking Matter: Discursive Struggle in the Canadian Refugee System:

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Humorous Mode 2. Serious Discourse and the Duality of Humour 3. Semantics and Signals 4. Informal Humour 5. Putting Humour to Work 6. Laughter as Social Action 7. The Social Significance of Sexual Jokes 8. Sexual Humour and Gender Relationships 9. Humour and Social Structure 10. The Mass Production of Humour 11. Humour and Political Action 12. The Mute Voice of Humour

M. J. Mulkay

Papers

On humour : its nature and its place in modern society