Theories of Verbal Humour

1. Theories of Verbal Humour Raskin + Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) Perlmutter’s ‘Traces’

2. Wordplay – two kinds in praesentia VS in absentia Real cats don’t wear collars. But Real cats often do wear dolls’ clothes, and sit there also wearing an expression of furry imbecility […]. Contraceptives should be used on every conceivable occasion.

3. (Discourse) Functions of wordplay • Metalinguistic (the discourse is centred on the ‘code’ itself) • Poetic function (whether appreciation of the language itself or how language has been manipulated – emotive function) • Ludic function – when language is used to divert the reader’s/listener’s attention from one meaning to another (cfr etymological meaning of di-vert from the Latin di ‘aside’ and vertere‘turn’)

4. Ultimately… Wordplay should: Challenge our knowledge of language (and the world) Give us pleasure Make us laugh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-gfu2LmDso file://localhost/Volumes/USB DISK/2012-2013 LM Translating Humour/disney songs.doc

5. How do plays on words work?

6. Scripts • A script is an organized complex of information about some entity, in the broadest sense: an object (real or imaginary), an event, an action, a quality, etc. It is a cognitive structure internalized by the speaker with information on how a given entity is structured, what are its parts and components, or how an activity is done, a relationship organized, and so on, to cover all possible relations between entities (including their constituents). S. Attardo, Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis, Berlin [et al.], Mouton de Gruyter, coll. Humour Research 6, 2001, pp. 2-3.

7. Overlapping of scripts(frames/schemata) incongruity

8. Incongruity and scripts • This incongruity can best be analyzed as an unexpected switch from one script (schema/frame) to another initially incompatible one. Thus “Mexican weather forecast: Chilly today and hot tamale” initially evokes a weather report script but then shatters it at the final word tamale. This surprise reversal then also forces reinterpretation of the word chilly as chili to fit the new script. The simultaneous availability of two scripts for a single phrase causes the dual perception Koestler (1964) dubbed “bisociation,” which yields subsequent laughter. • N. R. Norrick, “Repetition in Canned Jokes and Spontaneous Conversational Joking”, Humor, vol. 6, n° 4, 1993, pp. 392

9. Script opposition In order to engender humour, the overlapping of two scripts in not sufficient. To shift from sheer ambiguity or polysemy to humour, a second condition is necessary: the two scripts should also be opposed, i.e. they must be ‘locally antonymous’, in the sense that their meanings are perceived as opposite only within a specific context or discourse.

12. From

14. GTVH – 6 Knowledge Resources (KRs) • LANGUAGE (LA): all the information concerning the wording or verbalisation of a text, e.g. paraphrasing the same text in a large number of ways without changing its semantic content. • NARRATIVE STRATEGY (NS): the narrative organisation of a text, e.g. simple narrative, dialogue, riddle, and so on.   • TARGET (TA): the ‘butt’ or victim of humour, usually stereotyped. • SITUATION (SI): the elements or items which build up the context, e.g. the objects, participants, instruments, activities, and so on. • LOGICAL MECHANISM (LM): the mechanisms at the heart of the ‘local’ or playful logic of humour, e.g. incongruous juxtapositions, role-reversals, exaggeration, and so on. • SCRIPT OPPOSITION (SO): the different ‘scenarios’ or frames activated by the text and how they are in contrast with each other, e.g. animate/inanimate, wild/domesticated, home/jungle, and so on.

15. Amusing, Funny or Hilarious For Attardo and Raskin the “‘metric difference’ between jokes is that “the degree of perceived difference between jokes increases linearly with the height of the Knowledge Resource in which the two jokes differ” With script oposition at the highest point in the hierarchy. “Translation and Humour: An Approach Based on the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH)”, The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication (Special Issue), vol. 8, n° 2, 2002, pp. 183.

16. Hilarious, funny or just not amusing? If there was a happy ending (the duckling became a pretty duck) it would not be so funny (no script opposition Happy/sad ending requiring a logical mechanism to kick in). If the situation were not the pond but a duck farm (for duck meat) there would be less humour. If the ducklings were substituted with rabbits, the story would no longer be as funny, though the parody would perhaps still be understood (NB while the obvious butt of the joke is the ugly duckling –also the fairy tale genre itself is the but). If the narrative strategy had differed from that of a fairy tale, the joke would hardly work. Given the register of the book, a more ‘fairy-tale-like’ register would be inappropriate, detracting from the whole humorous discourse. If the language were closer to that of a fairy tale, then the punch line might have been rather odd – unless read in a very ironic tone.

17. Perlmutter’s trace and trigger WHAT UNUSUAL SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS does the Patagonian hare have?’ ‘Christ, Molly, I thought you said the questions were going to be easy.’ ‘Well, how did I know they’d be so competitive?’ That’s the trouble with Village Quiz Nights. The rest of the village gets to see just how stupid you really are. ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing if we don’t get a single question right.’ ‘Where did Frank and Pat go for their honeymoon in EastEnders?’ ‘We haven’t answered the last one yet.’ ‘Who invented obstetric forceps?’ ‘That’s easy. A total bastard.’ ‘Shall I write that down?’ ‘Definitely.’ Gil McNeil, Stand by Your Man, 2004

18. The logical mechanisms - 1 • A: Who invented obstetric forceps? • [B1: (serious answer) the Belgian surgeon Jan Palfijn (1650 – 1730)] • B2: (funny answer)That’s easy. A total bastard. • A: neuter level = request of information • [B1: denotative level = requested information] SKIPPED! • B2:connotative level = personal answer

19. The logical mechanisms - 2 • Perlmutter - two conflicting logics within one storyline, both converging towards the punch line in which the apparent logic (denotative) is replaced by a hidden logic (connotative). • collision between two logics causes “the shock of recognition” which triggers “the resulting laughter”. Daniel D. Perlmutter, “Tracing the origin of humor”, Humor, 13-4, 2000, pp. 457-468. (From a student paper by Marina Fattor)

20. The logical mechanisms - 3 • A: neuter level = LOGIC 1 TENSION • [B1: denotative level = LOGIC 1] REVERSAL • B2:connotative level = LOGIC 2 RELEASE

21. More examples ‘Which country invented the duffel coat?’ ‘Oh good, I know this one. It’s Belgium.’ Molly looks very pleased with herself. ‘I organised a school trip to Belgium a few years ago and I had to do the worksheets.’ ‘I bet that was a lovely trip.’ ‘Oh it was. We lost two year-nines on the ferry coming home and the deputy head nearly had a heart attack. We had to get an ambulance and everything. But he was fine – I think he was just putting it on so no one could blame him if the kids had gone overboard.’ ‘And had they?’ ‘No, shame really. One of them was Wayne Tompkins, and he’s a nutter. He Super-glues a supply teacher to his seat last week in DT.’ ‘Well, at least we’ll get one question right.’

22. Special thanks to Marina Fattor, and some other nameless students (always name your work, including power point presentations!) from the 2009-2010 course for providing some of the examples in this power point