Understanding Conversational Joking

A cognitive-pragmatic study based on Russian interactions

Editor

Nadine Thielemann

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027207357 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027260925 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

This book examines the diverse forms of conversational humor with the help of examples drawn from casual interactions among Russian speakers. It argues that neither an exclusively discourse-analytic perspective on the phenomenon nor an exclusively cognitive one can adequately account for conversational joking. Instead, the work advocates reconciling these two perspectives in order to describe such humor as a form of cognitive and communicative creativity, by means of which interlocutors convey additional meanings and imply further interpretive frames. Accordingly, in order to analyze cognition in interaction, it introduces a discourse-semantic framework which complements mental spaces and blending theory with ideas from discourse analysis. On the one hand, this enables both the emergent and interactive character and the surface features of conversational joking to be addressed. On the other, it incorporates into the analysis those normally backgrounded cognitive processes responsible for the additional meanings emerging from, and communicated by jocular utterances.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 310] 2020. x, 287 pp.

Publishing status:

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.310

Table of Contents

List of figures | pp. vii–viii

Transcription conventions | pp. ix–x

Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–11

Chapter 2. Conversational joking from a discourse-analytic perspective | pp. 13–104

Chapter 3. Humor as a cognitive phenomenon | pp. 105–184

Chapter 4. Conversational humor from a discourse-semantic perspective | pp. 185–258

Chapter 5. Conclusion | pp. 259–261

References | pp. 263–282

Appendix | p. 283

Index | pp. 285–288

“ Understanding Conversational Joking by Nadine Thielemann offers a comprehensive overview of major theories and approaches to conversational humour and attempts at leveraging a variety of approaches, some of which have often been overlooked in humour studies. The extent of the review of the literature, as well as the examination of discourse examples from a variety of angles, provides a valuable source for humour scholars, particularly graduate students of humour studies. The eclectic approach of the book may not be entirely novel, but there are new, perceptive points of view offered in the book (e.g., adding interpretive sociolinguistics to conversation analysis) or some previous concepts are improved in definition, such as the very insightful discussion about norms, normalcy, frames, cognitive contrast, etc.”

Reza Arab, Griffith University, Australia, in The European Journal of Humor Research 11 (4), 2023.

Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Order by:

Ruiz Gurillo, Leonor

2023. La pragmática de un etiquetaje pragmático para la plataforma observahumor.com. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 96 ► pp. 1 ff.

Sheikhan, Amir & Michael Haugh

2023. Epistemics and conversational humour in intercultural first conversations. In The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 335], ► pp. 110 ff.

Yus, Francisco

2023. Relevance Theory, Humour and Internet Communication. In Pragmatics of Internet Humour, ► pp. 9 ff.

Yus, Francisco

2023. Humour in Messaging Interactions. In Pragmatics of Internet Humour, ► pp. 107 ff.

Abdel-Raheem, Ahmed

2022. Metaphorical creativity contributing to multimodal impoliteness in political cartoons. Intercultural Pragmatics 19:1 ► pp. 35 ff.

[no author supplied]

2024. Exploring the Sociopragmatics of Online Humor [Topics in Humor Research, 12],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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