Why not so serious? Pragmatic devices in jokes

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18012/arf.v11iEspecial.70040

Palavras-chave:

Humor, Incongruity theory, Conversational implicatures, Speech acts, Presuppositions

Resumo

The fundamental question in philosophy of humor is: what makes us laugh? In this paper, we will hold the so-called incongruity theory, according to which laughter is provoked by the presentation of inconsistent features in an utterance. For that, we will analyze how pragmatics of language provides ways of presenting incongruities in written and spoken jokes and, hence, provoking a sensation of comic amusement in an audience. Our focus will be on conversational implicatures, speech acts, and presuppositions, and how they are used in joking. This is not an exhaustive analysis of all the ways incongruities are rendered in comic utterances; of course, there are other ways of presenting disharmonies, such as by means of semantic features. Finally, we will discuss whether jokes should be considered as a distinct kind of speech act, instead of just a parasitic use of language.

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Biografia do Autor

Deiver Vinícius de Melo, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Deiver Vinícius de Melo is a PhD Student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas – Unicamp with a Capes/ProEx scholarship (Proc. 88887.947697/2024-00). He completed his undergraduate studies in Philosophy at Federal University of São João del-Rei – UFSJ, and his M.A. in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas. His main interests are in philosophy of language, logic and philosophy of humor, and the relation between these areas.

Pedro Daher Novo, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)

B.A. and is currently a M.A. Student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas – Unicamp with a Capes scholarship (Proc. 88887.947614/2024-00). As an undergrad, he conducted research on the structure of speech acts in mathematics financed by the The State of São Paulo Research Foundation – Fapesp. His main interests are in philosophy of language, speech acts theory, ontology of human sciences, logic and philosophy of mathematics.

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Arquivos adicionais

Publicado

2024-11-06

Como Citar

de Melo, D. V., & Novo, P. D. (2024). Why not so serious? Pragmatic devices in jokes. Aufklärung: Journal of Philosophy, 11(Especial), p.67–86. https://doi.org/10.18012/arf.v11iEspecial.70040