Theory of Verbal Humor

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d. Conversational Implicature

The term implicature is derived from the word ‘imply’ which means expressing an idea or a feeling without saying it directly. Based on the meaning of the root, conversational implicature can be defined as an idea or a feeling that is indirectly expressed in a conversation. As defined by Mey 2001 “A conversational implicature is, therefore, something which is implied in conversation, that is, something which is left implicit in actual language use.” p.45. The question is what is the connection between Implicature, Conversational Maxims, and Cooperative Principle? See the dialog below: A : Is there any other slice of pizza for me? B : My cat is eating the last one. Grice suggests that there is an effective way to communicate which we all accept as standard behavior. They are Grice’s Cooperative Principle and the four maxims aimed to make conversation effective. How if people do not follow the rules as in the example of the dialog between A and B. B did not answer A with the right amount of information nor be relevant to the question. B had just flouted the maxims and B’s answer implied something. What B wanted to say is NO, but he said it indirectly.

2. Theory of Verbal Humor

There are two major theories of verbal humor in linguistics, Semantic Script Theory of Humor SSTH by Raskin and General Theory of Verbal Humor GTVH. GTVH is the revised version of SSTH and it includes all types of verbal 21 humor Attardo, 1994; Goldberg, 2010. Verbal humor is humor that exists on a conversation or in a script of play, and it is expressed verbally Attardo, 1994; Chiaro, 2006; Dynel, 2009; Schwarz, 2010. Although verbal humor has been studied by many linguists, but they admit that it is difficult to categorized humor Janko, 1984; Attardo, 1994. Dynel 2009 tries to divide types of verbal humor into some categories, namely Lexemes and phrasemes, Witticisms, Retorts, Teasing, Banter, Putdowns, Self-denigrating humor, and Anecdotes Dynel, 2009. However, the level of humorous effects from verbal humor is different from one to another. In GTVH, there are six things to be considered to generate humor. Attardo 1994 names those six factors as Knowledge Resources KR Attardo, 1994:223. Those six factors are needed to consider when someone translates verbal humor into other languages. They are: - Language LA: It contains information necessary for exact wording of the text and for the placement of the functional elements that constitute it. - Narrative Strategy NS: The information in NS accounts for the fact that any joke has to be cast in some form of narrative organization. - Target TA: The information contains the names of groups or individuals with humorous stereotypes attached to each. - Situation SI: Any joke should have some situation, although some jokes will rely more on it, while others will almost entirely ignore it. - Logical Mechanism LM: The logical mechanism is the indicator that accounts the two senses in the joke are brought together. 22 - Script Opposition SO: Any humorous texts will present a SO. The specifics of its narrative organization, its social and historical instantiation, etc. will vary according to the place and time of its production.

3. Audio-Visual Translation AVT