Analysis of Language Play in Online Jokes.
i Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i
ABSTRACT ... ii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study ... 1
Statement of the Problem ... 4
Purpose of the Study ... 4
Methods of Research ... 4
Organization of the Thesis ... 5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Theory of Language Play ... 6
Theory of Incongruity... 7
Theory of Linguistic Features Homonymy ... 9
Homophony ... 10
Phoneme Substitution ... 11
Juncture ... 13
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE PLAY IN ONLINE JOKES ... 15
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 37
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 41
APPENDIX: Jokes Data ... 45
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ii Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Skripsi ini membahas permainan bahasa dalam lelucon atau cerita lucu berbahasa Inggris yang ditemukan di Internet. Dalam skripsi ini saya membahas proses-proses linguistik dan pengaruhnya terhadap usaha menciptakan dan memberikan humor pada lelucon-lelucon.
Untuk memperdalam pembahasan, selain menggunakan Teori Permainan Bahasa dan proses-proses linguistik, saya juga menggunakan Teori Inkongruitas. Teori ini mengemukakan tentang adanya perbedaan antara ekspektasi atau perkiraan pembaca ketika membaca suatu lelucon dan akhir cerita yang dituliskan oleh si pengarang dalam leluconnya. Perbedaan inilah yang menyebabkan kelucuan dalam lelucon tersebut.
Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa data yang saya dapatkan dari Internet semuanya menggunakan Teori Inkongruitas ini. Selain itu, semua data juga menunjukkan adanya permainan bahasa dengan memanipulasi beberapa proses linguistik, misalnya homonim dan homofon.
Akhirnya dapat disimpulkan bahwa menciptakan permainan bahasa dan menulis lelucon yang menggunakan permainan bahasa itu tidaklah mudah. Sang penulis harus memiliki penguasaan bahasa yang baik dan kreatifitas yang tinggi untuk dapat menciptakan suatu lelucon atau cerita lucu.
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45 Maranatha Christian University
APPENDIX
The language play and linguistic features that are found in the data are as follow:
No. Data Language Play
Linguistic Feature
Homonym Homophone
Phoneme Substitution
Juncture
1. Baskin Robbins
Two robins were lying on their backs, basking in the sun. A mama cat and her kitten were walking by. The kitten complained, “Mama, I’m sooo hungry, what can we eat?” to which mama cat, spying the two robins, replied, “How about some Baskin Robbins?”
basking robins: two robins basking in the sun
Baskin Robbins: ice cream
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46 Maranatha Christian University 2. S-car go!
There was once a snail who was sick and tired of his reputation for being so slow. He decided to get some fast wheels to make up the difference. After shopping around for a while, he decided that the Datsun 240-Z was the car to get. So the snail goes to the nearest Datsun dealer and says he wants to buy the 240-Z, but he wants it repainted “240-S”. The dealer asks, “Why ‘S’?” The snail replies, “‘S’ stands for snail. I want everybody who sees me roaring past to know who’s driving.” Well, the dealer doesn’t want to lose the opportunity to sell a car to a snail, so he agrees to have the car repainted for a small fee. The snail gets his new car and spent the rest of his days roaring happily down the highway at the top speed. And whenever anyone would see
S-car go: snail’s car
Escargot: snail
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47 Maranatha Christian University him zooming by, they’d say, “Wow! Look at that
S-car go!” 3. Disney Land
There was a blonde who was taking her kids to Disney Land. When they were about half way there, the blonde saw a sign that said "Disney Land Left," so the blonde turned back around and went home.
Left: turn left
Left: leave
4. Animal Crackers
A mother and her young son returned from the grocery store and began putting away the groceries. The boy opened a box of animal crackers and spread them all over the table. "What are you doing?" his mother asked. "The box says you can't eat them if the seal is broken," the Boy explained, so "I'm looking for the seal!"
Seal: a piece of paper that is placed across the opening of the box and has to be broken before box can be opened
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48 Maranatha Christian University Seal: a sea animal
5. Positive
Two atoms are walking down the street and they run into each other. One says to the other, "Are you all right?" "No, I lost an electron!" "Are you sure?" Yeah, I'm positive!"
Positive:
completely sure
Positive:
containing the type of electricity
carried by a proton
6. Bug flew into a barn
A farmer was milking his cow. He was just starting to get a good rhythm going when a bug flew into the barn and started circling his head. Suddenly, the bug flew into the cow's ear. The farmer didn't think much about it, until the bug squirted out into his bucket. It went in one ear and out the udder.
Udder: a part of cow’s body that produces milk
Other: a part of an idiom; go in one
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49 Maranatha Christian University ear and out the
other 7. A way to save your marriage
A young husband with an inferiority complex insisted he was just a little pebble on a vast beach. The marriage counselor, trying to be creative, told him, “If you wish to save your marriage, you'd better be a little boulder.”
Boulder: a big rock
Bolder: a
comparative form of bold; braver
8. She's New to football
A guy took his girlfriend to her first football game. Afterward he asked her how she liked the game. “I liked it, but I couldn't understand why they were killing each other for 25 cents,” she said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, everyone kept yelling, ‘Get the quarter back!’”
Quarterback: a type of position in football
Quarter back: get the 25 cents back
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50 Maranatha Christian University 9. Prison Carpenter
Several years ago, Andy was sentenced to prison. During his stay, he got along well with the guards and all his fellow inmates. The warden saw that deep down, Andy was a good person and made arrangements for Andy to learn a trade while doing his time.
After 3 years, Andy was recognized as one of the best carpenters in the local area. Often he would be given a weekend pass to do odd jobs for the citizens of the community, and he always reported back to prison before Sunday night was over.
The warden was thinking of remodeling his kitchen and in fact had done much of the work himself. But he lacked the skills to build a set of kitchen
Counter fitting: fitting a counter
Counterfeiting: making an exact copy of something and tricking people into believing it is the real thing
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51 Maranatha Christian University cupboards and a large counter top which he had
promised his wife. So he called Andy into his office and asked him to complete the job for him. But, alas, Andy refused. He told the warden, “Gosh, I’d really like to help you but counter fitting is what got me into prison in the first place.”
10. The Day of the Final
It was time for the final and the student depending upon getting at least one right answer on the chemistry test.
The question was “If H2O if water, what is H2O4?” This was a quick question for most, but it took the student some thinking time. Finally, he wrote down his answer: For drinking, washing, and cleaning.
H2O4: dihydrogen tetraoxide
H2O4: H2O for
11. ABC
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52 Maranatha Christian University scared of doing them in front of the class. The
teacher, though, told him that the best way to conquer his fears would be to just go ahead and do it. So, trembling, he stood in front of the class and began.
“ABCDEFGHIJLKMNOQRSTUVWXYZ.”
“"Very good, Wilfred. But you forgot the P. Where's the P?”
“It's running down my leg.”
P: the 16th letter in the alphabet
P: pee
12. Winning Nobel Prize
A man is driving down a country road, when he spots a farmer standing in the middle of a huge field of grass. He pulls the car over to the side of the road and notices that the farmer is just standing there, doing nothing, looking at nothing.
The man gets out of the car, walks all the way out to
Outstanding: excellent, important
Out standing: standing out on
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53 Maranatha Christian University the farmer and asks him, “Ah excuse me mister, but
what are you doing?”
The farmer replies, “I’m trying to win a Nobel Prize.” ‘How?’ asks the man, puzzled.
“Well, I heard they give the Nobel Prize… to people who are out standing in their field.”
something
Field: a particular subject or study
Field: an area of land used for growing crops
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1 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Humans smile or laugh if they are given something that makes them happy. It may be good things that happen to them, or they may receive good news, or maybe they simply hear or read something that is funny or hilarious like a silly story or a joke. A joke, which is “something that you say or do to make people laugh, for example a funny story that you tell” (“Joke,” entry 1a) can be in the oral or written form. Therefore, the manipulation or the exploitation of word sounds and word spellings can be very useful in creating a joke. The following is a joke I have created to explain how the manipulation works:
A father was concerned about the condition of his daughter who recently had become the victim of sexual abuse. His friend gave him a pamphlet and said to the father that the guy mentioned in the pamphlet would be able to help his daughter. So, the father went home and showed the pamphlet to his daughter. The father surely did not expect her
reaction. She ran away from him, crying, and screaming at the top of her lungs. Shocked, the father then showed the pamphlet to his wife. His wife then proceeded to hit her husband and yell at him for scaring their
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2 Maranatha Christian University daughter. “Why?” asked the father. “Have you read the pamphlet
carefully?” shouted his wife, “It says: ‘Dr. Fred Lawrence, THERAPIST!’” The joke above may not be understood by some people, unless they observe it more carefully. In the joke above, the writer uses language play by manipulating linguistic features of a particular word and presents it in such a way that it concludes the joke and eventually makes it funny. The word that is played is therapist, and the linguistic feature that is manipulated creates a homograph. Homograph is a word that has the same spelling as that of other words but it has different meaning and pronunciation. The word therapist in the joke above means “a specialist who treats a particular type of illness or problem, or who uses a particular type of treatment” (“Therapist,” def. 1). However, the daughter misunderstands it and she reads it as the rapist which means a person who rapes someone (“Rapist”). From the condition of the daughter that is presented in the joke, it is not strange that she has mistaken the word and becomes terrified. She thinks that her father will take her to a rapist; but actually, her father is trying to help her by taking her to a therapist.
Through the language play like that in the example, the authors or the writers of jokes can give amusement and hilarity to their jokes and make people laugh. Playing with language means “we take some linguistic feature – such as a word, a phrase, a sentence, a part of a word, a group of sounds, a series of letters – and make it do things it does not normally do” (Crystal 1). Based on what Crystal said, we can see that even a word can play an important role in a joke to make people laugh if its linguistic features are manipulated.
I am really interested in analyzing this kind of joke in which the writer uses language play. Therefore, I have decided to choose the topic of this thesis
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3 Maranatha Christian University some websites in the Internet. These data are then sorted out so that the rest are only be the jokes that contain language play in them.
The reason for my choosing this topic is that I am always interested in words and how they can be manipulated in such ways that they give or show other meanings that are completely different from their actual meanings. Another reason is that jokes are fun to be read and analyzed, and jokes that contain manipulated words are more fun to be analyzed linguistically. Reading jokes that contain language play is quite interesting because the readers are challenged to understand and grasp the meaning of the joke and see the funny side of the joke through the play of the language. However, what is even more challenging is for the joke writers to write more jokes that contain language play. The writers of such jokes need to have a good mastery of the language so that they may be able to manipulate words, phrases, or sentences, and direct them to “do things it
does not normally do” (Crystal 1).
This topic is significant because it would make people aware of the language play used in the jokes that makes people laugh. The discussion on this topic can also be useful for both other joke writers and joke readers. Other joke writers may be helped to write more jokes after learning the analysis of some jokes in this thesis, whereas joke readers will have a better understanding about the jokes.
As stated in the topic, I will analyze jokes based on the kinds of language play that are used in the jokes. The play on the language can be in many forms; for example, language play that deals with homonymy, which is “different words with the same form” (Lyons 55), or synonymy, which means “words or expressions that have the same meanings in some or all contexts” (O’Grady 269). Also, the play can make use of words or phrases that rhyme with others.
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4 Maranatha Christian University 1.2 Statement of the Problem
Based on the topic that I choose, I would like to discuss the following problems:
1. What type of language play is used in each of the jokes in the data? 2. How does the joke writer manipulate or exploit the linguistic feature of
a word to create the language play?
3. How does the language play produce the humor?
1.3 Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is:
1. To know the type of language play used in each of the jokes in the data.
2. To find out how the joke writer manipulates or exploits the linguistic feature of a word to create the language play.
3. To find out how the language play produces the humor.
1.4 Method of Research
There are five steps that I used in writing this thesis. First I learned the theories of language play and the Theory of Incongruity to support my analysis later on. Second, I searched for the jokes on some websites in the Internet.
The reason for my choosing the Internet as the main source of my data is that nowadays the Internet is considered to be the place to find and obtain almost all kinds of information because of the convenience in accessing it. The information found in the Internet is provided by different types of people, either skillful in a particular field or less skillful. The same condition applies to jokes. Jokes found in the Internet are more varied and not all of them are written by professional joke writers. They can be uploaded to the Internet by regular people
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5 Maranatha Christian University with the intention simply to make the readers happy. These jokes may not contain manipulations or exploitations of linguistic features. To serve the purpose of this study, therefore, I looked only for the jokes containing linguistic feature manipulations or exploitations.
Third, after I found a joke that met the criteria, which is the manipulation or exploitation of linguistic features, I read it and predicted how the joke would end. If the end was not as predicted, then the joke was chosen to be analyzed. The next step is finding the rule in order to explain why the joke was funny. Finally, I wrote the research report.
1.5 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which is divided into five parts: Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains Theoretical Framework, which is the elaboration of the theories that are used to analyze the data. Chapter Three presents the analysis of the data. The last chapter, Chapter Four, is Conclusion. At the end of the thesis, there is Bibliography and Appendix.
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37 Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I would like to conclude all the analysis of the data in the previous chapter. The conclusion that is presented in this chapter will encompass all the findings based on the analysis which answers the statement of the problem presented in Chapter One. There are 12 jokes as the data in the previous chapter and all of them contain language play. From the data, it can be seen that the linguistic features that are mostly altered are homonyms and homophones. There are five homonyms, six homophones, two phoneme substitutions, and one juncture.
The reason why the authors of the jokes mostly use homonyms and homophones is, in my opinion, because these two linguistic features are easier to be manipulated or exploited than the other linguistic features such as phoneme substitution and juncture. A word in the English language not only consists of characters or alphabets, but also the sound of the word. Both homonymy and homophony are sound-related; in homonymy, the similarity of the words is on the sound and spelling, whereas in homophony, the similarity is on the sound. Seeing this, it is quite easy for the joke writers to play with homonyms and/or homophones.
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38 Maranatha Christian University Phoneme substitution and juncture are not easy to be used as the source of language play. Phoneme substitution is, in fact, an ability that is acquired by children in their language development. It is a skill needed by them to understand and differentiate each phoneme that consist a word and what will happen if a phoneme in a set of phonemes is substituted. This skill is taught to the children by playing on the language, for example making a poem or a song that includes phoneme substitutions in it. However, to play with this skill and include it in a joke is not as easy as making it into a song or a poem. A joke is a funny story and thus, needs to be coherent.
As for juncture, in my opinion, this linguistic feature is much more difficult to play with. The study of juncture is quite broad and there are many types of it. However, despite the extensive area, to play with this feature in a joke is somehow limited. As it is related with “phonetic boundary” (Crystal 258) then the morpheme, word, or sentence is solely depended on it. Thus, the reason that phoneme substitution is also difficult to play with may also apply to this linguistic feature, in which a joke is a funny story that needs to be coherent.
The findings of this study reveal that there are five homonyms, six homophones, two phoneme substitutions, and one juncture. This is due to the fact that in the data in Chapter Three, there are two jokes that contain two language play forms which are data 1 and data 12. In my opinion, the jokes that have more than one language play form in them are more interesting and really challenging, both to the writers of the jokes and to the readers. For the writer, to include more than one language play form in his/her joke is more difficult as he/she needs to find the linguistic features that can be manipulated while at the same time makes his/her joke coherent and understandable. He/she also needs to combine the elements of humor in the joke so as not to make the joke confusing for the readers. For the readers, to understand a joke that contains
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39 Maranatha Christian University more than one language play is quite tricky since they are compelled to seek the rules that make the joke funny. If they are able to find only one rule or one language play form in a joke that has more than one language play form in it, maybe they will find that the joke is not really funny. However, if they manage to find all language play forms in the joke, they may understand all the humor in the joke.
All the analyzed jokes in the previous chapter have language play in it. All of them also have quite an unexpected ending that is resulted from the presence of the language play in those jokes. Thus, in relation to the definition of the Theory of Incongruity, the humor of a joke can be found in the discrepancy between what the readers expect and what is purposed by the writer. The discrepancy is the rule that gives the humor, and it is found in the play on the language that is done by the writer. Therefore, the language play is the rule that makes the ending of the jokes unexpected and thus needs to be found to understand the jokes. The Incongruity Theory is often present in making a joke. The unexpected ending that is discrepant with what the readers perceive is the key to make the joke funny.
Analyzing jokes that contain language play is very amusing and fun. However, I also find some difficulties in finding the jokes that contain language play. As is stated before, making or writing a joke that contains language play is not easy. The writer needs to know the linguistic feature that is able to be altered and he/she will combine it with the elements of humor to make a funny story or a joke. Hence, joke writers or authors of novels who use language play in their story are quite rare to find. They need to have deep knowledge of their language and also high creativity in order to play with language and use it in their story. They are most probably smart and clever and also crafty as they can play with
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40 Maranatha Christian University their language in their jokes or stories. In my opinion, these writers or authors have achieved a wonderful accomplishment and deserve appreciation.
Language play in jokes is a very interesting topic to be analyzed. However, seeing that jokes that contain language play are not very common, one had better not limit his/her analysis only on jokes. Analyzing other kinds of text that contain language play, riddles for example (I found many riddles on the Internet that contain language play and they are worthy to be analyzed), can be challenging since riddles generally have shorter forms than jokes. The most important thing in analyzing language play is that one needs to be imaginative too in order to understand the manipulation and exploitation of the linguistic features in the work.
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41 Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Apriany. The Translation of Language Play from English into Chinese in Schulz’s Snoopy. Bandung: English Department, Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian University, 2011. Print.
Chandra, Shelvy Silviany. Analysis of Language Play in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Bandung: English Department, Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian University, 2007. Print.
Cook, Guy. Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th ed. USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print.
Crystal, David. Language Play. England: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.
Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. London: Penguin Group, 1998. Print.
Dahl, Roald. The BFG. London: Penguin Group, 1998. Print.
Dr. Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. USA: Random House, 1988. Print.
Fromkin, Victoria and Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. 6th ed. Florida: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. Print.
Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Eighth Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
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42 Maranatha Christian University Lyons, John. Linguistic Semantics, An Introduction. Great Britain: Cambridge
University Press, 1995. Print.
McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
McGhee, Paul E. and Jeffrey H. Goldstein. Handbook of Humor Research. Springer – Verlag, 1983. Print.
O’Grady, William, Michael Dobrovolsky, and Francis Katamba. Contemporary Linguistics, An Introduction. 3rd ed. UK: Pearson Education, Ltd., 1996. Print.
Schulz, Charles M. Snoopy: Years are Like Candy Bars. USA: United Feature Syndicate, Inc., 2006. Print.
Tanto, Trisnowati. The Pragmatic Implication of Language Play in English
Children’s Fiction. Bandung: Padjajaran University, 2010. Print.
Electronic Publications
“A Way to Save Your Marriage.” Ahajokes. n.p., n.d. Web. February 2012. “ABC.” Comedy Central, Jokes about Kids. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 October 2013. “Animal Crackers.” Jokes Galore. n.p., n.d. Web. February 2012.
“Baskin Robbins.” 101 Fun Jokes, Fast Food Joke. n.p., n.d. Web. February 2012.
“Baskin Robbins: About Us.” Baskin Robbins. Baskin Robbins®. n.d. Web. 1 May 2013.
“Bug Flew into a Barn.” Ahajokes. n.p., n.d. Web. February 2012.
“Datsun 240-Z.” Car and Driver. Hearst Communications, Inc., n.d. Web. 3 December 2013.
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43 Maranatha Christian University “Phoneme Substitution.” Speech-Language-Development.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 31
January 2014.
“Phonemic Awareness Instruction.” Put Reading First. CIERA. September 2001. Web. 31 January 2014.
“Positive.” Radford. Ibarland, n.d. Web. February 2012.
“Prison Carpenter.” Comedy Central, Work Jokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 October 2013.
“Quarterback.” howstuffworks, Entertainment. HowStuffWorks, Inc., n.d. Web. 28 October 2013.
“S-car Go.” Ahajokes. n.p., n.d. Web. February 2012.
“She’s New to Football.” Ahajokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 October 2013. “The Day of the Final.” Ahajokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 October 2013.
“The Nobel Foundation: A Century of Growth and Change.” Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB, n.d. Web. 3 December 2013.
“Winning Nobel Prize.” Ahajokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 October 2013.
Dictionary Entries
“Atom.” Dictionary of Science. London: Constable & Robinson, Ltd., 2005. 58. Print.
“Bank.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Bank.” Def. 1d. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Bask.” Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Bold.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Boulder.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Brake.” Def. 1a and Def. 2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
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44 Maranatha Christian University “Cat.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“CAT.” Webster’s New World of Medical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Wiley Publishing, 2008. Print.
“Counterfeit.” Def. 2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Ear.” Idiom 7. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Field.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Field.” Def. 1e. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “For.” Def. 1h. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Joke.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Leave.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Left.” Def. 1 (Opposition). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010.
Print.
“Outstanding.” Def. 1a and def. 1b. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“P.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Pee.” Def. 2b. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Positive.” Def. 1e. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Positive.” Def. 1j. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Quarter.” Def. 1f. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Rapist.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Robin.” Def. 1 and Def. 2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Seal.” Def. 2d. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Seal.” Def. 2f. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Snail.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
“Therapist.” Def. 1. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print. “Udder.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
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39 Maranatha Christian University more than one language play is quite tricky since they are compelled to seek the rules that make the joke funny. If they are able to find only one rule or one language play form in a joke that has more than one language play form in it, maybe they will find that the joke is not really funny. However, if they manage to find all language play forms in the joke, they may understand all the humor in the joke.
All the analyzed jokes in the previous chapter have language play in it. All of them also have quite an unexpected ending that is resulted from the presence of the language play in those jokes. Thus, in relation to the definition of the Theory of Incongruity, the humor of a joke can be found in the discrepancy between what the readers expect and what is purposed by the writer. The discrepancy is the rule that gives the humor, and it is found in the play on the language that is done by the writer. Therefore, the language play is the rule that makes the ending of the jokes unexpected and thus needs to be found to understand the jokes. The Incongruity Theory is often present in making a joke. The unexpected ending that is discrepant with what the readers perceive is the key to make the joke funny.
Analyzing jokes that contain language play is very amusing and fun. However, I also find some difficulties in finding the jokes that contain language play. As is stated before, making or writing a joke that contains language play is not easy. The writer needs to know the linguistic feature that is able to be altered and he/she will combine it with the elements of humor to make a funny story or a joke. Hence, joke writers or authors of novels who use language play in their story are quite rare to find. They need to have deep knowledge of their language and also high creativity in order to play with language and use it in their story. They are most probably smart and clever and also crafty as they can play with
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40 Maranatha Christian University their language in their jokes or stories. In my opinion, these writers or authors have achieved a wonderful accomplishment and deserve appreciation.
Language play in jokes is a very interesting topic to be analyzed. However, seeing that jokes that contain language play are not very common, one had better not limit his/her analysis only on jokes. Analyzing other kinds of text that contain language play, riddles for example (I found many riddles on the Internet that contain language play and they are worthy to be analyzed), can be challenging since riddles generally have shorter forms than jokes. The most important thing in analyzing language play is that one needs to be imaginative too in order to understand the manipulation and exploitation of the linguistic features in the work.
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41 Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Apriany. The Translation of Language Play from English into Chinese in Schulz’s Snoopy. Bandung: English Department, Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian University, 2011. Print.
Chandra, Shelvy Silviany. Analysis of Language Play in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Bandung: English Department, Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian University, 2007. Print.
Cook, Guy. Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th ed. USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print.
Crystal, David. Language Play. England: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.
Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. London: Penguin Group, 1998. Print.
Dahl, Roald. The BFG. London: Penguin Group, 1998. Print.
Dr. Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. USA: Random House, 1988. Print.
Fromkin, Victoria and Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. 6th ed. Florida: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. Print.
Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Eighth Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
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42 Maranatha Christian University Lyons, John. Linguistic Semantics, An Introduction. Great Britain: Cambridge
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44 Maranatha Christian University
“Cat.” Def. 1a. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print.
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