Semantic Theory of Humor

Abstract

In this chapter, the script-based semantic theory briefly outlined in Chapter 3 is applied to the analysis of verbal humor. After the Main Hypothesis is formulated in Section 1 and the joke-telling mode of communication is discussed in its relation to bona-fide communication in Section 2, the notion of script overlap, the crucial relation of script oppositeness and the triggers which produce the switch from the one script to the other are investigated in Sections 3, 4, and 5, respectively. In Section 6 a sample joke is analyzed as completely as possible in terms of the theory. Section 7 demonstrates how the script-based semantic theory of humor can accommodate the observations made in the informal theories of humor which were reviewed in Chapter 1. Some apparent counterexamples to the Main Hypothesis are discussed in Section 8. Section 9 deals with the principles of joke construction prompted by the theory.