Accounting for Language Humour Devices in Terms of Eugeniu Coșeriu’s Theory Cover Image

Accounting for Language Humour Devices in Terms of Eugeniu Coșeriu’s Theory
Accounting for Language Humour Devices in Terms of Eugeniu Coșeriu’s Theory

Author(s): Gina Măciucă
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Morphology, Lexis, Semantics, Translation Studies
Published by: UNIVERSITATEA »ȘTEFAN CEL MARE« SUCEAVA
Keywords: linguistic norms (infringement of); linguicomedy; humour-generating devices; ambiguity; translatability (of language humour);

Summary/Abstract: While endeavouring to document humour-generating [=HG] devices, we set out on a trek across various theories on language to see which of them – if any – could be made available for tapping in this respect. The idiosyncratic stance Coșeriu took on linguistic norms [=LN], in particular the view he advanced, that they are even apt to cause each other to be breached, greatly assisted us in blazing a trail on the comic effects that could be generated in the process. A synopsis of research on effects orchestrated by infringement of LN and ambiguity combined is presented in the second section of the contribution at hand, after reviewing a selection of theoretical rudiments of both HG devices in Section 1. The third and last section takes linguicomedy a step further, into the shifting sands of translatability, with a major focus on the translator as languacultural communicator. In the concluding remarks to the final subsection thereof we take the liberty to put forward a scale for rating translatability of LN-flouting humour (which just happens to differ – and with good reason, too – from Coșeriu‘s hierarchy of LN-breaching types), as well as the legitimate claim, in our view, of humour translation to a genre per se.

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