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

• Authors: Măciucă Gina
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

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.

Keywords

EN

linguistic norms (infringement of); linguicomedy; humour-generating devices; ambiguity; translatability (of language humour)

• Publisher: Inter Litteras Research Centre, STEFAN CEL MARE University, Suceava, Romania; STEFAN CEL MARE Publishing House
• Journal: Concordia Discors vs Discordia Concors: Researches into Comparative Literature, Contrastive Linguistics, Cross-Cultural and Translation Strategies
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 16 (Semanticity, Alterity, Creativity: Building on Eugenio Coseriu’s Legacy (II))
• Pages: 172-198
• Document type: article

Contributors

author

Măciucă Gina

• “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania