Examining linguistic ambiguity as a source of constructing funniness in english verbal jockes

VNU UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN HẢI HÀ EXAMINING LINGUISTIC AMBIGUITY AS A SOURCE OF CONSTRUCTING FUNNINESS IN ENGLISH VERBAL JOKES (KHẢO SÁT HIỆN TƯỢNG MƠ HỒ NGƠN NGỮ VỚI VAI TRỊ LÀ MỘT NGUỒN TẠO NÊN TÍNH HÀI HƯỚC CỦA CÁC CÂU CHUYỆN TẾU TIẾNG ANH) M.A COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HANOI- 2011 VNU UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN HẢI HÀ EXAMINING LINGUISTIC AMBIGUITY AS A SOURCE OF CONSTRUCTING FUNNINESS IN ENGLISH VERBAL JOKES (KHẢO SÁT HIỆN TƯỢNG MƠ HỒ NGÔN NGỮ VỚI VAI TRỊ LÀ MỘT NGUỒN TẠO NÊN TÍNH HÀI HƯỚC CỦA CÁC CÂU CHUYỆN TẾU TIẾNG ANH) M.A COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang HAnOi- 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ii LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of problems and rationale 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Linguistic ambiguity 2.1.1 Linguistic semantics 2.1.2 Linguistic ambiguity 2.1.3 Types of linguistic ambiguity in English 2.2 English verbal jokes 2.2.1 The notion of Humor 2.2.2 What counts as “verbal jokes”? 11 11 12 2.2.2.1 Definitions of verbal jokes 12 2.2.2.2 Types of verbal jokes 14 2.2.2.3 Verbal jokes versus other types of humor 14 2.2.3 What makes a joke a joke? 2.2.3.1 The role of linguistic ambiguity in verbal jokes 18 18 2.2.3.2 Factors towards appreciating verbal jokes’ funniness 2.2.4 Social functions of verbal jokes 19 20 2.3 Reviewing studies on the practice of linguistic ambiguity in humor and other registers 21 CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS 3.1 Research methodology 23 3.1.1 Analytical framework of linguistic ambiguity in 23 English 3.1.2 Selection of data 26 3.1.3 Research design 27 3.2 Types of linguistic ambiguity used as a source of constructing funniness in English verbal jokes 3.2.1 Lexical ambiguity 27 28 3.2.1.1 Polysemy and homonymy 28 3.2.1.2 Homophones 34 3.2.1.3 Obscure deictic references 36 3.2.1.4 Specific and general word meaning 38 3.2.2 Structural ambiguity 38 3.2.2.1 Word class shift 39 3.2.2.2 Structural confusion 40 3.2.3 Phonological ambiguity 42 3.2.4 Pragmatic ambiguity 45 3.2.4.1 Violating the maxim of Quantity 46 3.2.4.2 Violating the maxim of Quality 48 3.2.4.3 Violating the maxim of Manner 48 3.2.4.4 Violating the maxim of Relation 49 3.2.5 Other types of ambiguity 50 3.2.5.1 Mixed ambiguity 50 3.2.5.2 Idiom and complex language 52 3.3 Classification of English verbal jokes based on types of 53 ambiguity involved 3.3.1 Types of English verbal jokes based on linguistic 53 ambiguity 3.3.2 Frequency level of English verbal jokes based on linguistic ambiguity 53 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 4.1 Recapitulation 56 4.2 Concluding remarks on each of the set forth objectives 56 4.3 Limitations of the study 63 4.4 Suggestions for further studies 64 REFERENCES 66 APPENDICES Appendix List of jokes chosen for the paper Appendix Model of Grice’s cooperative principles I VIII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT English language teaching ST Source language TL Target language LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS FIGURES PAGE Figure 1: Jakobson’s general model of communication 21 Figure 2: Types of ambiguity (adapted from Walton 1996) 25 Figure 3: Analytical framework of linguistic ambiguity in English 26 Figure 4: Types of linguistic ambiguity exploited in English verbal jokes 58 CHARTS Chart 1: Frequency level of five types of English verbal jokes based on linguistic ambiguity 54 -1- CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of problems and rationale It is a linguistic convention that language is used not only to convey information among participants but also to create rapport and personal attitudes of each participant in the communicative event, which is called the transactional and interactional functions of language In other words, language, in both spoken and written forms, is message-oriented and serves a specific intended function so as to “pass on information” and “maintain social relationships” (Nguyen Hoa, 2004:16) Verbal humor is such a kind of language function aiming at the cooperation between Speaker (teller) and Hearer to see its funniness The issue of verbal humor, along with its most common representative, verbal jokes, has been the focus of various studies in philosophical, psychological, social logical and cognitive linguistics fields Unlike non-verbal humor, which is related to extralinguistic features, verbal humor is perceived as that primarily constructed by means of language in the form of a single-joke-carrying text (Raskin, 1985) As a product of language, verbal humor is, undoubtedly, an exclusively human domain that no other creatures or entities can possess In his work on the theory of linguistic verbal jokes in English, Lew (1996) asserts the fact that contrary to its abundant resources, humor in general is not equally available to all humans in the way that it requires “sense of humor” and language competence to appreciate its funniness, which apparently not everyone can possess, especially when the hearers of the humor can acquire modestly the language of the humor Below is a very notable verbal joke: (1) In the diner of a southbound train, a honeymoon couple notices two nuns at another table When neither could identify the religious habit, the husband volunteered to settle the question “Pardon me, Sisters,” he said, pausing politely before the nuns‟ table, “but would you mind telling me your Order?” One of the nuns smiled at him “Not at all,” she said cheerfully “Lam chops- and they‟re delicious!” (Hoke, 1965:194) -2- It is obvious that the funniness of the joke can only be revealed when two different textreadings are accessed, one by the husband to refer to the religious rank of the nuns; and the other by the two nuns to respond to the enquiry about their food selection Clearly, it has nothing to with the lack of context in this piece of humor but it is more of the problems of one word denoting two possible referents or antecedents in the context To be more specific, it is the noun “order” with its double meanings of “a group of people, especially monks or nuns, living under religious rules” and “a request for food and drinks in a hotel, restaurant, etc.” that causes the contradiction between the two responses, thus, creates the humor or funniness of the joke Let us now look at another example of verbal joke and examine what its humor is: (2) A man eating a kebab goes up to a lady who has a yapping Chihuahua at her heels “Can I throw your dog a bit?” he asked politely “Certainly,” came the reply So he scooped the dog up and flung it a hundred yards (Lew, 1996:33) Like in (1), the original text can be interpreted in two different ways, either “your dog” is the indirect object and “a bit” is the direct object of the ditransitive verb “throw”, which can be rephrased as: (2a) “Can I throw a piece of kebab to your dog?” or “your dog” is the direct object and “a bit” is the adverb of the monotransitive verb “throw”, which also means: (2b) “Can I pick up your dog and fling it away a bit?” As the story proceeds, it is easy to conclude that one and the same question of the man is understood as (2a) by the lady and meant as (2b) by the man himself, and the final reaction, which is unexpected, has created the funniness herein The two examples above have partially revealed one of the most favorite mechanisms of inventing a verbal joke, which lies in the different possible interpretations attached to one and the same word or phrase, i.e linguistic ambiguity- known as the major humorous stimulus (Bucaria, 2004) -3- The issue of ambiguity in English texts, in fact, has always been attracting scholars and linguists worldwide; nevertheless; compared to a good number of papers on ambiguity in other disciplines such as headlines and advertisements (Kess and Hoppe, 1981; Leno, 1990 and 1992; Oaks, 1994; Bucaria, 2004; Hoenisch, 2004; among many others), studies on ambiguity in the field of humor are much less numerous, which may be resulted from the fact that in previous studies, much attention has been devoted to analyzing the mechanism that generates the ambiguity or the one that helps to resolve the ambiguity This, to a large extent, can contribute to ruining the ambiguous and funny features of the humorous texts As warned by W.H Auden, a famous English poet, the study of the humor can threaten the humor to dead Stimulated by this recognition as well as personal interests, the researcher has conducted the paper entitled “Examining linguistic ambiguity as a source of constructing funniness in English verbal jokes”, with the view to exploring English verbal jokes in a deeper sense, without damaging the humor nature of the jokes In short, the paper places a strong emphasis on analyzing how one particular type of linguistic ambiguity becomes the humorous stimulus of various English joke-carrying texts, then, makes up one type of linguistically ambiguous English verbal jokes The findings of the paper, hopefully, can bring about a closer look into the being discussed matter together with a holistic picture of how a joke is ambiguously humorous Furthermore, with its merits and drawbacks, the study is expected to contribute a stronger voice into the modest number of studies on the same field and be a helpful and sufficient reference for future studies 1.2 Objectives of the study As mentioned clearly earlier, the current paper aims at tackling the existing shortcomings of previous studies on the application of linguistic ambiguity in verbal jokes To be more specific, through extracting and linguistically analyzing 50 verbal-joke texts collected for the paper in detail, some rules that govern humorous stimuli of linguistic ambiguity-based English verbal jokes are expected to be captured, concurrently, some categories and subcategories of English verbal jokes involving linguistic ambiguity can -4- also be proposed Additionally, the results of the paper can help to reveal an overall trend about the frequency of each type of ambiguity-based English verbal jokes In the final place, from the analysis of the chosen joke texts, some implications for teaching and learning the English language and for proper translation of those texts into Vietnamese can be drawn These objectives, shortly speaking, can be elaborated into the following research questions: What types of linguistic ambiguity can be used as a source of constructing funniness in English verbal jokes? In what way can English verbal jokes be categorized in accordance with the types of linguistic ambiguity involved? What is the frequency level of each type of ambiguity-based English verbal jokes? 1.3 Scope of the study As suggested by the title of the paper, it targets at English verbal jokes, one type of English humor, conveyed primarily by means of language Henceforth, visual humor (as in cartoons and clowning) and any non-verbal joke-carrying acts like in silent films should and must be excluded from the paper Also, by “verbal jokes”, the texts collected for the study are mainly in written form as spoken jokes in fact depend chiefly on features of quality and tone of voice and need sophisticated phonetic analysis, which should be treated as beyond the scope of this study In addition, at this point, the researcher wants to make a clear cut between “verbal jokes” and its commonly heard counterpart of “verbally expressed jokes” or “verbalized jokes”, defined as every way in which language is used to create amusement (Chiaro 1992, Ritchie 2004) Similar as they may appear, verbal jokes and verbalized jokes actually have the relationship of hyponym-superordinate with the former concerned with verbal matters (specific properties of a language) and much narrower a term than the latter As the joke texts in this study are analyzed linguistically in terms of the types of ambiguity that they involve, the complex forms of jokes seem unnecessary Therefore, the term “verbal jokes” is used in this paper - 65 - - Conducting a detailed contrastive analysis between Vietnamese and English languages on ambiguity as a source of funniness in jokes or other humor types Once again, an emphasis placed here is that the above are modestly a portion of large room for further studies Expectedly, these suggestions and the entire study can gain recognition of more researchers and be a useful and reliable reference for next papers - 66 - REFERENCES Alexander, R J (1997) Aspects of Verbal Humour in English Tubingen: Gunter Narr Attardo, S & J C Chabanne (1992) Jokes As A Text Type Humor: International Journal of Humor Research (1-2) 169 Attardo, S & V Raskin (1991) Script Theory Revisited: Joke Similarity And Joke Representation Model Humor: International Journal of Humor Research (3-4) Attardo, S (1994) Linguistic Theories Of Humor Berlin: Mouton Bell, A (1991) The Language ofNews Media Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell beyond II: 4) Amsterdam: John Benjamins Bergson, H (1901) Le Rire Essai Sur La Signification Du Comique Paris : Presses Universitaires de France Blake, B (2007) Playing With Words: Humour In The English Language London: Oakville, Equinox 16-21 Bucaria, C (2004) Lexical And Structural Ambiguity In Humorous Headlines Youngtown State University: MA thesis Cantor, J R (1976) What Is Funny To Whom Journal of Communication 26 Catford, J.C (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation London: Oxford University Press Chapman A J (1973) Funniness Of Jokes, Canned Laughter And Recall Of Performance Sociometry 36 Chiaro, D (1992) The Language Of Jokes London: Routledge Corti, L & Bishop, L (2005) Strategies In Teaching Secondary Analysis Of Qualitative Data FQS 6(1) Cunningham, A (1962) Relation Of Sense Of Humor To Intelligent Journal of Social Psychology 57 Dynel, M (2009) Beyond A Joke: Types Of Conversational Humour Language and Linguistics Compass Empson, W (1949) Seven types of ambiguity London: Chatto & Windus Escarpit, R (1960) L’humour Paris: Presses Universitaires de France Frawley, W (1992) Linguistic Semantics Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc, Publishers USA: New Jersey xiii- Freud, S (1960) Jokes And Their Relation To Unconscious New York: Norton - 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New York: Breaking Point 73 - 68 - Leno, J (1990) More headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings From America's Newspapers New York, NY: Warner Books Leno, J (1992) Jay Leno's headlines Books L IL III New York: Wings Books Leventhal, H & W Mace (1970) The Effect Of Laughter On Evaluation Of A Slapstick Movie Journal of Personality 38 Lew, R (1996) An Ambiguity-Based Theory Of The Linguistic Verbal Joke In English Adam Mickiewicz University: PhD dissertation 11- 57 Lewis, P (1989) Comic Effects: Interdisciplinary Approached To Humor In Literature Albany, NY: State University of New York Lundell, T (1993) An Experiential Exploration Of Why Men And Women Laugh Humor: International Journal of Humor Research Lyon, J (1995) Linguistic Semantics- An Introduction Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 11 Mc Arthur, T (ed.) (1992) The Oxford Companion To The English Language OxfordNew Jork: OUP Milner, G.B (1972) Homo Ridens Towards To Semiotic Theory Of Humor And Laughter Semiotica, Misztal, M (1990) Life In Jokes Warszawa: WSiP 611- 713 Nash, W (1985) The Language Of Humor Harlow: Longman 1- 27 Newmark, P (1998) A Textbook of Translation Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Newspapers New York, NY: Warner Books Nguyen Hoa (2000) An Introduction To Discourse Analysis Hanoi: Hanoi National University press 61 Nguyen Hoa (2004) Understanding English Semantics Hanoi: VNUH Publisher 16-67 Norrick, N R (1993) Conversational Joking: Humor In Everyday Talk Bloomington: Indianapolis: Indiana University Press Oaks, D.D (1994) Creating Structural Ambiguities In Humor: Getting English Grammar To Cooperate Humor: International Journal of Humor Research (4) Paakkinen, A (2010) Verbally Expressed Humor In The American Television Series Gilmore Girls Pro Gradu Thesis Finland: University of Eastern Finland press Paulos, J.A (1980) Mathematics and Humor Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press 85 - 69 - Pepicello, W.J & Green, T.A (1984) Wit In Riddling: A Linguistic Perspective Genre 11 Pepicello, W J & R W Weisberg (1983) Linguistic and Humor New York/Berlin: Springer-Verlag 79 Potcheptov, G (1974) Language And Humor Chicago: University of Chicago Press Raskin, V (1985) Semantic Mechanisms Of Humor Dordrecht: D Reidel 99 Reah, D (1998) The Language ofNewspapers London and New York: Routledge Reichardt, C.S & T.D Cook (1979) Beyond Qualitative Versus Quantitative Methods Beverly Hill, CA: Sage Ritchie, G (2004) Describing Verbally Expressed Humors Edinburgh: UOE press Sager, L.M (n.d) Failure To Understand - Blame It On The Connotative Meaning Retrieved from the Internet on Dec 1, 2008 on http://ezinearticles.com/?Failure-ToUnderstand -Blame-It-On-The-Connotative-Meaning&id=1036061 Sherzer, J (1985) Puns And Jokes In: Van Dijk, T A (ed.), Handbook of discourse analysis London: Academic Press Schultz, T & R Pilon (1973) Development Of The Ability To Detect Linguistic Ambiguity Child Development, 44 Shultz, T.M & Horibe, F (1974) Development Of The Appreciation Of Verbal Jokes Developmental Psychology 10 (1) 13 Soars, L & J Soars (2009) New Headway- Elementary (3rd ed.) Hanoi: Lao Dong Publishing House 50 Stanley, R (1980) The End Harmondsworth: Puffin Books Suls, J M (1977) Social Comparison Theory And Research- An Overview From 1964 Washington: Hemisphere Walton, D (1996) Fallacies Arising from Ambiguity Dordrecht: Kluwer Zippin, D (1966) Sex Differences And The Sense Of Humor Psychoanalitic Review 53 Dictionaries Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English Encyclopedic Edition (1992) Oxford: Oxford University Press - 70 - Oxford Wordpower Dictionary Millennium Edition (2000) Oxford: Oxford University Press And Internet links http://www.jokebuddha.com http://funnyjokes4me.blogspot.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Language s http://www.spz.h-bonn-rheinsieg.de/spzmedia/Downloads/Sonstiges/TOEFL+Equivalents.pdf http://www.wcfields.com/ http://dhost.info/pingke/T-P-Translatability.htm http://translationjournal.net/journal/49translatability.htm http://www.21jfs.com/xykw/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=600 APPENDICES APPENDIX LIST OF JOKES CHOSEN FOR THE PAPER Lexical jokes “You should meet my husband He makes his living with his pen.” “Oh, so he is a writer?” “No, he raises pigs.” (Misztal, 1990:509) The following conversation took place between two teachers: “Do you allow your boys to smoke?” “I‟m afraid not.” “Can they drink?” “No, by all means, no.” “What about dates?” “Oh, that‟s quite all right, as long as they don‟t eat too many.” (Misztal, 1990: 148) In the diner of a southbound train, a honeymoon couple notices two nuns at another table When neither could identify the religious habit, the husband volunteered to settle the question “Pardon me, Sisters,” he said, pausing politely before the nuns‟ table, “but would you mind telling me your Order?” One of the nuns smiled at him “Not at all,” she said cheerfully “Lam chops- and they‟re delicious!” (Hoke 1965:194) “Have you ever appeared as a witness in a suit before?” asked the judge “Why of course!” replied the young girl “Will you please tell the jury what suit it was?” “It was a pink suit,” she replied quickly, “with red collar and cuffs, and buttons all the way down the front.” (Misztal, 1990:786) “Waiter!” “Yes, sir.” “What‟s this?” “It‟s bean soup, sir.” “No matter what it‟s been What is it now?” (Misztal, 1990:651) Agent: “Now, there is a house without a flaw.” Harvard man: “My, what you walk on?” (Misztal, 1990:498) Caller: “Hello? Maternity ward? I‟d like to know whether Mrs Jones, a patient of yours, has already delivered.” Receptionist: “Is this her first baby?” Caller: “No, it‟s her husband.” “Which is the other side of the street?” “Over there.” “That‟s strange, the gentleman over there said it was over here.” All eyes on the blackboard and watch me run through it (Nash, 1985:24) 10 “In Los Angles a man is hit by a car every five minutes.” “Boys, I‟ll bet he‟s pretty beat up.” 11 “The best man at a wedding replies to the bridegroom‟s mother‟s inquiry: “No, Mrs Smith, I‟m not getting married any soon I would like to marry a woman who is rich, smart and obedient.” Another young man intervenes at this point, “May I have her number in the meantime?” (Raskin: 1987:20) 12 Manchester children all followed United, because their mothers tell them to stay away from the Maine Road (Nash, 1985:12) 13 “Do you believe in clubs for young people?” “Only when kindness fails.” (Pepicello and Weisberg, 1983:79 ) 14 “What‟s orange and sounds like a parrot?” “A carrot.” 15 “What‟s black and white and read all over?” “A newspaper.” 16 I‟m on a seafood diet I see food and I eat it 17 There are only two kinds of pedestrians- the quick and the dead (Nash, 1985: 19) 18 (Pointing to the cemetery) Did you know this is the dead centre of Sheffield? People are dying to get in there 19 A lady sent her little girl to see the doctor When she returned, the fond mother said: “Mary, did the doctor treat you?” “No, he charged me two dollars.” (Misztal, 1990:832) 20 Booking Clerk (at small village station): “You‟ll have to change twice before you get to York.” Villager (unused to traveling): “Goodness me! And I‟ve only brought the clothes I‟ll be standing up in.” (Potcheptov, 1974: 159) 21 Big sister‟s date was trying to make friends with the young son of the house as he waited for her to finish dressing “I think I have met all of your family except your Uncle Joe,” he said “Which side of the house does he look like?” The small boy hesitated “The side with the bay window,” he said finally (Hoke, 1965:92) 22 Professor: “You can‟t sleep in my class.” Student: “If you didn‟t talk so loud I could.” (Misztal, 1990:143) 23 Stern librarian: “Please be quiet The people near you can‟t read.” Small boy: “Well, they ought to be ashamed of themselves! I‟ve been able to read since I was six.” (Hoke, 1965:6) Syntactic jokes 24 A homeowner in Minehead, England, wished to return an empty coal sack to his coal delivery man, so he left a note on the front door saying, “Empty sack in kitchen.” When he returned he found a pile of coal on his kitchen floor 25 Buy your girl a bikini and watch her beam with delight 26 “When I was a nine-year-old girl, I was left an orphan.” “Oh, yes? What did you with it?” (Hoke, 1965:105) 27 “Do you serve frog‟s legs?” “We serve anyone who‟s able to pay.” (Nash, 1985:23) 28 A man eating a kebab goes up to a lady who has a yapping Chihuahua at her heels “Can I throw your dog a bit?” he asked politely “Certainly,” came the reply So he scooped the dog up and flung it a hundred yards (Lew, 1996:33) 29 Call me a taxi – You‟re a taxi 30 “Our son was involved in a terrible road accident” “Yes, the roads are terrible round here” (Nash, 1985:21) Phonological jokes 31 Two boys were talking about their afterschool jobs Harry asked Larry: “How you like your chimney- sweeping job?” Larry answered smugly: “It soots me.” 32 Man: “I‟d like to buy a pair of nylon stockings for my wife.” Clerk: “Sheer?” Man: “No, she‟s at home.” (Hoke, 1965:145) 33 Three small siblings had a pet sparrow, which, alas, died The children were very sad, and they decided to give the dead bird a really good burial service Their families were faithful members of the church, so the children had some ideas of how to go about it Their first step was to dig the grave in a carefully chosen spot in a corner of the yard Then they solemnly prepared for the actual interment One child held the sparrow over the grave, and another recited, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and in the hole he goes.” (Johnson, 1989:262) 34 “What kind of ears does a train have? Engineers.” (Green and Pepicello, 1984:8) 35 She‟s a kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success, wrong by wrong 36 “What‟s a baby pig called?” “A piglet.” “So what‟s a baby toy called?” “A toilet.” (Nash, 1985:15) 37 A cartoon shows a butcher standing in front of his shop, looking with a puzzled expression at the signs on the two shops on either side of him: Butch/ Butcher/ Butchest (Nash, 1985:16) Pragmatic jokes 38 Mike: “I wish I had the money to buy an elephant.” Spike: “Why? What would you with the elephant?” Mike: “Who wants the elephant? I just want the money.” (Hoke, 1965:13) 39 At a well-known religious college, the academics were excellent but the food was utterly monotonous Practically every dinner, it was tomato soup, creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, string beans and ice-cream with chocolate sauce One student who took his religion seriously, but who could hardly stand the food, said the same grace every evening at dinner He quoted from Herbrew, 13:8: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Johnson 1989:220) 40 Two farmers had known each other all their lives, but their conversations were usually restricted to “Good morning” or “Nice day.” One afternoon, however, the first farmer asked: “Hi, Pete, what did you give your horse when he had the colic?” “Turpentine,” said Pete “Thanks,” said his friend Two weeks later they met again “Didn‟t you tell me, Pete, that you gave your horse turpentine when he had the colic?” “Yes,” said Pete “Well, I gave mine turpentine and he died.” “So did mine,” said Pete (Misztal, 1990:506) 41 “Jenny was washing the window on the fourteen floor yesterday, and she fell off the window-sill.” “Good Lord, is she alive?” “Yes Fortunately, she fell inside.” 42 Departing Traveller: “Run upstairs, boy, and see if my umbrella is in room 483 I think I left it at the corner by the window.” Boy (some minutes later): “Quite rights, sir, it‟s exactly where you said it was.” (Misztal, 1990:713) 43 Jonny, ten years old, applied for a summer job as a grocery boy The grocer wanted a serious-minded lad for the job, so he put Johnny to a little test “Well, my boy, what would you with a million of dollars?” he asked “Oh, gee! I don‟t know I wasn‟t expecting so much at the start.” (Hoke, 1965:13) 44 A man who has lost his door key is caught by a policeman climbing in through the window, and invites the policeman in to prove it is really his home “This is my living room,” he says, switching on the lights boldly; and this is my sixthousand dollar Spanish living-room suit.” And so on continuing through the whole house, including the bedroom, where a man and a woman are discovered making love passionately on the bed “And this is my carved French bedstead, and that‟s my wife,” finishes the man “Now let‟s go downstairs and have some coffee.” They downstairs, and as they are drinking the coffee, the policeman can‟t prevent himself from bursting out, “But what about that guy up in the bedroom on top of your wife?” “Oh, him?” says the man, “to hell with him! Let him make his own coffee!” (Legman, 1975:73, adapted by Lew, 1996) Sophisticated jokes 45 A religious and charitable woman noticed a very down-and-out sort of man standing at the corner of the street near her residence One morning she took compassion to him, pressed a dollar into his hand and whispered: “Never despair.” Next time she saw him he stopped her and handed her nine dollars “What does this mean?” she asked “It means, ma‟am,” said the man, “that Never Despair won at to 1.” (Misztal, 1990:611) 46 Mother: “Mary, will you run across the street and see how old Mrs Smith is today?” After a few minutes, Mary: “Mother! Mrs Smith says it‟s none of your business how old she is today.” 47 “I have changed my mind.” “Thank Heavens Does it work any better now?” (Misztal, 1990:810) 48 Next-door neighbor, to a small boy: “Come again, Johnny We‟d like to see more of you.” Johnny: “But there isn‟t any more of me.” (Hoke: 1965:92) 49 Teacher: “So, who knows who Anne Boleyn was?” Johnny: “I do, Sir! She was a pressing iron.” Teacher: “She was a what?” Johnny: “She was an iron.” Teacher: “Where did you get this idea from, Johnny?” Johnny: “Well, Sir, it says right here in our history book: „After divorcing Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII pressed his suit with Anne Boleyn.” 50 “When is a car not a car?” “When it turns into a garage.” (Nash, 1985:18) APPENDIX MODEL OF GRICE’S COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES (1975) The maxim of Quantity: a make yourself as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange) b not make your contribution more informative than is required The maxim of Quality: a not say what you believe to be false b not say that for which you lack adequate evidence The maxim of Relation: be relevant The maxim of Manner: a be perspicacious b avoid obscurity of expression c avoid ambiguity d be brief e be orderly (cited in Nguyen Hoa, 2000: 61) ... UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN HẢI HÀ EXAMINING LINGUISTIC AMBIGUITY AS A SOURCE OF CONSTRUCTING FUNNINESS IN ENGLISH VERBAL JOKES (KHẢO... What types of linguistic ambiguity can be used as a source of constructing funniness in English verbal jokes? In what way can English verbal jokes be categorized in accordance with the types of. .. grammatical meaning and obviously exclude the so-called lexical meaning in linguistics In its nature, Linguistic semantics is classified as a branch of linguistics just as philosophical semantics