Admittedly, some of these types and subtypes of linguistic ambiguity and verbal jokes may confuse readers due to their slight similarities; homophone and phonology- based verbal jokes are as such. Henceforth, it would be easier and more convenient if typical features of different types of linguistic ambiguity used in English verbal jokes are briefly summarized at this point, exemplified by some joke texts, through the following figure:
Figure 4: Types of linguistic ambiguity exploited in English verbal jokes
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verbal jokes linguistic ambiguity
Lexical jokes Lexical ambiguity
Polysemy A word that has two or more senses very closely related.
(Pointing to the cemetery) Did you know this is the dead centre of Sheffield? People are dying to get in there.
Homonymy A word that has two or more senses not related to one another.
Homophones
Two words that have (almost) the same pronunciation form but different spellings and different or unrelated meanings.
Agent: “Now, there is a house without a flaw.”
Harvard man: “My, what do you walk on?”
(Misztal, 1990:498) Obscure
deictic references
An ambiguous referential property that refers to two different entities.
All eyes on the blackboard and watch me run through it.
(Nash, 1985:24)
Specific and general word
meaning
A word/ phrase (normally a noun phrase) that has both specific and general interpretations.
“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?”
(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes(LUAN.van.THAC.si).examining.linguistic.ambiguity.as.a.source.of.constructing.funniness.in.english.verbal.jockes
Syntactic jokes
Structural ambiguity
shift speech of a word. delight.
Structural confusion
Confusion caused by different structures of a sentence.
Call me a taxi. – You‟re a taxi.
Phonological
jokes Phonological ambiguity
Two words and/or phrases that have quite similar or slightly different phonemes and/or morphemes.
She‟s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success, wrong by wrong.
Pragmatic
jokes Pragmatic ambiguity
One sentence that has two different readings in terms of pragmatic function (providing two readings share the same syntactic structure, lexical items and phonetic strings).
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)
Sophisticated jokes
Mixed ambiguity
A joke text that exploits two or more types of linguistic ambiguity.
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.”
Idiom and complex language use Next-door neighbor, to a small boy: “Come again, Johnny. We‟d like to see more of you.”
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