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Humorous Garden-Paths: A Pragmatic-Cognitive Study
Author: Marta Dynel
Date Of Publication: Jan 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0140-9
Isbn: 1-4438-0140-2
Surprising as it may seem, sometimes humans like being led up the garden path, which is thanks to the pleasurable feeling of surprise entwined with a humorous effect deception tends to afford.

The central issue under investigation is the nature of short humorous texts in the form of one-liners and witticisms based on the “garden-path mechanism”. The monograph provides a survey of relevant linguistic research, recapitulating and assessing other authors’ theses in the context of their applicability in the analysis of garden-path humour. Discussions are conducted in the light of not only humour studies but also cognitive and pragmatic literature on human communication in general, with a view to presenting a meticulous description of short garden-path texts.

The book should be of interest to anybody who finds humour research appealing, whether or not already familiar with this field. No background knowledge is necessary on the reader’s part, given that all relevant postulates and theories are revisited. Also, the author steers a clear course through many terminological and conceptual obstacles that can be encountered in the study of humour (e.g. verbal/non-verbal humour, ambiguity types, punning, etc.).

Marta Dynel, Ph.D., is an assistant professor (adiunkt) in the Department of Pragmatics in the Institute of English at the University of Łódź, where she completed her M.A. thesis (2004) on the pragmatics of compliments and her doctoral thesis (2006) devoted to the pragmatics of conversational humour. She also graduated (2005) from the Institute of Applied Social Sciences (ISNS) within Interdepartmental Individual Humanities (MISH) at the University of Warsaw. She has published internationally in linguistic journals (e.g. Journal of Pragmatics) and volumes (e.g. in Peter Lang and Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Her research interests are focused primarily on pragmatic and cognitive studies on humour as well as the mechanisms of social influence and the rhetoric of advertising.

“Humor is a challenging issue, and Marta Dynel faces it admirably. Her investigation into garden path humor is a well documented and highly stimulating piece of research. The approach is soundly and competently linguistic, but the perspective is broad, and it is of interest and appeal also for other disciplines, psychology in the first place.” Prof. Giovannantonio Forabosco

“This thoroughly researched volume represents a convincing amalgamation of linguistics and humor theory. Garden-path humor provides a perfect testing ground for Marta Dynel’s semantic, cognitive and pragmatic perspectives.” Prof. Neal Norrick

Price Uk Gbp: 44.99
Price Us Usd: 67.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

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