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DOROTA BUSZYŃSKA
UNIVERSITY OF WROCŁAW
Laughing at or with? Humor as no laughing (cultural)
matter
ABSTRACT. The present paper addresses the question of humor and proposes its position in
language among other discourses. The aim is to introduce a study perspective that would
contest the approach to humor as a “poor relation of a serious language.” 1 To the best of my
knowledge, no study of the unserious has so far been conducted, accounting for its crosscultural
significance from the ethnolinguistic perspective. The outcome of the above is
assumed to form a gap in the ethnic profiles and inter-ethnic relations, lacking in data from
this complete and powerful sector of culture. Therefore, the new approach to humor
proposed herein and the described exemplary analysis, its main points and conclusions, are
believed to provide a contribution to the filling-in of the above-named gap. The central
argument on which the subsequent observations are based, is rooted in the findings of
discourse studies and anthropological linguistics with reference to the dialogue between
language and culture. The paper proposes situating humorous discourse on a position even
with other discourse genres, and regarding it as an equally important and abundant source of
cultural data for a specific speech community. Otherwise stated, the construed approach to
humor treats it as a self-contained discourse genre, grounded in language, and henceforth –
as a culture-specific, culture-defining, and culture-transmitting device.
KEYWORDS. Verbal humor, ethnicity, linguistics, discourse, culture, communication
1. Introduction
The paper is concerned with the presentation of conclusions derived from
the preliminary research aimed at developing a new, ethnolinguistic study of
humor. The initial stage of the study, carried out in the years 2009–2011, was
primarily concerned with selecting the areas of research indispensable for
achieving the mentioned future study goal. The perspective arrived at and proposed
herein views humorous discourse 2 as both a carrier and a source of cultural
traits and, by the same token, as a subdomain of both linguistics and ethnology.
Thus, the present paper situates the study subject within the scope of
discourse studies, and understands humorous discourse as an entity encompass-
1
2
Ritchie (2005: 22)
A proviso needs be made that the introduced term humorous discourse, used as default in the
present paper, follows the way in which, among others, Chłopicki (2006), Davies (1990) or
Cristina Larkin Galiñanas (2000) perceive and refer to it, that is, as a full-bodied and complete
discourse genre, on pair with political or religious discourses. It should be noted, however,
that not all discourse researchers recognize its independent position.
LANGUAGES IN CONTACT 2011