Humor as incongruity: Pragmatics and the case of irony

• Grant number: 23/17598-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antonio Caron Ruffino
• Grantee: Deiver Vinícius de Melo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Language can be used for many purposes beyond describing the world, as remarked by J. L. Austin (1962). By means of linguistic devices, we can raise objections, make promises, declare wars and tell jokes. This research project aims to analyze the use of linguistic pragmatics devices, that is, implicatures, speech acts and presuppositions, for generating humor in certain contexts. Unlike Austin, notwithstanding, the comic conversational contexts will be considered as cooperative in this study, not being relegated to the status of "non-serious contexts". To this end, the incongruity thesis will be defended, i.e., that the humorous effect comes from the presentation of some incongruity with specific features that allows the fruition of comicality. The devices of pragmatics in question will be mobilized to create a comic ambient, in which the speaker does not assume commitment with truth or falsity of her assertions, and presenting the incongruities that will be humorous object. The implicatures and presuppositions are means of subtle presentation of these incongruities, which is essential for most part of humor. A paradigmatic example will be explored in greater detail is the case of ironies, given its wide dissemination in the humor influenced by social media. A central argument to this project will be that the definition of irony presented by Grice (1989), and considered as classical, does not apply to all the cases. Objections will be also raised to other definitions of irony, such as the one from Sperber & Wilson (1981) and those that involve appeal to non-literal meanings. Finally, a new concept of irony will be proposed, one that captures the non-encompassed cases in classical theories and the new forms of irony disseminated on social networks.