The Linguistics of Humor

This elementary book is well structured and presented for readers without prior training in humor studies. Overall, it provides a clear foundation for understanding humor's embedding in linguistic practice, and its distinct (yet overlapping) cognitive, emotional, and physiological/embodied manifestations. As awkward as it can sometimes be to explain a joke, I enjoyed every aspect of this enlightening, eye-opening book. * Joseph Comer, Language in Society *
The book-a must for linguists and humour scholarsalike -is intended to assess the current state of research and "set it out clearly in as comprehensive a framework as possible" (p. 384). * Władysław Chłopicki, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, The European Journal of Humour Research *
Indispensable, both as a text and for deep reading and reflection, giving comprehensive insight into how linguistics applies to humorous communications and the wider realms of humour theory and analysis. This book reflects a lifetime of reading and thinking on the complex and puzzling topic--what is the nature of humour and how do we research it? * Jessica Milner Davis, University of Sydney *
It is often held to be a scientific ideal that we draw from multiple disciplinary perspectives in advancing our understanding of complex social phenomena such as humour, but we fall short of that ideal for the most part. Professor Attardo shows us how it should be done. In The Linguistics of Humor, he offers us a masterful and insightful overview that will help both those new to the field, as well as seasoned researchers, navigate the rapidly growing field of humour studies. Throughout the volume he integrates different theoretical and methodological perspectives, resulting in something that is much more than the simple sum of its parts. This is a must-read for anyone interested in humour studies. * Michael Haugh, University of Queensland *
No doubt the most comprehensive treatment of the linguistic study of humor. Attardo succeeds, in particular, in showing how the phenomenon (or better, phenomena) of humor involve(s) the full complexity of what people do with language. * Jef Verschueren, University of Antwerp *
Attardo successfully anticipates what target audiences want to know, what questions they may have, and what narrative style is optimal for them to understand the linguistics of humor. The target audience will surely benefit from this outstanding work...Reading this book while reflecting on one's own research, linguistic researchers studying humor can get insightful information. * Baiyao Zu, Brill *