Published In
Metaphor and Symbol
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
10-1-2005
Subjects
Wit and humor, Irony, Meaning (Philosophy), Figures of speech, Cognition and language
Abstract
Coulson's (2001) analysis of humor as "frame-shifting" is extended to irony and compared to other current theories of humor and irony, including Giora's (2003) graded salience model. It is argued that the effects of humor and irony often depend on a subversive relationship between the initial and alternative frames, which adds to both cognitive and social meaning; understanding these effects requires consideration of the expansion of common ground (Clark, 1996) and relevance effects (Sperber & Wilson, 1986) triggered by the shift from a culturally licensed to a subversive frame. Reanalysis of several examples from recent studies in the light of these approaches shows that humor and irony, like other forms of figurative language, can serve complex communicative, social, and cognitive objectives that justify according them a central place in communication-oriented theories of language use.
Rights
Copyright © 2005, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1207/s15327868ms2004_3
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/8752
Citation Details
Published as: Ritchie, D. (2005). Frame-shifting in humor and irony. Metaphor and Symbol, 20(4), 275-294.
Description
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Metaphor and Symbol. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Metaphor and Symbol, Vol. 20, Issue 4, 2005.