Comparative Pragmatic Analysis of Humorous Speech Acts in English
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Abstract
This paper compares English and Uzbek humorous speech acts from the perspective of irony, exaggeration and indirectness. The investigation of the both languages is based on Grice’s Cooperative Principle, Speech Act Theory and General Theory of Verbal Humor. In English, humor is frequently wringing laughter out of sarcasm and irony which require ambiguity, while also often breaking the Maxim of Quantity. By contrast Uzbek humor is more typical to the Lignitzky, though relying on exaggerated situations or character peculiarities and laden with cultural reality.
The study shows that humor works in its own way in cultures — where English humor is centered on liguistic ambiguity and indirection, Uzbek jokes are more based in situational or culturally-specific. The paper finishes off with an example of how latter communication is influenced through cultural differences, stressing the role of contextuality in understanding humor in both languages.
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