An Analysis of Lexical Creativity and Humor in English Web-based Gag Cartoons
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Language play is an essential tool to carry out humor in gag cartoons, especially lexical creativity (Blake, 2007). This study aimed to find types of lexical creativity and techniques of humor used in English web-based gag cartoons. Ninety English web-based gag cartoons were used in the study. The frameworks of Berger (1993), Kenny (2001), and Zabir and Haroon (2021) were employed to analyze the results and implications for the relationship between lexical creativity and techniques of humor. The findings showed that blending and creative orthography were used the most as lexical creativity. As for techniques of humor, definition and literalness were most commonly employed. There were relationships between lexical creativity and techniques of humor. They imply that the writer’s intention to convey humor is an important factor in occasional relationships between lexical creativity and techniques of humor. Furthermore, lexical creativity and techniques of humor in gag cartoons can be beneficial for language learning and teaching. Thus, pedagogical implications for EFL learners and instructors are also discussed.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright by the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.
Photocopying is allowed for internal, non-commercial use only. Photocopying for other uses or for purposes other than indicated must be permitted in writing from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.
All views or conclusion are those of the authors of the articles and not necessarily those of the publisher or the editorial staff.References
Abida, F. I. N., & Darma, D. B. (2021). Techniques of humor in Das’ad Latif preaching. International Seminar on Austronesian Languages and Literature, 9(1), 41-43.
Ageli, N. (2014). For better or for worse - The challenges of translating English humour into Arabic. Journal of Human Sciences, 23, 413-426.
Allington, D., & Pihlaja, S. (2016). Reading in the age of the internet. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 25(3), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947016652781
Al-Momani, K., Badarneh, M., & Migdadi, F. (2017). A semiotic analysis of political cartoons in Jordan in light of the Arab Spring. HUMOR, 30(1), 63-95. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2016-0033
Attardo, S. (Ed.) (2014). Encyclopedia of humor studies (Vols. 1-2). SAGE Publications.
Attardo, S., & Chabanne, J.-C. (1992). Jokes as a text type. Humor - International Journal of Humor Research, 5(1-2), 165-176. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1992.5.1-2.165
Bell, N. D. (2016). Humour and language play. In R. H. Jones (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and creativity (p. 129-142). Routledge.
Bennui, P., & Hashim, A. (2013). Lexical creativity in Thai English fiction. Kritika Kultura, 21/22, 132-163. https://doi.org/10.13185/kk2013.02125
Berger, A. A. (1993). An anatomy of humor. Transaction Publishers.
Berger, A. A. (1997). The art of comedy writing. Transaction Publishers.
Berger, A. A. (2020). Humor, psyche, and society: A socio-semiotic analysis. Vernon Press.
Blake, B. J. (2007). Playing with words: Humour in the English language. Equinox Publishing.
Bramlett, F. (2018). Linguistic discourse in web comics: Extending conversation and narrative into Alt-text and hidden comics. In V. Werner (Ed.), The language of pop culture (pp. 72-91). Routledge.
Bucaria, C. (2017). Audiovisual translation of humor. In S. Attardo (Ed.), The routledge handbook of language and humor (pp. 430-443). Routledge.
Clark, C., & Rumbold, K. (2006). Reading for pleasure: A research overview. National Literacy Trust.
Cohn, N. (2013). The visual language of comics: Introduction to the structure and cognition of sequential images. A&C Black.
El-Masry, M. M. S. (2021). Humor and social media: A linguistic analysis of some Egyptian Coronavirus memes. Wadi el-Nil Lil Dirasat wal Buhuth al-Islamya, 30(30), 707–754. https://doi.org/10.21608/jwadi.2021.169855
Ermida, I. (2008). The language of comic narratives: Humor construction in short stories. De Gruyter Mouton.
Fägersten, K. B. (2020). Language play as humor in comic strips. In K. B. Fägersten (Ed.), Language play in contemporary Swedish comic strips (pp. 1-13). De Gruyter Mouton.
Fidler, M. (2004). Reading and studying culture with electronic materials. Canadian Slavonic Papers, 46(1-2), 83-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/00085006.2004.11092347
Hajjaj, D. (2018). The use of body language in Jordanian cartoons: A semiotic analysis. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 9(3), 19–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.3p.19
Harvey, R. C. (2009). How comics came to be: Through the juncture of word and image from magazine gag cartoons to newspaper strips, tools for critical appreciation plus rare seldom witnessed historical facts. In J. Heer & K. Worcester (Eds.), A comics studies reader (pp. 25-45). University Press of Mississippi.
Hasanah, N., & Hidayat, D. N. (2020). A semiotic analysis of political cartoons on the first 100 days of Anies Baswedan government. EduLite Journal of English Education, Literature, and Culture, 5(2), 322-333. http://dx.doi.org/10.30659/e.5.2.322-333
Hempelmann, C. F., & Samson, A. C. (2008). Cartoons: Drawn jokes? In V. Raskin (Ed.), The primer of humor research (pp. 609-640). Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110198492
Hidayati, N. (2019). Verbal humour used in comedian in Cars Getting Coffee Talk Show: “Just Tell Him You’re The President” [Undergraduate thesis, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang]. Etheses of Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University. http://etheses.uin-malang.ac.id/16500/
Kenny, D. (2001). Lexis and creativity in translation: A corpus-based study. Routledge.
Kim, K. H. (2010). [Review of the book Lexis and creativity in translation: A corpus-based study, by D. Kenny, Ed.]. FORUM, 8(2), 285-291. https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.8.2.13kim
Konieczna, E. (2012). Morphological productivity and creativity in a politically correct language: A case study of lexical innovation. Bulletin of the Transylvania University of Braşov, 5(54), 9–16.
Ladányi, M. (2000). Productivity, creativity and analogy in word formation (WF): Derivational innovations in Hungarian poetic language. In G. Alberti & I. Kenesei (Eds.), Approaches to Hungarian: Papers from the Pécs conference (Vol. 7; pp. 73-90). JATEPress. http://ladanyi.web.elte.hu/derivational_innovations.pdf
Lehrer, A. (2007). Blendalicious. In J. Munat (ed.), Lexical Creativity, Texts and Contexts (pp. 115–133.). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Leisure Reading Board Task Force. (2014). Leisure reading: A joint position statement of the international reading association, the Canadian children’s book centre, and the national council of teachers of English [Position statement]. International Reading Association. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/leisure-reading-position-statement.pdf
Llamas, L. F., & Rodríguez, M. M. (2005). Lexical creativity in English: Minor methods of word formation. BABEL-AFIAL, 14, 119-137.
Loan, F. A. (2011). Impact of internet on reading habits of the Net generation college students. International Journal of Digital Library Services, 1(2), 43-48. http://www.ijodls.in/uploads/3/6/0/3/3603729/loan_fayazi[4]_43-48.pdf
López, B. G., & Vaid, J. (2017). Psycholinguistic approaches to humor. In S. Attardo (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and humor (pp. 267-281). Routledge.
Mitchell, H. H. (2007). No laughing matters: The use of humor in texts. Information Design Journal, 15(1), 17-20. https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.15.1.03mit
Moehkardi, R. R. (2016). Patterns and meanings of English words through word formation processes of acronyms, clipping, compound and blending found in Internet-based media. Humaniora, 28(3). 324-338. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.v28i3.22287
Munat, J. (2007). Lexical creativity as a marker of style in science fiction and children’s literature. In J. Munat (Ed.), Lexical creativity, texts and contexts (p. 163-185). Routledge.
Munat, J. (2016). Lexical creativity. In R. H. Jones (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and creativity (p. 92-106). Routledge.
Nasr, R. T. (2015). The communication of humor: A socio-linguistic approach. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(1), 75-77.
Nwokah, E. E., Hernandez, V., Miller, E., & Garza, A. (2019). Playing with words: Dav Pilkey’s literary success in humorous language. American Journal of Play, 11(2), 222-246.
Ofoegbu, C., & Usar, I. (2018). A morpho-semantic analysis of lexical creativity of political speech of Nigeria’s Independence Anniversary 2015. Journal of Linguistics, Language and Igbo Studies, 2(1), 112-131.
Pedrazzini, A., & Scheuer, N. (2018). Distinguishing cartoon subgenres based on a multicultural contemporary corpus. European Journal of Humour Research, 6(1), 100–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2018.6.1.pedrazzini
Robingah. (2020). Pierce's semiotics analysis on Benny's cartoons related to COVID 19 issues. Journal of Language and Literature, 8(1), 86-95. https://doi.org/10.35760/jll.2020.v8i1.2564
Rochmawati, D. (2017). Pragmatic and rhetorical strategies in the English-written jokes. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 149-159. https://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i1.6868
Ross, A. (1998). The language of humor. Routledge.
Saraceni, M. (2003). The language of comics. Routledge.
Schmitz, J. R. (2002). Humor as a pedagogical tool in foreign language and translation courses. Humor, 15(1), 89-113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/humr.2002.007
Senchantichai, N., & Kadsantier, P. (2019). An analysis of linguistic humor in the humorous scenes of Pee Mak Phra Kanong. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Phayao, 7(2), 106-124. https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/Humanties-up/article/view/221884
Shade, A. R. (1996). License to laugh: Humor in the classroom. Greenwood Publishing.
Tsakona, V. (2009). Language and image interaction in cartoons: Towards a multimodal theory of humor. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(6), 1171-1188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.12.003
Tyumbu, M. M. (2018). A semiotic study of political cartoon strips in The Nation National Daily. International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies (LALIGENS), 7(2), 136-145. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/laligens.v7i2.12
Zabidin, N. B. (2015). The use of humourous texts in improving ESL learners’ vocabulary comprehension and retention. English Language Teaching, 8(9), 104-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n9p104
Zabir, A., & Haroon, H. (2021). From ‘Ratcatraz Prison’ to ‘Penjara Pudutikus’: Lexical creativity in children’s literature and its translation into Malay. Journal of Language Studies, 21(1), 20 - 44. http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2021-2101-02
Zawada, B. (2005). Linguistic creativity and mental representation with reference to intercategorial polysemy [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of South Africa.