Completed Research Project

Title / Titel
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A linguistic analysis of perceived and produced humor
Summary / Zusammenfassung
The present project describes interdisciplinary effort, in which results based on the same material, but analyzed with tools from two different disciplines are brought together for mutual evaluation. In study I a set of 70 jokes and cartoons will be studied psychologically for its affective properties and analyzed linguistically for its internal morphology. The former will involve deriving properties (like factor loadings on content and structure factors). The latter relates to a linguistic analysis utilizing the GTVH (Attardo & Raskin, 1992). The analysis will show whether linguistically defined features determine the perception of humor. The second part of the project will examine whether the preference for different structural and content factors in humor appreciation can also be identified in the creation of humor. A test of humor appreciation (3 WD, Ruch, 1992) will be used to determine the individual´s liking of incongruity-resolution, nonsense, and sexual humor. The same research participants will also be asked to provide original and witty punch lines for caption-removed cartoons. A linguistic analysis of the produced punch lines will show whether or not individuals tend to produce the same type of humor that they like the most (irrespective of the joke's original structure). The results will allow to draw conclusions about the relation of cognitive stile and motivational preference of an individual, both to their enjoyment and their production of humor.
Publications / Publikationen
Hempelmann, Ch. F., & Ruch, W. (2005). 3 WD Meets GTVH: Breaking the ground for interdisciplinary humor research. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 18, 353-387.
Project Leadership and Contacts /
Projektleitung und Kontakte
Prof. Christian Hempelmann, PhD (Project Leader)cfhempelmann@georgiasouthern.edu
Prof. Willibald Ruch, PhD (Project Leader)w.ruch@psychologie.uzh.ch
Funding Source(s) /
Unterstützt durch
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung)
 
In Collaboration with /
In Zusammenarbeit mit
Prof. Dr. Christian Hempelmann
Department of Writing and Linguistics
Georgia Southern University		United States
Duration of Project / Projektdauer
Feb 2004 to Dec 2007

© Universität Zürich, 8. Januar 2009, Impressum