The semiology of humour: developing the “counter-sign” model
VIEW FULL TEXT

Keywords

humour
semiology
trigger
counter-sign
conventionality
meta-communication

How to Cite

Borodenko, M., & Petrovsky, V. (2021). The semiology of humour: developing the “counter-sign” model. The European Journal of Humour Research, 9(2), 7-25. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2021.9.2.553

Abstract

A semiology-based approach to understanding humour is being developed and an interpretation of humour as a “counter-sign,” a two-faced sign within the space of conventionality, is put forward. The range of core attributes to interpret the phenomenon of humour is determined. The concepts of the “frame of significance,” “conventionality,” and “meta-communicative marker of conventionality” are elaborated. The general definition of humour is being formulated as a “sign-based identification of non-identifiable signs within the space of conventionality.” An outline is put forward to enable the formal distinction between satire, humour, irony, and jokes. The following questions are addressed: “Why does that which is funny cease to be so if it is repeated many times?”, “Why can the terrifying become funny when recollected?” “Why is the state of bewilderment not always funny but returning to it in one’s thoughts triggers laughter?”

VIEW FULL TEXT

References

Allahverdov, V. M. (2006). Eksperimental'naya Teoriya Poznaniya: Kognitivnaya Logika Soznatel'nogo i Bessoznatel'nogo [The experimental theory of knowledge: the cognitive logic of conscious and unconscious]. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of St. Petersburg. University.

Aristotle, (1962). Poetics. Oxford: Oxford at the Clarendon Press.

Attardo, S. (2001). Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis. Humor Research Series 6. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Attardo, S. et al. (2003). ‘Multimodal markers of irony and sarcasm’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 16 (2), pp. 243-260.

Bakhtin, M. M. (1990). Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable i Narodnaya Kul'tura Srednevekov'ya i Renesansa [Francois Rabelais’s work and the folk culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance]. Second ed. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literature.

Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bergson, H. (2012). Laughter, an Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. Moscow: Oniks.

Berlyne, D. (1974). Studies in the New Experimental Aesthetics. New York City: Halsted Press, John Wiley and Sons.

Berne, E. (2001). Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy: The Classic Handbook to its Principles. (Condor Books). London: Souvenir Press Ltd.

Borev, Y. B. (2003). Estetika. Teoriya Literatury. Entsiklopedicheskiy Slovar' Terminov [Aesthetics. Theory of literature. Encyclopedic dictionary of terms]. Moscow: Astrel.

Borodenko, M. V. (1995). Dva Litsa Yanusa–Smekha [Two faces of Janus the Laughter]. Rostov–on–Don: AO “Zvetnaya pechiat”.

Borodenko, M. V. (1991). Vosprinimayemoye det'mi «smeshnoye» kak pokazatel' «zony blizhayshego razvitiya» [The “humorous” perceived by children as an indicator of a ‘zone of proximal development’]. Abstracts of the International Conference Education Reforms of Education in Russia, Moscow, October 14-16.

Davies, C. (2009). ‘Humor theory and the fear of being laughed at’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 22 (1/2), pp. 49-62.

de Saussure, F. D. (1983 [1922]). Course in General Linguistics. London: Duckworth.

Dolzhenets, R. Vse Karikatury. “Stradivari”. https://caricatura.ru/art/doljenets/.

Dziemidok, B. (1974). O Komicheskom [About humour]. Moscow: Progress.

Festinger, L. (1999). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. St. Petersburg: Yuventa.

Freud, S. (2013). Interpretation of Dreams. Oxford: Oxford Academy.

Hale, A. (2018). ‘There is an after–life (for jokes, anyway): The potential for, and appeal of, “immortality” in humor’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 31 (3), pp. 507-538.

Hegel, G. (1975). Aesthetics. Lectures on Fine Art. Transl. T. M. Knox, 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hobbes, T. (1964). Izbrannyye Proizvedeniya [Selected works] V. 1–2. Moscow: Mysl’.

Ivanova, E. M., Enikolopov, S. N. & Mitina, O. V. (2008). ‘Narushenie chuvstva yumora pri shizofrenii i affektivnyh rasstrojstvah’ [Analysis of disfunctions of the sense of humor in schizophrenia and affective disorders]. Voprosy Psikhologii 1, pp. 45-57.

Jean-Paul, F. R. (1981). Prigotovitel'naya Shkola Estetiki [Introduction to Aesthetics]. Moscow: Iskusstvo.

Kant, I. (2007). Critique of Pure Reason. London: Penguin Books.

Kharms, D. (2004). Nashestvie Smyslov [The invasion of the meanings]. St. Petersburg: Kristall. Stil’.

Koestler, A. (1975). The Act of Creation. London: Picador Books.

Kozintsev, A. G. (2010). The Mirror of Laughter. New York: Routledge

Lacan, J. (1998). Seminary. Kniga 1. Raboty Freyda po Tekhnike Psikhoanaliza [Workshops. Book 1. Freud’s work on the technique of psychoanalysis]. Moscow: Logos.

Lefebvre, V. A. (1997). The Cosmic Subject. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Psychology Press.

Likhachev, D. S. (1975). Velikoe Nasledie: Klassicheskie Proizvedeniya Literatury Drevnej Rusi [The Great Heritage: Classic Works of Ancient Russsian Literature]. Moscow: Sovremennik.

Lipps, T. (1898). Komik und Humor: Eine Psychologisch–Ästhetische Untersuchung. Hamburg: L Voss.

Littlewood, D. (1979). Matematicheskaya Smes [A Mathematician’s Miscellany]. Moscow: Nauka.

Locke, J. (1975). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. with introduction by Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lotman, Y. M. (1992). Izbrannyye Stat'i [Selected papers]. V. 1. Tallinn: Aleksandra.

Martin, R. (2007). The Psychology of Humor. Elsevier: Academic Press.

Mendiburo–Seguel, А., & Heintz, S. (2020). ‘Comic styles and their relation to the sense of humor, humor appreciation, acceptability of prejudice, humorous self–image and happiness’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 33 (3), pp. 381-403.

Morris, C. W. (1964). Signification and Significance: A Study of the Relations of Signs and Values. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Petrovsky, V. A., Borodenko, M. V. (2005). ‘Komicheskoye’ [The Comic]. Psikhologicheskiy Leksikon.

Entsiklopedicheskiy Slovar' v Shesti Tomakh [Psychological lexicon. Encyclopedic dictionary in six volumes]. Moscow: Perse, pp.134-135.

Petrovsky, V. A. (1996). Lichnost' v Psikhologii: Paradigma Sub"yektnosti [Personality in psychology: the paradigm of subjectivity]. Rostov–on–Don: Fenix.

Petrovsky, V. A. & Khodorych, A. (2019). Ideal'nyj Argument [The Perfect argument]. Moscow: EXMO.

Pierce, C. S. (1883). ‘Studies in Logic’ by Members of The Johns Hopkins University. Boston: Little Brown.

Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster: Publishing Company, cop.

Raskin, V., Hempelmann C., & Taylor Y. (2009). ‘How to understand and assess a theory: the evolution of the SSTH into the GTVH and now into OSTH’. Journal of Literary Theory 3 (2), pp. 285-312.

Rubinstein, S. L. (1958). O Myshlenii i Putyakh yego Issledovaniya [On thinking and the ways of its research]. Moscow: Publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences

Shakespeare, W. (1993). As You Like It. Act 2, Scene 7. Wordsworth Editions.

Schelling, F. W. (2013). The Philosophy of Art. Book on Demand Ltd.

Shopenhauehr, А. (1999–2001). Sochineniya v 6 tt. [Compositions in 6 volumes]. Moscow: Terra – Knizhnii klub: “Respublika”

Volkelt, Y. (1905–1914). System der Asthetik. Munchen: C.H. Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung Oskar Beck.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1984). Sobraniye Sochineniy v 6 t. [Collected works in 6 vol.]. Volume 4. Moscow: Pedagogika.

Zaynullina, S. R., Lavrentiev, A. I., Oparin, M. V., Pronina, N. A., & Shibanov, V. L. (eds.) (2017). Yumor v Sravnitel'nom Izuchenii Kul'tur [Humour in the comparative study of cultures]. Izhevsk: Udmurt University Publishing House.

Zhvaneckij, M. (2006). Sobranie Proizvedenij. V Pyati Tomah [Collection of works in five vol.]. Moscow: Vremya.

Zeising, A. (1854). Aesthetische Forschungen. Frankfurt am Main: Meidinger Sohn und Comp.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2021 The European Journal of Humour Research

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.