Humor Strategies In Relevance

In this paper a cognitive approach to humor is adopted within the framework of Relevance Theory developed by Sperber and Wilson (1986,1995), in which a mental search for an optimally relevant interpretation covers the processing of humorous discourses and the derivation of humorous effects. "Extra effect means extra effect(Wilson, 1999:52)".The production and interpretation of humor involves a communication between the humorist and the audience. As seen from the analysis of humor in the present study, the search for relevance is not only at work in the processing of seemingly humorous utterances and nonverbal information, but it is also counted on by the humorists in the strategic devise of their humorous discourse. A skilled humorist manages to predict the relevance-seeking cognitive operations in the addressee's mind. Central to the study is the idea that certain effort-demanding interpretive mental processes are favored by the humorist as humor strategies in exchange for an increase in the eventual humorous effects. The interpretive processes may be predicted to a greater or lesser extent, which provides humorists with the key to the necessary control over the eventual interpretation of their humorous discourses. In this sense, the production and interpretation of humorous discourse lies in the humor strategies derived from the humorists' positive interaction with the addressees' cognitive environment in search for relevance.