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79353-01 - Lecture: Language and Humour (2 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Thomas Messerli (thomas.messerli@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Humour is a pervasive feature of everyday communication and a productive site for studying language in use. This lecture surveys theoretical and empirical approaches to humour, with a particular focus on the linguistics of humour and on how different subdisciplines of linguistics have theorised what makes utterances, texts and interactions funny, and what humour does in social contexts. We begin with the foundational families of humour theory – incongruity (and incongruity-resolution), superiority, and relief – and trace how these accounts have been refined and combined in more recent proposals such as Raskin’s Semantic Script Theory of Humor and the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH), as well as McGraw and Warren’s Benign Violation Theory. From there, the lecture moves through the central linguistic perspectives on humour: pragmatic accounts that locate humour in cooperative, relevance-theoretic, and im/politeness frameworks; sociolinguistic perspectives that link humour to identity, group membership, gender, and ideology; and cognitive approaches that draw on conceptual blending, frame-shifting, and mental-space theory to model how humorous meaning is constructed and understood. We further consider humour in computer-mediated communication, including memes, irony and sarcasm online, banter in messaging apps, and humour in social-media comment sections. Across the semester, sessions combine theoretical input with authentic examples drawn from a wide range of communicative settings: stand-up comedy, sitcoms, scripted and unscripted dialogue, written satire, online and offline conversation, advertising, and digital genres. We will examine how humour is constructed linguistically (e.g., through ambiguity, register clash, formulaic patterns, intonation, multimodal resources), how it is interpreted by audiences and co-participants, and how it travels across languages, cultures, and platforms. Particular attention will be paid to the interactional and relational functions of humour, including bonding, face-work, and the negotiation of stance. The course is designed to give students a working overview of humour research as a multi-perspectival field within English linguistics and to provide the conceptual tools needed to analyse humorous discourse in its situated contexts. |
| Learning objectives | By the end of this course, students know the major theoretical traditions in humour research (incongruity / incongruity-resolution, superiority, relief, SSTH/GTVH, Benign Violation Theory) and can compare their analytical scope and limitations can apply pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and cognitive-linguistic concepts to the analysis of humorous language in context can identify and describe linguistic resources used to construct, signal, and negotiate humour across spoken, written and digital genres can analyse the interactional and relational functions of humour, including its role in identity construction, in/exclusion, and im/politeness can critically reflect on the cultural, ideological, and platform-specific factors that shape the production and reception of humour. |
| Bibliography | Lecture slides and obligatory reading for the course will be made available on ADAM. |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Course application | Please register for this course on services unibas.ch. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Wednesday | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 16.09.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 23.09.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 30.09.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 07.10.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 14.10.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 21.10.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 28.10.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 04.11.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 11.11.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 18.11.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 25.11.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 02.12.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 09.12.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Wednesday 16.12.2026 | 12.15-14.00 | Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal |
| Modules |
Modul: English Linguistics (Master's degree subject: English) Module: Advanced English Linguistics (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature (Start of studies before 01.08.2026)) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics BA (Bachelor's Studies - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: English) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's degree subject: Latin Philology) Module: Interphilology: Linguistics MA (Master's Studies - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) Module: Language and Society (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Module: Research and Extension (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) |
| Assessment format | record of achievement |
| Assessment details | written exam at the end of the semester |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | one repetition, repetition counts |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |