Cover not available
Part of
Let's talk politics: New essays on deliberative rhetoric
Edited by Hilde Van Belle, Kris Rutten, Paul Gillaerts, Dorien Van De Mieroop and Baldwin Van Gorp
[Argumentation in Context 6] 2014
► pp. 81–97

Prosodic enhancers of humorous effect in political speeches

Oral delivery remains one of the crucial factors determining the final effect of a potentially humorous remark. Nevertheless, there is almost no research on the prosodic features of humor used in public speaking. In order to understand what kind of prosodic arrangement makes a potentially humorous message funny, the author conducted a communicative-pragmatic and experimental-phonetic analysis of the original recordings of six political addresses delivered by British and American leaders. The research results show that specific changes in tempo-rhythm, pauses, and expressive intonation can serve as enhancers of humorous effect in speech. The findings also support the hypothesis about the dominant role of timing in using humor effectively. Prosodic marking of humorous remarks, however, depends upon their type and function in the argumentative structure of the whole speech.
Published online: 30 April 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aic.6.05say
References (37)
References
Aristotle. (1991). The Art of Rhetoric (H. C. Lawson-Tancred, Ed. & Tran.). London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Atkinson, M. (2004). Lend me your ears; all you need to know about making speeches and presentations . Oxford - New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Attardo, S. (1994). Linguistic theories of humor . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
. (2001). Humorous texts: A semantic and pragmatic analysis . Berlin – New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Attardo, S., Pickering, L., & Baker, A. (2011). Prosodic and multimodal markers of humor in conversations. Pragmatics and Cognition , 19 (2), 224–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays (V. W. McGee, Tran.; C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Eds.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bertrand, R., & Priego-Valverde, B. (2011). Does prosody play a specific role in conversational humor? Pragmatics and Cognition , 19 (2), 333–356. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Booth, W. C. (1974). A Rhetoric of Irony . Chicago - London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bryant, G. A. (2011). Verbal irony in the wind. Pragmatics and Cognition , 19 (2), 291–309. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cicero, M. T. (1942). De Oratore, Books I-II (E. W. Sutton & H. Rackham, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harward University Press.Google Scholar
Charteris-Black, J. (2009). Metaphor and Political Communication. In A. Musolff, & J. Zinken (Eds.), Metaphor and Discourse (pp. 97–115). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cockcroft, R., & Cockcroft, S. (2005). Persuading people: An introduction to rhetoric . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crystal, D., & Davy, D. (1969). Investigating English style . Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Cheang, H. S., & Pell, M. D. (2011). Recognizing sarcasm without language: A cross-linguistic study of English and Cantonese. Pragmatics and Cognition , 19 (2), 203–223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dirks, P. (1996). Twenty Years of Research on Humor: A View from the Edge. In A. J. Chapman, & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications (pp. vii–xxv). New Brunswick, NJ: Transactions.Google Scholar
Genung, J. F. (1887). The Practical Elements of Rhetoric with Illustrative Examples . Boston: Ginn & Company.Google Scholar
Greengross, G., & Miller, G. F. (2008). Dissing Oneself Versus Dissing Rivals: Effects of Status, Personality, and Sex on Short-Term and Long-Term Attractiveness of self-Deprecating and Other-Deprecating Humor. Evolutionary Psychology , 6 (3), 393–408.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grichkovtsova, I., Morel, M., & Lacheret, A. (2009). Perception of Affective Prosody in Natural and Synthesized Speech: Which Methodological Approach? In S. Hancil (Ed.), The Role of Prosody in Affective Speech (pp. 371–387). Bern-Wien: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Heinrichs, J. (2010). Winning Arguments . London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Humes, J. C. (2000). Speak like Churchill, stand like Lincoln: 21 powerful secrets of history’s greatest speakers . New York: Three Rivers Press.Google Scholar
Krikmann, A. (2006). Contemporary linguistic theories of humor. Folklore , 33, 27–58.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. C. (1990). Ronald Reagan and humor: A politician’s velvet weapon. Communication Studies , 41, 76–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, R. A., Puhlik-Doris. P., Larsen, G., Gray, J., & Weir, K. (2003). Individual differences of uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the humor styles questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality , 37 (1), 48–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perelman, C., & Olbrechts-Tyteca, L. (1971). The new rhetoric: A treatise on argumentation (J. Wilkinson, & P. Weaver, Trans.). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Phillips, G., Kougl, K. M., & Kelly, L. (1985). Speaking in Public and Private . Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing.Google Scholar
Phillips-Anderson, M. A. (2007). A Theory of Rhetorical Humor in American Political Discourse . Retrieved from: [URL]
Purandare, A., Litman, D. (2006). Humor: Prosody analysis and automatic recognition for FRIENDS. Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing , July 22–23, 2006 (pp. 208–215). Sydney: Association for Computational Linguistics. DOI logo
Provine, R. R. (2000). Laughter: A Scientific Investigation . New York: Viking Penguin.Google Scholar
Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic Mechanisms of Humor . Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Sayenko, T. (2008a). On the Pragmatic and Prosodic Structure of an Inspirational Political Address. In L. Dam, L.-L. Holmgreen, & J. Strunck (Eds.), Rhetorical Aspects of Discourses in Present-Day Society (pp. 129–153). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. (2008b). The emotion in the form: Prosodic modules of an inspirational political address. In M. Amano, M. O’Toole, Z. Goebel, S. Shigemi, & W. Song (Eds.), Identity in Text Interpretation and Everyday Life (pp. 157–172). Nagoya: Nagoya University.Google Scholar
Stewart, P. A. (2012). Debatable Humor: Laughing Matters on the 2008 Presidential Primary Campaign . Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (3rd ed.). (1992). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Vygotskiy, L. S. (1986). Psikhologiya iskusstva [Psychology of art]. Moscow: Iskusstvo.Google Scholar
Walters, L. (2000). Secrets of superstar speakers: Wisdom from the greatest motivators of our time . New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Willis, K. (2002). Making Sense of Humor: Some Pragmatic and Political Aspects . Retrieved from: [URL]