Cover not available
Part of
Metapragmatics of Humor: Current research trends
Edited by Leonor Ruiz-Gurillo
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 14] 2016
► pp. 57–77

Beyond verbal incongruity

A genre-specific model for the interpretation of humor in political cartoons

| University of Iowa

The General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo and Raskin 1991) opened the path to study the mechanisms of humor. Research on the comprehension and production of cartoons has traditionally adopted cognitive-semantic theories to explain how readers interpret their humorous messages. While perfectly applicable, these theories focus on the linguistic components of cartoons, analyzing exclusively the text in their speech balloons or captions with little to no attention paid to what the visual components add to their meaning. This paper analyzes the nature of cartoons as narrative monomodal or multimodal ensembles and revisits previous approaches with the goal of proposing a new genre-specific model for the understanding of their humorous messages.

Keywords: Humor, political cartoons, multimodality, social semiotics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Definition of the genre
  • 3.Linguistic approaches to humor
    • 3.1Semantic-cognitive theories
    • 3.2Cognitive theories
  • 4.A genre-specific perspective
  • 5.Analysis
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 November 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.14.04gue
References
Agüero Guerra, Marta
2013a “Análisis semántico-cognitivo del discurso humorístico en el texto multimodal de las viñetas de Forges.” ELUA. Estudios de Lingüística Universidad de Alicante 27: 7–30.Google Scholar
2013b “Multimodal Literacy and Humor Perception in Spanish Editorial Cartoons.” Thesis (M.Ed.), Carthage College.Google Scholar
Attardo, Salvatore, and Victor Raskin
1991 “Script Theory Revis(it)ed: Joke Similarity and Joke Representation Model.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 4 (3–4): 293–347.Google Scholar
Barrero, Manuel
2012 “De la viñeta a la novela gráfica. Un modelo para la comprensión de la historieta.” In Narrativa gráfica. Los entresijos de la historieta, ed. by Ana M. Peppino Barale, 29–60. México: Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.Google Scholar
Brône, Geert, and Kurt Feyaerts
2003 The Cognitive Linguistics of Incongruity Resolution: Marked Reference-Point Structures in Humor. Paper presented at the 8th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Logroño. July 20-25. Accessed June 30, 2015. [URL]
Carrier, David
2009 “Caricature.” In A Comics Studies Reader, ed. by Jeet Heer, and Kent Worcester, 105–115. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Chauvin, B. A.
2003 “Visual or Media Literacy?” Journal of Visual Literacy 23 (2): 119–128. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cohn, Neil
2013 The Visual Language of Comics. Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Coulson, Seanna
2002 “What’s So Funny?: Conceptual Integration in Humorous Examples.” Accessed June 30, 2015. [URL]
Coulson, Seana, and Todd Oakley
2005 “Blending and Coded Meaning: Literal and Figurative Meaning in Cognitive Semantics.” Journal of Pragmatics 37 (10): 1510–1536. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Economou, Dorothy
2009 “Photos in the News: Appraisal Analysis of Visual Semiosis and Verbal-Visual Intersemiosis.” PhD diss., University of Sydney. Accessed June 30, 2015. [URL]
El Refaie, Elisabeth
2003 “Understanding Visual Metaphor: The Example of Newspaper Cartoons.” Visual Communication 2 (1): 75–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 “The Pragmatics of Humor Reception: Young People’s Responses to a Newspaper Cartoon.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 24 (1): 87–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner
1998 “Conceptual Integration Networks.” Cognitive Science 22 (2): 133–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, Charles
1994 “Pictorial Metaphor in Advertisements.” Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 9 (1): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996 Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising. New York: Routledge 1996. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 “Addressing an Audience: Time, Place, and Genre in Peter van Straaten’s Calendar Cartoons.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18 (3): 247–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 “Non-verbal and Multimodal Metaphor in a Cognitivist Framework: Agendas for Research.” In Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives, ed by Gitte Kristiansen, Michael Achard, Rene Dirven, and Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza, 379–402. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2011 “Pictorial Runes in Tintin and the Picaros.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (3): 875–890. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giora, Rachel
2003 On Our Mind: Salience, Context, and Figurative Language. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1985 An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Hempelmann, Christian F., and Willibald Ruch
2005 “3 WD Meets GTVH: Breaking the Ground for Interdisciplinary Humor Research.” Humor: International Journal Of Humor Research 18 (4): 353–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koestler, Arthur
1964 The Act of Creation. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther R., and Theo van Leeuwen
2006 [1996] Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson
1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Marín-Arrese, Juana I.
2003 “Humor as Ideological Struggle. The View from Cognitive Linguistics.” Paper presented at the 8th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Logroño. July 20-25. Accessed June 30, 2015. [URL]
2008 “Cognition and Culture in Political Cartoons.” Intercultural Pragmatics 5 (1): 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, Jim, and Peter White
2005 The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martinec, Radan, and Andrew Salway
2005 “A System for Image-Text Relations in New (and Old) Media.” Visual Communication 4 (3): 337–371. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCloud, Scott
1993 Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press.Google Scholar
Morreall, John
1983 Taking Laughter Seriously. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
O’Halloran, Kay L.
2008 Mathematical Discourse Language, Symbolism and Visual Images. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
O’Toole, Michael
2010 The Language of Displayed Art. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin
1955 Meaning in the Visual Arts. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Paolillo, John C.
1998 “Gary Larson’s Far Side: Nonsense? Nonsense!” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 11 (3): 261–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peñalba García, Mercedes
2014 “La temporalidad en el cómic.” Signa: Revista de la Asociación Española de Semiótica 23: 687–713.Google Scholar
Raskin, Victor
1985 Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Synthese Language Library. vol. 24. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Pub.Google Scholar
Ruiz Gurillo, Leonor
2012 La lingüística del humor en español. Madrid: Arco/Libros.Google Scholar
Samson, Andrea C.
2008 “Cognitive and Neural Humor Processing: The Influence of Structural Stimulus Property and Theory of Mind.” PhD diss., University of Fribourg. Accessed June 30, 2015. [URL]
Saraceni, Mario
2003 The Language of Comics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schank, Roger C., and Robert P. Abelson
1977 Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding: An Inquiry into Human Knowledge Structures. New York: L. Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Serafini, Frank
2011 “Expanding Perspectives for Comprehending Visual Images in Multimodal Texts.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54 (5): 342–350. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal Literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Swain, Elizabeth
2012 “Analysing Evaluation in Political Cartoons.” Discourse, Context & Media 1 (2-3): 82–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsakona, Villy
2009 “Language and Image Interaction in Cartoons: Towards a Multimodal Theory of Humor.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (6): 1171–1188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Dunbar, Robin I. M. & Emma Stirling-Middleton
2024. Why cartoons make (some of) us smile. HUMOR 37:1 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Pavlina, Svetlana Yu.
2021. Covid-Related Issues Visual Representation in British and American Cartoons. Current Issues in Philology and Pedagogical Linguistics :3(2021) ► pp. 131 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.