Humor markers (original) (raw)

How does a receiver know that humor is intended? The communicator may say so explicitly ("Wanna hear a joke?", "Listen, this is funny"), but she may also signal humor in less overt ways. Not much research exists that investigates signals of humorous devices (but see Attardo et al. 2011; Hay 2001; Adams 2012). Irony, however, is one of the best-researched types of humor [see ch. 18: Irony and sarcasm], and therefore the study of irony markers is more advanced and may also help to detect cases of humor. Although irony and humor are related to a certain degree (in that some irony is funny, and some humor is ironic), care should be taken to not equate the two. This contribution focuses on irony and sarcasm markers.