Humor and the Creative Use of English Expressions in the Speech of University Students: A Case From Jordan

Abstract

The present study examines the use of English lexical insertions to create humor by Jordanian university students. The data of the study are collected from spontaneous tape-recorded conversations from 62 participants of both males and females, representing different age groups (from 18–23 years old) and belonging to different specializations (e.g., engineering, pharmacy, mathematics, business, and English). The recorded conversations are qualitatively analyzed applying Auer’s sequential approach to code-switching to attain a local interpretation of lexical insertions for humor effect from English into Jordanian Arabic (JA). The findings of the study reveal that Jordanian university students exploit their bilingual repertoire to create humor by playfully and innovatively switching to English. This is shown to take place by unexpected switching points, a switching that flouts Arabic syntactic constraints, a violation of code-switching constraints, incongruity and incompatibility of translating Arabic culture-bound expressions to English, and imposing Arabic word formation templates to English insertions. Specifically, five patterns of code-switching of humor are found, namely, switching around the interrogative, playful affixation, phonological playfulness, haphazard calquing, and the imposition of Arabic morphological rules on English lexical insertions. The study argues that humorous insertions are in fact a marker of solidarity and an in-group membership. Humorous insertions are also shown not to contribute to the content of the message or the pragmatic meaning. Bilingual university students (of Arabic and English) purposefully make use of an additional linguistic resource to mock certain propositions.

Mekanisme Pragmatik Dalam Penciptaan Humor; Analisis Terhadap Wacana Humor Sunda

“…Peneliti yang menggunakan linguistik sebagai alat analisisnya adalah Wang (2018), Borisova (2019), Tyukina et al (2020), Romadlani (2021), dan Arnawa (2022). Peneliti yang menggunakan sudut pandang lain dalam menganalisis humor adalah Utami (2018), Salem et al (2020), dan Wibisono (2020). Mereka membedah humor dari sudut pandang strategi pelawaknya.…”

Arabic-English Mixing among English-Language Students at Al alBayt University: A Sociolinguistic Study

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Humor Bahasa Jawa Dialek Tegal Dalam Kanal Youtube “Guyonan Ngapak Tegal”

“…Dari penjelasan di atas menunjukkan bahwa humor sudah menjadi kebutuhan masyarakat. Attardo (Salem, Jarrah, & Alrashdan, 2020: 2) mendefinisikan humor secara linguistik merupakan aktivitas, peristiwa, atau objek yang mencakup penggunaan elemen bahasa secara kreatif yang mengarah pada tawa, hiburan, atau persepsi lucu. Harper (2016: 2) dalam tesisnya yang berjudul "Defining Humor, Theories, and Where is It in Dance?"…”