Why are you amused: Unveiling multimodal humor from the prototype theoretical perspective

Abstract

This paper looks at multimodal humour through the lens of prototype theory in the framework of conventional incongruity theory of humour, aiming for a unified linguistic and semiotic approach to humour. From this perspective, humour can be achieved through the following three aspects of linguistic and non-linguistic categories: 1) prototypicality versus nonprototypicality of category members; 2) the family resemblance shared by category members; 3) vague inter-categorical boundary. The cognitive mechanisms behind this type of multimodal humour and its comprehension are discussed. The intermodal relationships involved are examined and categorised into two major types: complementary and noncomplementary ones.

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“…The oppositeness of one scenario to another, however, is a rather vague criterion laid down to approximate the phenomenon of humour; while it is impossible to gainsay Raskin and his Script-based Semantic Theory of Humour, many researchers in the field pointed out to the fact that mere contrasts do not conduce to humour on all occasions. That is why some scholars proposed that the semantic distance between the two concepts entering the incongruous pairing could be measured in terms of (non) prototypicality relations (Chen, Jiang 2018;Giora 1991;Nerhardt 1976). According to this line of reasoning, "multimodal humour can be built on: (1) prototypicality and non-prototypicality of category members; (2) the family resemblance shared by category members; and (3) the fuzzy inter-categorical boundary" (Chen, Jiang 2018: 74).…”