Taboo and humour – a pragmatic, semantic and stylistic analysis of French quoted forms of comic character

Abstract

In French comic quoted forms mechanisms of comism connected with taboo can be defined by means of semantic and stylistic analysis, however, the most comprehensive description can be obtained by employing linguistic pragmatics research instruments. Comic violation of taboo stems from breaching the maxim of politeness and quantity. Another source of humour comes from the contrast between the cultural presupposition and the sense of the sentence or its implicature. Implied topics are the basis for humour, quite like the implied structure of an utterance. Such sentences represent indirect speech acts: illocutionary tropes, as well as allusive derivatives packed with vulgarisms. From the semantic point of view, contrasts between the specific inherent semes and the afferent ones prevail. Oppositions within specific inherent semes or afferent contextual ones can also be observed. Quoted comic forms represent simple or complex tropes as well as rhymed paraphrases. Taboo content can be found in lexemes with broad connotations.