Methodological preliminaries

The chapter begins by defining the fundamental distinction between competence and performance and introduces various methodological approaches used in the linguistics of humor, with a focus on the principle of commutation. The problem of identifying humor is then addressed, including a review of traditional “markers’ of humor (i.e., laughter). A triangulation method incorporating several markers and semantic analysis is proposed to replace it. In particular the inadequacy of using laughter is investigated by reviewing non-mirthful laughter. Finally the idea of keying, from ethnomethodology is used to explain how a situation may be seen as humorous or not, depending on its keying.