Figure–Ground Reversal: A Contrastive Study of Jokes in Bosnian and English

Abstract

This paper focuses on one of the most important theories of humour research in linguistics: the General Theory of Verbal Humour, more precisely, on one of the Knowledge Resources (KRs) proposed in the theory: the Logical Mechanism (LM). This parameter contains different scripts in a joke, operating in different ways. On this occasion, the focus is on the figure-ground reversal, a phenomenon observed in different sciences, including linguistics. Here it is observed as an asymmetry in which some semantic content (figure and ground) is manipulated to achieve the punchline. Four jokes in English and Bosnian respectively are selected and analysed for the purpose of observing the way in which the figure-ground reversal occurs, causing the distorted reality of jokes.