Jokes at Work

The author, Matthias Perner (M.A.), was born in Hannover (Germany) and studied linguistics, politics and sociology. He focused on communicational aspects of spoken language and at the same time found himself teaching English and German. It was then that his interest in lexicology, semantics and humour research was aroused and he started collecting data for the present work. Its structural taxonomy and clear analysis of linguistic joke mechanisms and their semantic and textlinguistic formation combines Greimas’ approach to structural semantics with modern textlinguistic theories, empirical research and detailed aspects of lexicological semantics. In combination with a very clear and detailed explanation of the concepts involved plus a vast corpus of jokes this book presents a innovative and concise look at jokes both for linguists and those who are interested in humorous aspects of language.