Aspects of Verbal Humour in English

In what ways is language involved in creating humour? What are the pivotal lexicogrammatical mechanisms of English which contribute to the functioning of humorous genres such as jokes, puns, epigrams, riddles, limericks and the like? What presentational or analytical framework can encompass such widespread phenomena as punning on catchphrases, joke cycles and allusive humour in English-language newspapers? What are some of the social dimensions of humour in Britain? What are some of the contrastive implications of verbal humour for learners of English? These and related issues are discussed, investigated and illustrated by means of a very large corpus of humorous data taken from the domains of British and American comedy and humour. The result is one of the most exhaustive empirical treatments of verbal humour in English to be published in recent years.