Jokes and the Linguistic Mind

Here is the first book to fully explore, from a linguistic and cognitive science standpoint, the nature of the linguistic knowledge required to comprehend jokes. It presents a detailed understanding of what the application of linguistic analysis to jokes can tell us about the mind. By using jokes that play on some aspect of the structure and function of a particular language (often referred to as linguistic humor"), Aarons illustrates and provides additional evidence that listeners need to access their tacit knowledge of their own language. The book includes lively discussions of such topics as language play and humor creation with single and multiple linguistic features, jokes involving more than one language, jokes that are about language, and cryptic crosswords and letter play. With its use of jokes as data and its highly accessible explanations of complex linguistic concepts, this book is ideal for undergraduate students in linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and cognitive science, and can be used as supplementary/recommended reading for introductory courses in these areas. It will also be of interest to scholars in the areas of translation studies, applied linguistics, and philosophy of language.