Abstract

Verbal humour is a widespread phenomenon in media communication, materialized in a variety of forms developed in a plethora of contexts, its multifaced manifestations opening the frame for diverse scientific investigations within many disciplines.

The amplitude of the humour research accounts for the interdisciplinary character of this field, which extracts and interprets significant information from linguistics, philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology and even film or literature, the issue of humour bearing a complex relevance to our daily life, our social interconnection and our human nature.

In performing a linguistic study of humorous excerpts from Canadian mystery series Murdoch Mysteries, we will include references to its dramatic structure, to characters’ speech and the way their profile is built through dialogues, paying attention to the mechanisms of conveying meaning by employing standard language. The analysis from the perspective of verbal interactions elements, interactional competence and interactional skills will provide answers about various aspects of authentic spoken language (mainly dialogues) conceived by the script writers and performed by the film actors by adding further features as accent or pitch.

The linguistic study of humour embraces discussions on semantic mechanisms and cognitive processes, while pragmatic examination focuses on various communicative interactions. Humour researchers bring forward manifold methodological perspectives appealing to pragmatic and cognitive insights of verbal interactions, with the purpose of analysing particular aspects that characterize humorous discourse.