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English-language swearing as humor in Swedish comic strips
Södertörn University, School of Culture and Education, English language.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2277-2282
2017 (English)In: Journal of Pragmatics, ISSN 0378-2166, E-ISSN 1879-1387, Vol. 121, p. 175-187Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In this paper, I investigate the Swedish, non-native use of English swear words in Swedish-language comic strips. I first consider the established relationships between both swearing and humor, and comics and humor. I propose that swear word usage and the comic strip framework contribute to a mutual feedback loop, whereby the comic strip derives its humor from the use of English swear words, while at the same time the comic strip context, by invoking a play frame, primes the swear word usage for humorous interpretation. Modeling Siegel (1995), I then consider how a code-switch to English serves as a framing device or contextualization cue for humor in Swedish-language contexts. The analysis of a selection of Swedish comic strips draws from the Encryption Theory of Humor (Flamson and Barrett, 2008), and suggests that humor created via the Swedish practice of swearing in English is a function of shared background knowledge that capitalizes on the fundamental incongruity of two discourse systems operating under different norms of appropriateness.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2017. Vol. 121, p. 175-187
Keywords [en]
swearing, comics, humor, Swedish, code-switching, Encryption Theory
National Category
General Language Studies and Linguistics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-33688DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2017.10.014ISI: 000417667500011Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85033482917OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-33688DiVA, id: diva2:1155706
Funder
Birgit och Gad Rausings stiftelse för Humanistisk ForskningHelge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse Available from: 2017-11-09 Created: 2017-11-09 Last updated: 2020-04-01Bibliographically approved

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Beers Fägersten, Kristy

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf