What's in a pun?
Assessing the relationship between phonological and semantic distance and perceived funniness of punning jokes
Punning jokes are a form of humorous wordplay based on semantic ambiguity between two phonologically similar words, in a sentence context where both meanings are more or less acceptable. In this study, we aimed to quantify and compare phonological and semantic distance between the words in a punning joke and assess their influence on its perceived funniness. This was done in an explorative manner using different methods from computational linguistics on a set of punning jokes rated for funniness.
In this talk, the results from this investigation will be presented, together with a slightly more critical view on the question whether it is worthwhile to focus on such a detailed aspect of such a complex phenomenom. In this context, different theories on linguistic humour will be revisited and the phenomenon of punning will be put in context.
Orateurs
Anna Palmann
I'm a master's student of both, Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Vienna. I...