Prosody and Humor
Discussion and conclusions
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- Table 5.
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Discussion and conclusions While there are a number of advantages of using a scripted television show as opposed to spontaneous conversation, as Purandare and Litman (2006) suggest, there are also limitations resulting from this artificial context. We chose the televi- sion series SATC because it contains many instances of humor that occur in more or less naturalistic conversations that simulate spontaneous speech. The lack of a laugh track or laughing audience supports this perceived realism. SATC seems to present a group of women who are in different economic, professional, and senti- mental stages in their lives, but who are all struggling with their relationships and who act in a relaxed and natural way with each other. Therefore, there is a dimen- sion of in-group/out-group, which is an important element in this comedy as well as in humor theories (see, e.g., Attardo 1994: 323 about the “social management” role of humor, and Holmes 2002 about the importance of humor in distinguishing cultures in different workplaces). As mentioned before, our analysis concurs with Attardo et al. (2003) in that only prosodic variation as a metacommunicative tool can be considered a humor marker. In this context, we suggest that there are three elements that participate in the interaction of humor and prosody: 1) the pragmatics of the utterance, 2) the choice of prosodic style connected to the character’s repertoire, and 3) the degree of self-referentiality to the comedy itself and its genre. Although the lack of Table 5. Carrie talking about “modelizers” in episode 3 Text Local Pitch Global Pitch 1 Modelizers are a particular breed (0.81) (Cut to Carrie typing on her computer in her apartment) 220.30 Hz Intonantional units 1–3 199.01 Hz 2 They’re a step behind womanizers who will sleep with just about anything in a skirt (0.74) (Cut to view of woman’s leg) 178.31 Hz 3 Modelizers are obsessed not with women, but with models (0.46) who in most cities are safely confined to billboards and magazines (Cut to lots of billboards) (Cut to street) (0.59) 206.04 Hz 4 But in Manhattan, actually run wild on the streets turning the city into a virtual model country safari where men can pet the creatures in their natural habitat (man stroking model’s leg) 193.07 Hz 5 As if we did not have enough problems 268.01 Hz Prosody of humor in Sex and the City 185 a clear prosodic pattern to mark humor fits what researchers have found (Attardo et al. 2003; Pickering et al. 2009; Attardo, Pickering, and Baker 2011) on the topic of humor marking, we found that the motivation of some prosodic components may be the need for contrasting utterances and their meaning, and ultimately, to highlight the “mention-factor” value of an utterance. Further research needs to be conducted in order to see whether this use responds to the prototypical view of how humor needs to be performed. In SATC, the characters choose a consistent kind of humor as they are de- picted in terms of certain stereotypes. As we can see in Table 6, Miranda takes the ironist role appropriate to her character and she has most of her statements in the lower range. Samantha, who is usually histrionic and daring, shows a greater variety of pitches all the way to the highest pitch over 350 Hz. Carrie and Charlotte frequently play the “straight women” in these interactions and their pitches are mostly found within the 300–200 range. The comparative micro-analysis applied in this paper shows that pitch and pauses tend to work in different ways within the narrative structure of the story- line. Pause can be used as a narrative strategy that functions as a delaying tactic influencing how information is presented and therefore increasing the degree of incongruity of the humoristic utterance. The pause can also be an information management device which can play with expectations and surprises in the context of humoristic texts. Self-referentiality is found in this series through the omni- scient narrator played by Carrie. This device serves as a second layer of narration since the omniscient narrator guides and comments on what is happening and, at the same time, images serve as visual commentaries on what Carrie is writing or saying. Pitch and pauses have both evaluative and narrative functions, and the actors analyzed in this paper also used pauses or change in pitch to perform a humor- ous sequence showing two aspects connected to prosody: its capacity to evaluate and to endow it with emotional contents (see Wennerstrom 2001) as well as with tải về 1.21 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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