Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and
Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Trier
(Anglistik), course: The Pragmatics of Business Communication, language:
English, abstract: This term paper will talk about the different
characters or functions of humour with special consideration of
workplace situations. This will be including the use of humour to create
solidarity contrary to rivalrous humour and repressive vs subversive
humour. It will become clear that humour is multifunctional and can work
on different levels, which makes defining it difficult. Furthermore it
tries to enlighten the linguistic strategies involved. Here the role of
power will be looked at. The work shows what humour reveals about power
relationships and its use either to enforce or to lessen status
differences. The connection between the individual and a group can be
defined through humour. How solidarity is achieved will be investigated.
Afterwards, it is about the relation between humour and gender being
followed by the strategy to create workplace harmony. The issue of how
humour contributes to group life, the way it affects social relations
will be another point of interest. Last but not least, it tries to show
what kind of reactions can be evoked by using humour. It can work as
tension releaser, as well as an aggression diffuser. Further
possibilities of use are to hedge directives and to hide criticism which
can trouble the participants. Especially the trouble of responding
correctly to these will be an issue of discussion. The ambivalence of
humour can be seen here again, which, once more, makes the problem of
defining humour clear.
