Ethnic humour as a representation of the linguistic worldview (on the example of a German-language joke)

Authors
TYUKINA L.A. (1), BABAYAN V.N. (2)
Affiliation
(1) Yaroslavl State Technical University, (2) Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushinsky
Issue 49
Pages
78-98

The article analyses ethnic German-language jokes from the point of view of stereotypes that exist in German linguoculture not only in relation to other nations or nationalities, but also in relation to themselves. The difference between autostereotypical and hetero-stereotypical jokes is considered. The humorous text of the joke is seen as a part of the socio-cultural context, as a kind of reflector of the relations in the society. The aim of this article is to reveal the fact that ethnic jokes mental stereotypes are not only the means of representation of traditional ideas about the representatives of their own and other linguocultures, but they are also the triggers for the creation of new jokes, based on these stereotypes. The study used such research methods as descriptive method, context analysis method, method of continuous sampling of linguistic material and statistical methods of material processing. The analysis reveals what features are specifically mocked in ethnic jokes, identifying the most common stereotypical characteristics, which are firmly attached to the representatives of a particular nationality or ethnicity. The authors of the article intentionally avoid ethnic jokes referring to religion as they are considered insulting to religious feelings. Therefore, the corpus of collected ethnic jokes does not include jokes referring to religion. The author draws a conclusion that not always jokes poke fun at one or another characteristic of a certain nationality, often it is just a fictitious characteristic with no sufficient grounding.

For citation

Tyukina, L.A., & Babayan, V.N. (2023). Ethnic humour as a representation of the linguistic worldview (on the example of a German-language joke). Issues of Applied Linguistics, 49, 78-98. https://doi.org/10.25076/vpl.49.04

This artiсle is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.