Understanding Language through Humor by Stanley Dubinsky (PDF)

Description

Students often struggle to understand linguistic concepts through examples of language data provided in class or in texts. Presented with ambiguous information, students frequently respond that they do not ‘get it’. The solution is to find an example of humour that relies on the targeted ambiguity. Once they laugh at the joke, they have tacitly understood the concept, and then it is only a matter of explaining why they found it funny. Utilizing cartoons and jokes illustrating linguistic concepts, this book makes it easy to understand these concepts, while keeping the reader’s attention and interest. Organized like a course textbook in linguistics, it covers all the major topics in a typical linguistics survey course, including communication systems, phonetics and phonology, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences, language use, discourses, child language acquisition and language variation, while avoiding technical terminology.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐In Understanding Language Through Humor, Professors Stanley Dubinsky and Chris Holcomb make the study of Linguistics completely accessible to anyone with an interest in language. The interweaving of humorous and real-life anecdotes throughout the text renders even the more involved concepts of Linguistics completely relatable. In addition to serving Linguistics students, I would advocate the benefits of this text for students and instructors of any foreign language.Having taught Italian for twenty years, the most challenging question students have often asked me is, “Why?” As foreign language professors, we often take for granted that students will simply accept the highly unusual grammatical concepts, idioms and syntax that we are presenting at face value. However, for many first-time language students, the very concept of language is somewhat elusive. This dynamic and playful, yet deceptively instructive book can help students and professors negotiate a more comprehensible framework for language study. I enjoyed Understanding Language Through Humor immensely and plan to include it as a supplementary text for my beginning language classes in the future.

⭐Dubinsky and Holcomb do a great job presenting the basics of linguistics via humor and informal jokes. The explanations are clear and the jokes are funny! I was especially impressed by the “flouting of maxims” technique of joke-making which I recognized (from my own conversations) but had never seen discussed in such a clear way. I hope to continue flouting maxims, albeit now with a more consciousness of what I am doing. For me, the impact of the book was as an analysis of humor from a linguistic point of view, though I can see why a couple of linguistics professors might think it was a presentation of linguistics from a humorous point-of-view. In either case, when I teach my class on audio perception again, I will certainly make use of the first several chapters.

⭐I purchased this book from Amazon after meeting Stanley Dubinsky at a learning seminar. I’m so glad that I did. Not only does it help me understand my usage of the English language, but it gives me wonderful insight into my grandchildren’s language development. I was especially pleased to read that the 5 year old may not develop a stable ‘ R ‘ until the 1st or 2nd grade. I love being called ” Gwamma ” and don’t look forward to the coming change.Regarding laughter : I enjoy reading at Starbuck’s and have made several new friends since it’s impossible not to laugh out loud ! Thanks, Dr. Dubinsky ! LOL !

⭐A wonderful book which explains complex linguistic phenomena in an easy and enjoyable way, using an analysis of jokes and cartoons.

⭐A delightful read. I should mention that I am a professional linguist myself, and I know the author.

⭐”Understanding Language through Humor” is a wonderful edutainig book! It is an equally captivating read for those who are simply interested in language (My nerdy Mom approved) and for those who turned “understanding language” into their professional occupation. In Spring 2016 I used this book as one of the required texts for teaching Intro to Linguistics. The book helped my students and me to mutually enjoy the course. We unanimously agreed upon the fact that the humorous examples provided in the book helped to better understand some complex linguistic concepts and have no fear of them before the final. The humor used as didactic material stimulated learning and motivated both me and my students to look for more humorous examples. Definitely, this book made our in-class discussions more engaging and fun.My absolutely favorite chapter is the one on Discourse and Genres of Humor. As an instructor who teaches with and through humor I find this chapter absolutely multipurpose. I have used it for three different courses this year. If you decide to use this book for teaching you are getting three in one: Good Reads, Good Laughs, Good Play.

⭐Linguistics is real and entertaining, greatly enriches our daily lives. It helps us discover our amazing tacit knowledge about human language. These and more are so clearly demonstrated by this superbly written book!

⭐Wonderful book!!! Brilliantly written! I have started using It in my EFL/ESL classes and my students love It! Thank You Stanley and Chris!

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