Abstract
Humour, a ubiquitous and complex human phenomenon, pervades all aspects of communication, ranging from casual conversation to literature, media, and political discourse. As an object of linguistic study, humour offers insight into cognitive mechanisms, semantic structures, pragmatic contexts, and stylistic features. The analysis of humour within linguistics has evolved through significant contributions from scholars such as Victor Raskin, Salvatore Attardo, Debra Aarons, Delia Chiaro, Paul Simpson, and Tony Veale. This article explores humour through four key dimensions: its role as a form of comedy, its etymology and evolving definitions, its nature as a cognitive phenomenon, and the linguistic means employed to create humorous effects.
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