الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Humor and satire play an important role in human interaction, especially when people began to watch new types of T.V Programs. Humor is an umbrella term that covers all categories and genre of the funny. Satire is a literary genre in which comedic forms, as well as ridicule and exaggeration, are used to focus on human weakness and societal problems. Satirical comedy T.V shows are programs that poke fun at social institutions or social policy. This type of programs tackles social and political issues and faults in government or society, and presents them for criticism. The present study represents a linguistic analysis of the Egyptian TV show and contrasts it with its American TV show version in order to determine the linguistic nature of understanding in both programs for native or non-native viewers. It additionally investigates the differences and similarities between both shows, with emphasis on the pragmatic devices such as deixis, implicature, presupposition, speech acts and politeness that are utilized to convey the intended meaning. It analyzes the verbal humor through incongruity, i.e. disagreeing, being unsuitable and inappropriate from pragmatic perspective so as to appreciate the language style of this kind of TV show. Moreover, the present study discusses the relation between pragmatics and humor that both stand on the concept of implicitness through flouting Grice’s maxims. It aims to recognize the pragmatic nature of humor and its explanation according to observing or flouting Grice’s cooperative principle. The research method is a descriptive qualitative method since it utilizes data that reflects phenomena that frequently occurs in both Egyptian and American community, particularly in the satirical comic programs. The database of the present study consists of excerpts taken from selected two episodes from each TV. Show American SNL’S season forty-second, besides the Egyptian SNL’S season one, focusing on the weekend update sketch and the sketch of major news. The Arabic version was translated into English. These episodes were selected as representative samples to apply the pragmatic study, along with the framework of incongruity theory. The Arabic language reflects a high-context culture, in which what is not said is sometimes more important than what is said. On the other hand, Americans prefer communicating straight and stating explicitly what has to be said. English language reflects a low- context culture in which words represent truth. The Arab culture exhibits an indirect, symbolic, ambiguous and implicit style; While American culture shows a preference for direct, accurate, clear and explicit communication. However, it sometimes depends on indirectness and implicitness to draw the attention or attract the listener for its speech. Both resort to a metaphoric way to convey its implicitness to their audiencs. |