Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes

There are many mechanisms to integrate humor in English memes. One common method is to make incongruity through two different interpretations. The incongruity can be implemented on different levels, such as lexical, syntactic, and more. However, not everyone can understand these levels; thus, the de...

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Main Authors: Putu Wahyu Widiatmika, Ida Bagus Made Ari Segara, Ni Made Yunita Widya Kusuma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Prodi Sastra Inggris Universitas Jenderal Soedirman 2024-06-01
Series:J-Lalite
Online Access:https://jos.unsoed.ac.id/index.php/jes/article/view/11805
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author Putu Wahyu Widiatmika
Ida Bagus Made Ari Segara
Ni Made Yunita Widya Kusuma
author_facet Putu Wahyu Widiatmika
Ida Bagus Made Ari Segara
Ni Made Yunita Widya Kusuma
author_sort Putu Wahyu Widiatmika
collection DOAJ
description There are many mechanisms to integrate humor in English memes. One common method is to make incongruity through two different interpretations. The incongruity can be implemented on different levels, such as lexical, syntactic, and more. However, not everyone can understand these levels; thus, the delivery of humor is not achievable. Therefore, this study aims to analyze meaning duality causing humor in English memes. There were 30 data collected from Pinterest through documentation method. The analysis was conducted with content analysis method through descriptive-mixed approach based on theories of incongruity, ambiguity, context of situation, and generative transformation. The result shows that all types of ambiguity is found and can create meaning duality that causes humor from incongruous finishing text. Lexical ambiguity is the dominant type of meaning duality causing humor. This study also found that one meme can contain two ambiguities. Among the five types of ambiguity, this study found a different characteristic of humor for pragmatic ambiguity. These findings can help unveil how humans play with English to create humor.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2723-3561
2723-357X
language English
publishDate 2024-06-01
publisher Prodi Sastra Inggris Universitas Jenderal Soedirman
record_format Article
series J-Lalite
spelling doaj-art-58683f5a780b4c5f8240fd47cb5985642025-08-20T03:30:55ZengProdi Sastra Inggris Universitas Jenderal SoedirmanJ-Lalite2723-35612723-357X2024-06-0151496810.20884/1.jes.2024.5.1.1180511805Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English MemesPutu Wahyu Widiatmika0Ida Bagus Made Ari Segara1Ni Made Yunita Widya Kusuma2Udayana UniversityUdayana UniversityUdayana UniversityThere are many mechanisms to integrate humor in English memes. One common method is to make incongruity through two different interpretations. The incongruity can be implemented on different levels, such as lexical, syntactic, and more. However, not everyone can understand these levels; thus, the delivery of humor is not achievable. Therefore, this study aims to analyze meaning duality causing humor in English memes. There were 30 data collected from Pinterest through documentation method. The analysis was conducted with content analysis method through descriptive-mixed approach based on theories of incongruity, ambiguity, context of situation, and generative transformation. The result shows that all types of ambiguity is found and can create meaning duality that causes humor from incongruous finishing text. Lexical ambiguity is the dominant type of meaning duality causing humor. This study also found that one meme can contain two ambiguities. Among the five types of ambiguity, this study found a different characteristic of humor for pragmatic ambiguity. These findings can help unveil how humans play with English to create humor.https://jos.unsoed.ac.id/index.php/jes/article/view/11805
spellingShingle Putu Wahyu Widiatmika
Ida Bagus Made Ari Segara
Ni Made Yunita Widya Kusuma
Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes
J-Lalite
title Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes
title_full Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes
title_fullStr Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes
title_full_unstemmed Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes
title_short Humor through Exploitation of Meaning Duality in English Memes
title_sort humor through exploitation of meaning duality in english memes
url https://jos.unsoed.ac.id/index.php/jes/article/view/11805
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AT nimadeyunitawidyakusuma humorthroughexploitationofmeaningdualityinenglishmemes