Phraseology for humor in Spanish: Types, functions and discourses

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose a phraseological approach to humor in Spanish. Phraseological units will be analyzed as markers or indicators in accordance with a revised General Theory of Verbal Humor (Ruiz-Gurillo, 2012, 2013). A marker is a linguistic element which helps to understand humor; instead, an indicator is a per se humorous element. Thus, discursive marker idioms can be used as markers that infringe the prerequisite of Quality (Levinson, 2000; Rodríguez-Rosique, 2013), whereas routine formulas, specific utterances, phraseological schematas, etc., could behave as indicators. These phraseological indicators have to do not only with the infringement of the Manner Principle but also with that of the Informativity principle. En serio and es broma are analyzed as phraseological markers of humor. Routine formulas such as tus nietos no te olvidan, ¿¡qué vamos a hacer!?, ¡que me parta un rayo!, ¡me la suda! or ¡que os den!, specific utterances such as no somos nadie, el roce hace el cariño, idioms such as a buenas horas and phraseological schematas such as ni columna ni columno are proposed as phraseological indicators. Our corpus contains humorous monologues and parodies.