A Manifestation of Stereotypes in Jokes: Relevance Theory

Abstract

Human beings are endowed with language which is a unique faculty that functions as a tool for communication. Language enables the creation and expression of jokes.This study holds that jokes are never meant merely for amusement but are purposed to implicitly perform communicative functions not attained by explicit expressions, such as, amusing, entertaining, relieving tension, ridiculing, criticizing and exposing evil. Jokes can also be used to warn the adulterous, the greedy, gluttons, the stingy and those who commit incest. In this study, the manifestation of stereotypes in jokes was the main focus. The study looked at jokes in form of anecdotes. Jokes rely on stereotypes in order to attain punchline. This is because generalizations are linked to familiar expected behaviours. Stereotypes are racially, culturally and ethnically based. A number of studies have been carried out on jokes but so far, no linguistic study in Kenya exists on the manifestation of stereotypes in jokes. This study takes a pragmatic approach in linguistics which deals with the interpretation of utterances. Qualitative descriptive research design was employed in the study. The main objective of this study was to find out the role played by stereotypes in jokes. Relevance Theory propagated by Daniel Sperber and Deidre Wilson was used to analyse and interpret the data. It is hoped that the results of this study will make a contribution semanticsand pragmatics, and add knowledge to the language family.