Prosody, humor and rhetoric: an interdisciplinary relation

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to investigate the insufficient production of scientific research in Brazil about the relationship between the fields of prosody, humor and rhetoric, that is, the role of prosody in the construction of humor and of that phenomenon as responsible for an important rhetorical effect. Therefore, this project aims to investigate the relationship between the aforementioned fields, that is, to verify how humor, arising from prosodic phenomena, favors the rhetorical reach of humorous discourse. We start from the hypothesis that prosodic phenomena, such as pause, duration, speech velocity, volume, intonation, tessitura, sentence stress and concatenation, can be responsible for the constitution of humor in different discursive constructions. In order to visualize this phenomenon, we will analyze the acclaimed sitcom, Friends (1994-2004). To carry out the study, we will perform a qualitative analysis of the corpus with a view to verifying the recurrence the prosody - humor - persuasive effect and, through the inductive method, we will seek to broaden our understanding of the phenomenon as a whole. To do so, we will study prosody theory, through Cagliari (1992; 2007) and Cagliari and Massini-Cagliari (2003); of humor, in light of the following authors: Raskin (1985), Bergson (1987); Possenti (1998); Propp (1992) and Travaglia (1990) and, finally, of rhetoric, with Aristotle (2012); Cícero (2002); Quintiliano (2015) and Tringali (1988). We hope, at the end of this research, to broaden our understanding regarding the fields of prosody, humor and rhetoric, given its widespread use in diverse genres. In addition, we aim to contribute to the advancement of science in this interdisciplinary area of study. (AU)