DISCURSIVE STRATEGIES AND COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS OF HUMOR AND JOKES

Abstract

This scientific article analyzes the discursive strategies and communicative functions of humor and jokes in their interrelation, based on the materials of Gafur Gulam's work "The Mischievous Boy." The main goal of the research is to develop a typology of discursive strategies that realize humor and jokes in literary discourse and to determine their communicative-pragmatic functions. Relying on modern achievements of pragmalinguistics, discourse analysis, and speech act theory, the article provides a comprehensive analysis of humor phenomena in "The Mischievous Boy." As a result of the research, five main discursive strategies of humor were identified: the strategy of unexpectedness, the strategy of inversion, the strategy of metaphorization, the strategy of pragmatic reinterpretation, and the strategy of intertextuality. Each of these strategies is proven to possess its own unique set of linguistic tools and discursive operations. Furthermore, ten communicative functions of humor in the discourse of "The Mischievous Boy" are classified: identification, positioning, crisis management, social criticism, denial, rapprochement, play, pedagogical, emotional, and cathartic functions. The article elaborates on the mechanisms of these functions within the text, their role in inter-character relations, and plot development. Through the analysis of English and Russian translations, patterns of preservation and transformation in the interlanguage transfer of discursive strategies and communicative functions have been identified. The research results serve not only to reveal new facets of Gafur Gulam's work but also to understand the pragmatic potential of humor in literary discourse in general, and to improve the methodology of teaching and translating it.