HUMOUR AND EMOTIONAL SETTING IN PUBLIC SPEAKING

Abstract

Studying emotion is not an easy task due to a great number of controversial theories and hypotheses about the issue. For instance, James-Lange theory discusses emotion as a result of arousal and a physiological reaction on certain events; (James 1884); Cannon-Bard theory, (Cannon, W. 1987) on the other hand, suggests that emotions are physiological reactions and that emotion and arousal occur simultaneously. Appraisal theories (Moors et al. 2013; Scherer 2009) state that appraisals of situations cause emotional reactions. Other researchers debate on the universality of emotion words and argue about basic emotion terms. (Izard 2007; Wierzbicka, 1986) This article, however, focuses on humorous elements that speakers utilise to create a certain emotional background in the audience. For this, the data from 5 public speeches taken from Ted.com platform are analysed. In addition, the usage of humour and its role in creating an overall emotional background is also discussed. As an analytical framework, the article employs the framing theory (Minsky 1974; Fillmore 1976) and identifies humour in the clash of non-related frames. Current analysis suggests that speakers use non-related frames to change the meaning of the utterance and therefore result in a humourous effect that in a broader context creates an emotional setting.

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