Roselyne Koren

Argumentation and the comic in the works of some French linguists

The argumentation at work in scientific discourse is considered to be the fortress of seriousness, and yet tones of derision and the playful comic are manifested in the theoretical works of French pragmatist linguists. Their work uses both an analysis of comic stories promoted to the rank of Illustration and a comic writing style in its own rhetoric. This research will try to answer thefollowing questions: what is there in common between the imaginative, carefree, impertinent discourse ofhumor and the linguistics of utterances (pragmatics)? Is humorfor these researchers a simple technique ofattractive demonstration, or does it satisfy a need connected with a new conception of the deontology of the linguist?