LINGUIST List 30.4893
Sat Dec 28 2019
Calls: English; Applied Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Lexicography, Pragmatics/France
Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everettlinguistlist.org>
Date: 08-Dec-2019
From: Miguel Angel Campos Pardillos <ma.campos
ua.es>
Subject: English for Specialised Purposes (ESP) & Humour (ESSE Panel)
E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: English for Specialised Purposes (ESP) & Humour (ESSE Panel)
Date: 31-Aug-2020 - 04-Sep-2020
Location: Lyon, France
Contact Person: Miguel Angel Campos-Pardllos
Meeting Email:
< click here to access email >
Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Lexicography; Pragmatics
Subject Language(s): English
Call Deadline: 15-Jan-2020
Meeting Description:
Panel on English for Specific Purposes and Humour at the European Society for the Study of English Conference in Lyon (France)
Call for Papers:
English for Specialised Purposes (ESP) & Humour
Convenors:
Shaeda Isani (University Grenoble-Alpes, France)
Miguel Angel Campos Pardillos (University of Alicante, Spain)
Katia Peruzzo (University of Trieste, Italy)
Michel Van der Yeught (University Aix-Marseille, France)
Although humour and language is a well-researched area of study (Attardo 2017 ), it is not a strong line of enquiry in ESP studies. Despite the paucity of ESP-related humour studies, and precluding unintentional semantic humour, the potential of humour analysis is strong, as evidenced by the well-known forms of humour associated with specialised domains like medicine (gallows humour), law (lawyer jokes), journalism ('headlinese'). Even the dismal science lays claim to humour if only in the person of Yoram Bauman, ''the world's first and only stand-up economist'' , while in the field of AI, robots are being endowed with a sense of humour, thus validating French Nobel scientist Pierre-Gilles de Gennes’ belief that science is “une histoire d’humour” .
With regard to specialised domains of application, humour is a major concern in translation studies (the challenges inherent to the translation of humour, e.g. specialised puns). Likewise, corpus linguistics, notably with regard to the branch of computational humour, tussles with the problem of detecting and identifying humour. Didactics or ESP teaching is another rich field of analysis in this respect and, although much has been written about humour as an EGP pedagogic tool, little has been done so with regard to ESP contexts. On the linguistic level, analysis of metaphors, metonymy, irony, sarcasm, innuendos, and even laughter, as applied to specialised domains and varieties of English is a fertile field of analysis. In the area of fictional representations, whether novels, films or TV series, the use of humour to depict the highly diversified professional and/or specialised environments related to ESP studies is a strong line of enquiry, including and beyond Ricky Gervais and The Office.
The three principal theoretical axes of analysis defined by humour studies – incongruity/cognitive; superiority/social; relief/psychological – also serve as guidelines to analysing the complexity behind the very need for humour in the workplace. In this context, the all-important notion of “forum” that all humour needs to exist invites reflection regarding the addresser/addressee parameters involved and the question of whether the “insiderness” of specialised humour makes it an exclusively inclusionary/exclusionary phenomenon or whether specialised humour may also be seen as a means of integrating outsiders and of popularisation.
And finally, from a more critical stance, another manifest line of enquiry concerns the ethics of humour as applied to ESP contexts and the correlated notion of acceptability. The question invites reflection on the complex notion of appropriateness analysed in terms of the classic when, where, who and how quartet. If specialised humour is recognised as a means of bonding and stress-reduction, the asymmetrical nature of professional encounters with its underlying undertones of dominance, sexism, harassment, bullying, disparagement and even racism are not alien to our field of specialisation whether at teaching, disciplinary or workplace levels.
Proposals related to the above considerations – and other related questions – are welcomed. The deadline for submission of 300-word abstracts: 15 January 2020. Please send submissions to all four convenors simultaneously:
shaeda.isani
univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
ma.campos
ua.es
katia.peruzzo
unive.it
michel.vanderyeught
univ.amu.fr
Page Updated: 28-Dec-2019