You are here: Home :: Area CULI :: Linguistics and literature :: Communication science

Maya Khemlani David, Jariah Mohd Jan, Karen Kow Yip Cheng, David Yoong Soon Chye

Function and role of laughter in Malaysian women's and men's talk

Academically speaking, for many years humour has been studied in the spheres of philosophy, linguistics, sociology, psychology, anthropology and even the neurosciences. In its role, humour allows the speaker to represent a parallel reality, which often induces positive feedback such as laughter, smiles and grins from his/her fellow listeners. This gender study of humour, analyses the roles and functions as well as the similarities and differences of humour found in the recorded discourses of Malaysian males and females. Whilst males and females tend to share similar topics (such as sex), the data shows that both genders approach them in different ways. That is to say, males tend to be more direct as opposed to females.

Multilingua Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0167-8507
Volume: 25, 05/2006
Pages: 77 - 99

Show full article (external site)

Show all available items of this journal

 

Area CULI