Sociolinguistic Analysis Of Italian Internet Humor Related To Covid-19

Abstract.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ITALIAN INTERNET HUMOUR RELATED TO COVID-19.

Olga Tolstova

Department of Romance Philology, Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Abstract

Background: The article deals with Italian Internet humour related COVID-19. Language has always been the main way to react to all the processes in society. Jokes appear as the reaction, externalization of human thoughts and conceptualization. The research gives us important data on psychology, sociology, culturology, anthropology of the determined society and offers an opportunity to understand the semantic phenomena and the cognitive processes involved in producing jokes.

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to analyse the Italian verbal humour on the first wave of COVID-19 (February 2020 – June 2020).

Results: Jokes appear as the reaction to the main processes in society, it shows the attitude of the people to these processes and has a therapeutic effect. All the topics and news connected with Coronavirus were presented in jokes – quarantine, social distancing, masks. Some of the topics are unique and specific only for the Italian jokes as they refer to the internal events and processes – singing on balconies, leadership of Italy, multiple changes to the forms for self-certification, the discourses of Italian politicians, etc.

Linguistic jokes can be divided into verbal jokes (puns) and referential jokes (ironic, sarcastic and self denigrating humour, allusions, anecdotes, etc).

Discussion: Humor appears in all cultures and societies, but it’s not uniform. It is more obviously embedded in sociocultural context than most other communication. Italian jokes related COVID 19 are built around specific events, cultural elements or references.

Keywords: jokes, COVID 19, verbal humour, linguistic humour, irony, pun, self denigrating humour, allusion.

Vitae

Olga Tolstova is PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Philology, Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Her areas of research interests include lexicology, neology, functional linguistics, cognitive linguistics.

Correspondence: sportbook2016@gmail.com

Article.

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