Implicature analysis of jokes - A case study

Abstract

Humour in conversations or in literary and artistic works is always an attractive spice in life to reduce stress and create a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere. In addition, jokes in English also encourage learners of English as a second language to love learning English as well as improve their reading skills. The article focuses on analyzing implicatures in four jokes on the website www.tienganh123.com based on Grice’s theory of implicatures and principle of cooperation in written text. The research uses document analysis methods, classifying collected data and demonstrating the use of connotations in jokes. Research results show that the main type of implicatures in the jokes studied is conversational implicatures and the study confirms that implicature is one of the factors that creates humour in jokes.