Leiden University Student Repository

Davidesko, Yonit (2020)

The Relationship between Sarcasm, Hiniku and Humor

Master thesis | Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

In this thesis, I will address the following research question: Do sarcastic and hiniku utterances without humoristic intent exist? I will explore the relationship between sarcasm, irony and humor and hiniku and humor. More often than not, sarcastic utterances are known to have humoristic intent and make the listener and any outside observers laugh by playfully making fun of the listener, i.e. making a joke. Hiniku, the closest Japanese equivalent of sarcasm, has similar aspects for it makes fun of the addressee by criticizing him or her. I want to find out whether sarcasm and hiniku can be used without humoristic intent, i.e. the speaker does not want to be funny when he or she says something sarcastic or hiniku.

Sarcasm

jokes

hiniku

verbal irony

ironic environment

linguistics

sociolinguistics

Author

Davidesko, Yonit

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Asian Studies

Supervisors

Yoshioka, Keiko

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en