Abstract of "How to Play Games With Words: Speech-Act Jokes" (1980)

• This article calls attention to an important but previously unidentified source of verbal humor, which involves violating either felicity conditions on illocutionary acts described by Austin and Searle, or the related conversational maxims proposed by Grice.

Michael Hancher

Department of English, University of Minnesota

URL: http://umn.edu/home/mh/abshtpgw.html

Comments to: mh@umn.edu

Created February 1995

Last revised 17 September 1996