The features of the language of representation of humour in the texts of American and Russian stand-up comedians

Abstract

Based on the definition of the research object and the subject of sociolinguistics, which is considered an independent scientific discipline, in this article we assume to study the features of the language representation and perception of humour in performances of stand-up comedians from American and Russian linguocultures. We will also consider the similarities and differences of the topics of the texts of American and Russian comedians. In consideration of the genre of special interest is the attitude of the audience (in fact - the society) to the obscene and non-obscene language ("black humor"; "jokes below the belt", etc.) used by stand-up comedians in their performances in the United States and Russia. The relevance of this study is related to the overall underexplored genre"standup" fromlinguistics point of view and originality of their language. Research methodology –set of methods of textual, contextual, linguistic and linguostylistic analysis of the content of the texts of public performances ofthe comedians in the United States and Russia. Material for the study consists of texts of performances of stand-up comedians. The results of our research will help to identify the specifics of the language means of representation of humour in the texts of stand-up comedians.

Key words: text, research, speech, language, translation, humour, linguistics, linguoculture,
sociolinguistics.