LANGUAGE REALIZATION OF CONCEPTS IN NATIONAL HUMOUR (BASED ON ENGLISH AND GERMAN JOKES)

Abstract

The article is devoted to an analysis of language realization of concepts in national humour. National humour is culturally specific and connected with the mentality, a particular vision of the world and communicative values of the nation. As a result of the analysis on the basis of the English and German languages common cultural concepts are identified in jokes of both cultures. The main concepts of the English and German humour are “family”, “animal world”, “food/drink”, “feeling/emotion”, “work/career”, “health”, “religion”, “progress/technology/automobile”, “native – foreign”. Comic effect in jokes of different theme is achieved with the help of different language means. The most wide-spread language means are polysemy, which creates double senses in certain contexts, personification, a combination of homonymy and synonymy, metaphor, individual interpretation of the events on the basis of background knowledge and one’s experience, heterostereotypes and autostereotypes.