‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of
Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish

J 2023

‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta, Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO a Ying CAO

Základní údaje

Originální název

‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish

Autoři

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta (203 Česká republika, garant, domácí), Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO (724 Španělsko) a Ying CAO (156 Čína)

Vydání

European Journal of Humour Research, Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, 2023, 2307-700X

Další údaje

Jazyk

angličtina

Typ výsledku

Článek v odborném periodiku

Obor

60203 Linguistics

Stát vydavatele

Polsko

Utajení

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Odkazy

URL

Kód RIV

RIV/00216224:14210/23:00130047

Organizační jednotka

Filozofická fakulta

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720

Klíčová slova anglicky

Chinese; Covid-19; Czech; humour; memes; Spanish

Štítky

rivok

Příznaky

Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno

Změněno: 28. 2. 2024 16:41, Mgr. Pavla Martinková

Anotace

V originále

Humour is often employed as a coping mechanism, with therapeutic effects on those producing and receiving it (Christopher 2015; Samson & Gross 2012). This buffering effect of humour might explain why, at the time of an international pandemic like Covid-19, human beings, independently of their cultural origin, have resorted to humour as a means of alleviating uncertainty and fear, and of enhancing feelings of connection and bonding with others. The proliferation of Covid-related humour has also led to a wide range of studies, with special attention to memes. However, contrastive studies are more limited, especially those comparing very different languages and cultural realities such as the Chinese, the Czech and the Spanish ones. This paper aims to redress this imbalance by analysing a corpus of 300 Covid-memes (100 memes per language). More specifically, we intend to answer the following questions: (i) what dimension(s) of humour are predominant in each language? (ii) what actors do the memes in the three countries target? and (iii) to what extent can these preferences relate to cultural differences/similarities? Applying a mixed-method approach, results show that there seems to be a global preference for affiliative humour while aggressive (and self-deprecating) humour appears to be more culturally bound, with a higher frequency in the Czech and Spanish datasets in contrast to the Chinese one. Likewise, the Czech and Spanish dataset share a significantly higher number of common frames, which might be pointing to a more European, Western type of humour in comparison to the Chinese approach (Jiang et al. 2019).

Návaznosti

MUNI/A/1479/2021, interní kód MU

Název: Paradigms, strategies and developments - English linguistics and translation II

Investor: Masarykova univerzita, Paradigms, strategies and developments - English linguistics and translation II

Citovat

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta, Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO a Ying CAO. ‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish. European Journal of Humour Research. Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, 2023, roč. 11, č. 1, s. 143-167. ISSN 2307-700X. Dostupné z: https://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720.

@article{2227264,
   author = {Žákovská, Iveta and MaízandArévalo, Carmen and Cao, Ying},
   article_number = {1},
   doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720},
   keywords = {Chinese; Covid-19; Czech; humour; memes; Spanish},
   language = {eng},
   issn = {2307-700X},
   journal = {European Journal of Humour Research},
   title = {‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish},
   url = {https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/720},
   volume = {11},
   year = {2023}
}

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AU  - Žákovská, Iveta - Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen - Cao, Ying
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JF  - European Journal of Humour Research
VL  - 11
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SP  - 143-167
EP  - 143-167
PB  - Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies
SN  - 2307700X
KW  - Chinese
KW  - Covid-19
KW  - Czech
KW  - humour
KW  - memes
KW  - Spanish
UR  - https://europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article/view/720
N2  - Humour is often employed as a coping mechanism, with therapeutic effects on those producing and receiving it (Christopher 2015; Samson & Gross 2012). This buffering effect of humour might explain why, at the time of an international pandemic like Covid-19, human beings, independently of their cultural origin, have resorted to humour as a means of alleviating uncertainty and fear, and of enhancing feelings of connection and bonding with others. The proliferation of Covid-related humour has also led to a wide range of studies, with special attention to memes. However, contrastive studies are more limited, especially those comparing very different languages and cultural realities such as the Chinese, the Czech and the Spanish ones. This paper aims to redress this imbalance by analysing a corpus of 300 Covid-memes (100 memes per language). More specifically, we intend to answer the following questions: (i) what dimension(s) of humour are predominant in each language? (ii) what actors do the memes in the three countries target? and (iii) to what extent can these preferences relate to cultural differences/similarities? Applying a mixed-method approach, results show that there seems to be a global preference for affiliative humour while aggressive (and self-deprecating) humour appears to be more culturally bound, with a higher frequency in the Czech and Spanish datasets in contrast to the Chinese one. Likewise, the Czech and Spanish dataset share a significantly higher number of common frames, which might be pointing to a more European, Western type of humour in comparison to the Chinese approach (Jiang et al. 2019).
ER  -

ŽÁKOVSKÁ, Iveta, Carmen MAÍZ-ARÉVALO a Ying CAO. ‘Are we laughing at the same?’ : A contrastive analysis of Covid-related memes in Czech, Chinese and Spanish. \textit{European Journal of Humour Research}. Cracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies, 2023, roč.~11, č.~1, s.~143-167. ISSN~2307-700X. Dostupné z: https://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR.2023.11.1.720.

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