Abstract :
The process of humour appreciation is surprisingly complex and involves a cognitive disjunction as well as an emotional shift. This study investigates whether second language (L2) humour processing is different (qualitatively or quantitatively) from first language (L1) humour processing, in its sensitivity to specific parts of verbal humour which trigger frame-shifting and emotional arousal. In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) are recorded for sentences with different endings (humour endings vs non-humour endings) and sentences in both L1 and L2.
A total of 150 Chinese L2 users of English performed each a Chinese and English version (cross-translated, without cultural references and linguistic ambiguity) of the verbal humour and verbal non-humour task. To find out the possible differences, one focus was on the N400 component which is characterised as a reaction to the unexpected, inappropriate, or incongruous with the proceeding context, but syntactically correct word at the end of a sentence (Kutas & Hillyard, 1980). The other focus was on the early posterior negative (EPN) component and the late positive complex (LPC) component which are evoked by emotional stimuli. The results indicated how much the amplitudes of the components indexing frame-shifting and emotional arousal were different in both languages, and how L2 elicited emotional detachment affected the appreciation of L2 humour by Chinese L2 users of English.
Reference
Kutas, M., & Hillyard, S. A. (1980). Reading senseless sentences: Brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity. Science, 207(4427), 203-205.
