Some uses of the royal wit kit: A pragmatic and narrative approach to the structure and functions of royal witticism
Some uses of the royal wit kit: A pragmatic and narrative approach to the structure and functions of royal witticism

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the use of verbal humour in two royal contexts and aims toidentify, on the one hand, the structure of the joke and how the joke can be decipheredand, on the other hand, the communicative function(s) of the royal use of humour. Inaddition, the paper aims to prove that royal jokes are circumscribed to an ‘archive’, aparticular set of norms which, in spite of its flexibility, has its own boundaries. Theanalytical framework rests mainly on narrative and pragmatic approaches. Theinvestigation reveals that, being subject to the ‘archive”, royal jokes have to violate thecooperative principle and yet, the message manages to get through and context plays aparamount role in making the message clear. Furthermore, the paper shows howhumour can facilitate the exercise of some of the rights of a constitutional monarch: theright to encourage and the right to warn.

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