ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on cognitive linguistic treatments of humorous phenomena, irrespective of their specific purpose. It presents an overview of studies that have a more or less explicit cognitive linguistic seal. The chapter also focuses on two systematic research programs in Cognitive Linguistics that have dealt with humorous phenomena more extensively, namely, the space structuring model developed by Seana Coulson and the work on information structure and salience by Rachel Giora and colleagues. It provides an overview of studies on specific key phenomena that figure prominently in CL, such as metaphor, metonymy, mental spaces, conceptual blending, and grammatical constructions. The chapter deals with some further considerations on the potentially fruitful interaction between humor research and Cognitive Linguistics. The body of empirical evidence supporting the hypotheses generated by the space-structuring model does, however, also directly relate to some of the key issues in humor research.
