ABSTRACT
As part of a generally eclectic approach, we have considered a range of different factors which might be important in joke comprehension. These can be summarised under a few headings. Process conditions describe dynamic aspects of joke comprehension, rather than knowledge states, and consist of salience, post-text inference, final revelations and failed predictions. There are knowledge conditions describing the final state of the viewpoints, which include linguistic, logical, and improper information. Also, there are knowl-edge conditions framed in terms of differences between knowledge states, usually the post-text or post-set-up state and the final state. All of these types of condition can be combined, using conjunctions and disjunctions, to express hypotheses about necessary and/or sufficient conditions for joke recognition and/or joke appreciation. We have omitted some potential components, which we see as either not relevant (e.g. narrative structure) or better stated using more fine-grained concepts (e.g. incongruity-resolution).
