ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on use of corpus linguistic methods to explore the forms and functions of verbal humor and verbal irony in discourse. Specifically, this chapter reviews how Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis (CADA) studies have provided valuable insight into the structure and functions of creative discourse such as verbal humor and verbal irony. In addition, in order to demonstrate how the CADS approach can provide a better understanding of humorous and ironic discourse, a corpus of humorous satirical newspaper headlines is analyzed for grammatical constructions associated with evaluative reaction verbs. According to the prevailing linguistic and cognitive theories of humor, the concept of incongruity applies to at least two separate yet related aspects of humor: The physical structure of humor as well as the cognitive process that unfolds during humor comprehension. In line with previous CADS analyses, which suggest that verbal irony involves a reversal of evaluation, several initial keyword in context (KWIC) searches were conducted in the current data.
