Beyond academic discourse: practs of humour in departmental chatrooms of selected Federal University students in Southwest Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Studies on humour have been extensively explored from the perspectives of stand-up comedy, hip-hop songs and others; however, existing works have not adequately researched the possibility of Nigerian university students evoking humour in their departmental chatroom through deployment of multiple codes. This paper therefore investigates how students spiced up their conversation in the departmental chatroom (DC) with purposefully composed humour through language manipulation in academic communities. Guided by an integrated framework of Jacob Mey Pragmatic acts theory, Attardo & Raskin General Theory of Verbal Humour and Peter Auer’s Typologies of Code Switching, the study examines humorous expressions in selected DC of Federal University students in southwest, Nigeria. Twelve excerpts were analysed and findings revealed code switching as a central humour strategy. Seven humour techniques and thirteen pragmatic acts were identified. The thematic issues that preoccupy the jokes were promiscuity, obligation of vigorous prayers, high consumption rate, and socio-cultural identity. The dissolution of the incongruous expressions to produce humour relies heavily on shared cultural knowledge (SCK), shared situational knowledge (SSK) and shared linguistic knowledge (SLK). The study validates existing knowledge that all humans naturally participate in humorous speech and behaviour as students engage in humorous interactions amidst their cumbersome academic programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Departmental chatroom
• humour strategy
• humour techniques
• pragmatic acts
• Southwest Nigeria
• university students

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to the blind reviewers of this paper for their invaluable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ayo Osisanwo

Ayo Osisanwo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His articles have appeared in international journals, including Language Matters, Critical Discourse Studies, Discourse and Society, Discourse and Communication, Mediální Studia, Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communication, Research in English and Applied Linguistics, World Journal of English Language, Journal of Linguistic Association of Nigeria, Ibadan Journal of Humanistic/English Studies, among others. He has also authored, contributed to and co-edited some books. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the African Humanities Programme (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), New York, USA. He is a 2020 Grantee, Remote-mentorship, African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Department of Linguistics, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and a Current Fellow of the Georg Forster Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, who is a visiting senior researcher at the Institute of English Studies, Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg, Germany.

Modupe Agunbiade

Modupe Agunbiade is a doctoral student in the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.