ABSTRACT
Research conducted under the umbrella of functionalist discourse analysis selectively draws on different aspects of cognitive-perceptual, social-behavioral, and psychoanalytical theories of humor (Raskin, 1985; Attardo, 1997; see also Attardo & Raskin, 2017 for a more detailed account of these theories) and explores what functions humor plays in an interaction. For example, in a workplace context, functionalist discourse analysts have been interested in how humor may be used to exercise and display (and sometimes disguise or even challenge) power relations (Holmes & Marra, 2002a; Mullany, 2007; Schnurr, 2009a, 2009b) or to relieve tension and stress (Schnurr & Rowe, 2008). Not being tied to one theory in particular but rather cross-cutting and combining understandings from different theories of humor, functionalist discourse analytical research contributes to developing a comprehensive conception of the complexity and multi-functionality of humor (Martin, 2007).
