ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the universal language correlates of a semantic-pragmatic pattern that is here assumed as a humor universal, i.e., the Script Opposition (Raskin, 1985). After a discussion on the main research issues in human sciences, three dimensions for the study of humor universals are proposed, and some possible research paths are considered. A comparative analysis of puns is proposed as an example of empirical verification of humor universals. A first reason of this choice is the importance of humor universals testability: at the present time humor language universals, e.g., pun mechanisms, are the only ones that have undergone a systematic verification. This state of the art is related to the cluster of variables (e.g., situation, social and cultural background knowledge, attitudes) that sciences must take into account when dealing with humor.
