ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two of the three major linguistic theory of humor, the script-based Semantic-Script Theory of Humor, or SSTH, and the Ontological Semantic Theory of Humor, or OSTH. Normally, all the three theories are mentioned together, but there is a very good reason to discuss the General Theory of Verbal Humor separately, and we do—in a separate chapter. SSTH, the first generation of the linguistic theory of humor, was a purely linguistic application of semantics to verbal jokes. OSTH, the latest, continues the enterprise on the advanced foundation of the latest theory of linguistic semantics. But the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) was an attempt of an interdisciplinary theory, including linguistics but not limited to it. The linguistic component of GTVH has evolved from initial script semantics to the full-fledged ontological without necessarily modifying the relations between the linguistic components of GTVH, mostly Script Opposition and Language, and the other four—even though, as ontological semantics expands to cover more and more information, this may change as well.
