A Comparison of the Laughter-Semantics Systems in Folk Literature and Children Literature: From the Perspective of Social Semio-Semantics

Greimas' square divides semantic systems into two classic types of "programmaticism" and "persuasion"; Landowski, besides the classical semantic systems, believes in two semantic-interactive systems: "adjustment" and "accident". The four systems of programming, persuasion, adjustment, and accident are based on order, intent, sensory interaction, and chance. The present study, employing an analytical-descriptive method, identifies and classifies the common laughter semantics techniques in Folklore (tales, jokes, and parables), and the contemporary stories for children. The techniques of laughter semantics in the strategies of forming the process of laughter are meant within the framework of a semantic system. In this study, the basis for the classification of strategies in classical semantic systems is the connection between the value object and also the change in the modal power of the actors. In the system of adjustment, the basis is adaptability disorder, and in the system of accident, the basis is the definition of accident. This study aims to show that the contemporary humor stories for children as funny situational sub-contexts inherit the meaning-making strategies among their subjects, from large historical-cultural contexts, such as stories, parables, and jokes. The research question is how the social interactions of the tale characters play a role in the spread of these laughter semantics processes. For the first time, this research introduces and classifies the semantic systems of humor.

Introduction

Social semio-semantics examines the role of social reflections and behaviors in the process of producing and receiving meaning. The text is not only the construction of its internal constituent elements, but also the product of its socio-cultural context. Sasani (2010, p. 192). calls the immediate spatial and temporal context as "micro-context", and in contrast, the historical spatial and temporal context as the "macro-socio-cultural context". Folk literature is humor as a macro context that indirectly plays a role in the formation of micro-contexts, such as children's humor stories.

Background

Landowski, in Reflective Society (1989), deals with the sign of social semantics and the role of the "other" in the formation of the meaning of "I", and in Khatari Interactions (2005), introduces his four systems. Moein, in Meaning as Lived Experience (Moein, 2015), and The Lost Dimensions of Meaning in Classical Narrative Semiotics (Moein, 2017), as well as in his numerous articles introduces Landowski to the Iranian semioticians. In Iran, semio-semantics research in the field of children's literature can be summarized in a study by Zanjanbar and Abbasi (2020).

Aims, significance, and questions

This research, in practice, can inspire satirists and creative writing workshops, and theoretically provide a classification of the narrative techniques of humor in which, based on the frequency of a type of special semantic laughter system, can compare the humorous style of children story writers. This provides a comparison of the style of satirists for comparative literature scholars.

The study seeks to compare and classify the sharing of meaning-making techniques of humorous stories, jokes, and parables as macro-textures with the techniques of meaning-making contemporary humor stories for children as micro-textures. It also classifies them based on Landowski's four semantic-interactive systems.

The research questions include:

1. In the context of Landowski's semantic systems, how is the process of laughter formation in the discourses of popular humor (stories, jokes, and allegories)?

2. What are the common strategies between the popular humor and humorous stories for children to create laughter-semantics conditions?

It should be noted that the "laughter-semantics conditions" refers to the process of laughter formation within a semantic system.

Research Methodology

The research method is analytical-descriptive and the statistical population of this article is the written and oral texts of folk literature satire and fictional texts of children's satire. The sample group is selected by "targeted sampling" method. To complete the sampling, the "data saturation" method was used. The sample size obtained from the saturation consists of fifty works, a few of which will be mentioned because of certain limitations.

Conclusion

According to Landowski's social semio-semantics, the humorous semantic systems (laughter-semantics systems) consist of four systems: pivotal, persuasive, adaptive, and accidental. Each system has sub-strategies, which are made first in the macro-cultural contexts, and then extend the situational sub-contexts in the contemporary children stories. These strategies are differentiated and categorized based on whether the character achieves a value object, as well as how the characters' modeling ability changes. Modal ability refers to the four modality verbs "to want, to know, to be able, and must", which govern each character before performing the action.

References

Landowski. E. (1989). Reflective society (in French). Seuil.

Landowski. E. (2005). Khatari interactions (in French). PULIM.

Moin, M. B. (2015). Meaning as lived experience (in Farsi). Sokhan.

Moin, M. B. (2017). The missing dimensions of meaning in classical narrative semiotics (in Farsi). Scientific and Cultural.

Sasani, F. (2010). Meaning: towards social semiotics (in Farsi). Science.

Zanjanbar, A. H., & Abbasi, A. (2020). Stylistics of "physical metamorphosis" in children stories based on the tensive regime of discourse. Journal of Language Related Research, 11(4), 49-74.