Linguistic comedy across contexts: Twain’s dialect, Leacock’s hyperbole, Narayan’s subtle irony

Abstract

This research paper explores the nuanced deployment of linguistic strategies to generate humor inthe select works of Mark Twain, Stephen Leacock, and R.K. Narayan. Situated within a cross-cultural framework, the study investigates how each writer crafts a unique comic vision throughdialectal variation, hyperbolic expression, and understated irony. Drawing on representativetexts—Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Adventures of HuckleberryFinn, Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich,and Narayan’s Malgudi Days and The Guide—the paper undertakes a comparative textual analysisto identify linguistic markers that produce comic effect. The study is structured into five sections.The introduction situates the authors within their respective cultural and literary traditions,emphasizing the centrality of language in their humor. The literature review outlines key theoriesof humor, such as incongruity, superiority, and relief, alongside relevant studies in stylistics andsociolinguistics. The methodology section adopts a qualitative approach using discourse analysisand pragmatic tools, including Gricean maxims and speech act theory. The analysis and discussionsection examines how Twain’s use of regional dialect and idiomatic speech, Leacock’s satiricalverbosity and comic inflation, and Narayan’s minimalist irony reflect cultural specificity whileinvoking universal laughter. The conclusion synthesizes these findings, arguing that linguisticcomedy, though locally inflected, fosters transnational reader engagement and empathy.This papercontributes to humor studies, comparative literature, and stylistic analysis by foregroundinglanguage as a powerful medium of comic expression across literary cultures