Language and Humour in Cameroon Social Media

Abstract

This chapter explores language use that incites laughter in Cameroon e-mail, Facebook, Yahoo Messenger and mobile telephone SMS. The incongruity and the incongruity-resolution theory (Ritchie, 1999; Mulder & Nijholt, 2002) and Gricean maxims were useful in the analysis of 270 electronic chats and messages. Results indicate patterns of language that create humour like flouting of Gricean maxims, special repetition of punctuation marks, sound devices, emoticons and hyperbole. Cameroonians employ these humorous linguistic forms for pleasure, intimacy and to maintain cultural values. It was established that the Facebook platform was more hospitable to humour than the others because all the linguistic markers that were detected to generate humour were found in it with high rates of occurrences.