Some uses of the royal wit kit: A pragmatic and narrative approach to the structure and functions of royal witticism

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of verbal humour in two royal contexts and aims to identify, on the one hand, the structure of the joke and how the joke can be deciphered and, on the other hand, the communicative function(s) of the royal use of humour. In addition, the paper aims to prove that royal jokes are circumscribed to an ‘archive’, a particular set of norms which, in spite of its flexibility, has its own boundaries. The analytical framework rests mainly on narrative and pragmatic approaches. The investigation reveals that, being subject to the ‘archive”, royal jokes have to violate the cooperative principle and yet, the message manages to get through and context plays a paramount role in making the message clear. Furthermore, the paper shows how humour can facilitate the exercise of some of the rights of a constitutional monarch: the right to encourage and the right to warn.