Cognitive-semantic analysis of humor samples in English

In recent years, linguistic research has actively developed toward exploring the interrelation between human cognition and language. In particular, cognitive linguistics studies the processes of meaning formation in close connection with human cognitive activity, conceptual systems, and world knowledge. Within this approach, cognitive-semantic analysis interprets linguistic units not only as formal structures but also as means of expressing conceptual categories that exist in the human mind.

The main goal of the cognitive-semantic approach is to identify the mechanisms of meaning formation — to analyze how the meanings of linguistic signs are created and which cognitive processes underlie their manifestation in speech. This approach views language as a system of knowledge and emphasizes the role of cognitive mechanisms such as imagery, association, analogy, metaphor, and categorization in meaning formation.

English, with its rich traditions of humor, broad semantic potential, and developed metaphorical system, provides suitable material for cognitive analysis. In English humor, phenomena such as wordplay, metaphor, metonymy, semantic ambiguity, and contextual shift are widely used. Studied within a cognitive-semantic framework, these elements reveal the semantic and conceptual mechanisms underlying humor and laughter.