Öz

Mizahın evrenselliği, insan zihnindeki bilişsel süreçleri açıklamaya çalışan fazlaca çalışmanın çıkış noktası olmuştur. İkidilliler ve tekdillilerde dil edinim süreci, dolayısıyla da mizah tümcelerinin kavranması farklılık göstermektedir. Bu farklılık, dilbilimcilerin ve psikologların çalışma konusu olmuştur. Mevcut çalışma, ikidillilerde ve tekdillilerde tek tümcelik fıkraların işlenmesindeki farklılıkları ele almaktadır. Mizah işlemenin, metindeki dil öğelerini ansiklopedik bilgi ile birleştirmeyi şart koştuğu göz önünde bulundurulursa, iki dillilerin zihinlerinde kavramsal örgütlenmenin nasıl şekillendiğine dair bir fikri mizah tümcelerinden edinebiliriz. Bu doğrultuda, iki grubun tek cümlelik fıkraları ve mizah içermeyen benzerlerini okurken göz hareketlerinden alınan veri; hedef noktaya yapılan sabitleme sayısı ve toplam sabitleme süresi dikkate alınarak çözümlenmiştir. Sonuç olarak, ikidillilerin hedef noktaya daha uzun ve fazla sayıda sabitleme yaptığı tespit edilmiştir. Bu bulgular ışığında, ikidillilerin sözcük ve kavram belleği arasındaki bağlantının, tekdillilerinkinden farklı olabileceği yorumuna ulaşılmıştır

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ikidillilik, mizah tümcelerinin kavranması, göz izleme, sözcük ve kavram belleği

THE TIME COURSE OF MEANING ACTIVATION IN JOKES: BILINGUALS VS. MONOLINGUALS

Öz

Universality of humor has led to many studies aiming to explain the cognitive processes in the human mind. The acquisition processes of bilinguals and monolinguals differ, therefore it is common to observe differences in their cognitive structure, in terms of joke comprehension. It has been a matter of interest for linguists and psychologists how these differences vary in humor comprehension, which has always been a complex phenomenon. The present study investigates the differences between bilinguals and monolinguals while they process one-liners. Jokes can provide insight into how conceptual organization is shaped in bilingual’s mind, since joke processing involves combining linguistic elements in text with encyclopedic knowledge. To achieve this aim, eye movements of two different groups were analyzed while they were reading one-liner jokes and their non-joke counterparts. The analysis was carried out via fixation count and total fixation duration on punchlines. It has been observed, when the two groups are compared, that the bilinguals fixated longer on the punchlines and made more fixations than monolinguals and that bilinguals needed more cognitive resources in order to comprehend the jokes, suggesting that a bilingual’s lexical-conceptual store link may be different from that of a monolingual’s.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• bilingualism, joke comprehension, eye-tracking, lexical and conceptual store.

Kaynakça

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