THE PRAGMATICS OF VERBAL PARODY

In this paper, we develop a model of verbal parody based on the view t hat parody is a human behavior. We argue that verbal parody involves a highly situated, intentional and conventional expressive made up of f our essential acts: (1) 1:he intentional re-presentation of the object of parody, (2) the flaunting of the verbal re-presentation, (3) the c ritical act, and (4) the comic act. To successfully create a verbal pa rody, a speaker must manipulate all four essential acts with the inten t to create parody. In the second section of our paper, we address the potential scope of parody in real communication. We explain how parod y serves to celebrate the object it apparently ridicules, by appealing to politeness theory (Brown and Levinson, 1987). We also argue that t he object of parody may be anything in the world; that a single parodi c act may have multiple objects; and thar the re-presenting verbal exp ression of the parodic speech act may function as a direct or indirect non-parodic speech act, which may be enhanced or inhibited by the par ody.