Jan Chovanec
Biographic Data
| ID | 960835 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jan Chovanec |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jan |
| FAMILY NAME | Chovanec |
| SIGNATURE | CHOVANEC J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Masaryk University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4730-7141 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 64 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Grammar in the Law
The entry deals with the grammatical and syntactic characteristics of legal language as a specialized register, that is, a functionally differentiated variety of language used in certain professional contexts. Although the concept of “legal language” covers a broad range of different, though related, legal discourses, it is most commonly understood as the written language or style of legal documents, which may not be readily intelligible to the l…
Cartoons in memes: Recycling popular art forms as a humorous response to the Covid-19 pandemic
As an established form of semiotic expression in the digital world, memes provide online users with the possibility to express diverse functions, including articulating shared norms and values. Memes function as multimodal signs, combining pre-existing visual elements with typically innovative textual components. Due to their dependence on current events, they tend to be ephemeral, serving to provide topical—and often humorous—commentary and crit…
Semiotics of humor: Unraveling the dynamics of resemiotization
The meaning-potential of humor – whatever traditional or modern forms it takes – is inseparably linked to the social context, which not only provides the background for the un/successful deployment of humor, but also ends up being shaped by the humor used therein. From a semiotic perspective, humor involves both the handling of complex socially embedded and publicly shared meanings as well as individualized personal motivations that underlie inte…
Bigger than football’: Racist talk on and off the soccer pitch
Racism is a major social and cultural problem that has, in various forms, plagued football for a long time. Despite the attempts of official bodies to root it out, racist talk and behaviour are still rife among players as well as in fan communities. The present paper provides a case study of online users’ comments on the media coverage of a series of controversial incidents during a recent UEFA Europa League matchinvolving an alleged verbal act o…
‘Re-educating the Roma? You must be joking. . .’: Racism and prejudice in online discussion forums
This article explores prejudicial and racist discourse in reader comments in internet news discussion forums. Based on data from an online debate among Czech commenters on the mainstream iDnes.cz news site, it seeks to contribute to the existing critical linguistic approaches to discursive strategies of othering. Analysing user comments referencing a news article on a sensitive social topic, namely the complicated reception of Central European Ro…
Creating and sharing public humour across traditional and new media
Saving one's face from unintended humour: Impression management in follow-up sports interviews
Cliché
This entry extends the definition of cliché from its traditional understanding as a trite and stereotypical form of linguistic expression to a broader conception of any unoriginal semiotic communicative act based on the non‐creative reuse of diverse formal elements that are recognizable from other contexts. The definition stresses the constitutive role of metapragmatic awareness – both its absence on the part of the producer of a cliché and its p…
Revisiting intertextuality and humour: Fresh perspectives on a classic topic
In humour research, intertextuality has been extensively studied with the aim of understanding how humorous texts are constructed on the basis of previous texts. In this paper, we elaborate on the sociopragmatic functions of intertextuality, pointing out not only how humorous texts rely on previous texts and background knowledge, but also what sociopragmatic functions intertextuality serves in actual communicative situations, e.g. the effect the …
Those are not my words: Evasion and metalingual accountability in political scandal talk
Multimodal storytelling in the news: Sequenced images as ideological scripts of othering
Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes
This paper contributes to our understanding of the inception of disaster humor by refuting the position of ‘technological determinism’ that is central for the theory of disaster jokes. This view, developed by Christie Davies, ties the emergence of this form of humor to the visual presentation of disaster events on television. The paper reports on the discovery of several contemporary instances of pre-television disaster humor on the topic of the …
Euphemisms and non-proximal manipulation of discourse space: The case of blue-on-blue
Participating with media
This chapter discusses adopting a combined media linguistic and socio-pragmatic perspective and explores the types of interactivity and interaction that occur in the media. It focuses on online news media, and explains how media interactivity can translate into actual interaction with the recipients, thereby affecting the overall participation framework of the media discourse event. The chapter outlines several trends and some potential problems …
Representing the other in European media discourses
This book deals with the construction of the ‘other’ in European media at a time when the recently expanded EU is facing new political, economic and social challenges. The aim of the book is to document the diverse discursive forms of othering, ranging from differentiation to discrimination, that are directed against various ‘other Europeans’ in both institutionalized media and such non-elite semi-public contexts as discussion forums and citizen …
Interactional humour and spontaneity in TV documentaries
It׳s quite simple, really: Shifting forms of expertise in TV documentaries
Eavesdropping on media talk: Microphone gaffes and unintended humour in sports broadcasts
Participation in Public and Social Media Interactions
Online discussion boards are a common forum in which everyday users share troubles, elicit various forms of empathy and sympathy, and also seek advice from others. One challenge facing participants, as well as analysts, is the interpretation of expressions of discontent or dissatisfaction as either troubles talk,complaining, seeking advice, or some combination of these, given that each of these social actions/activities invokes a distinct prefere…
But There Were No Broken Legs”: The emerging genre of football match reports in The Times in the 1860s
The appearance of sports reporting was among the major developments of nineteenth-century journalism. While sports were only very exceptionally covered in the newspapers during the first half of the century, by the end of the Victorian era a diverse array of sports stories provided staple content for the pages of both broadsheet and popular papers. Dealing with the phenomenon of football match reports in The Times , this article documents the ear…
Grammar in the Law
Legal language is seen as a specialized register, that is, a functionally differentiated variety of language used in certain professional contexts.
The dream of a perfect body come true: Multimodality in cosmetic surgery advertising
This article documents the operation of multimodal and rhetorical strategies in cosmetic surgery leaflets, with a focus on the interplay between the verbal and visual channels. It describes how advertising discourse exploits the image of an idealized female body in order to achieve its economic goals. Recipients are targeted through the application of the prevalent ideology of femininity, which in the Western context is increasingly dependent on …
The Language of Comic Narratives. Humor Construction in Short Stories
Football, Language and Linguistics. Time-critical Utterances in Unplanned Spoken Language, Their Structures and Their Relation to Non-linguistic Situations and Events
Eavesdropping on media talk: Microphone gaffes and unintended humour in sports broadcasts
The dream of a perfect body come true: Multimodality in cosmetic surgery advertising
This article documents the operation of multimodal and rhetorical strategies in cosmetic surgery leaflets, with a focus on the interplay between the verbal and visual channels. It describes how advertising discourse exploits the image of an idealized female body in order to achieve its economic goals. Recipients are targeted through the application of the prevalent ideology of femininity, which in the Western context is increasingly dependent on …
Creating and sharing public humour across traditional and new media
Those are not my words: Evasion and metalingual accountability in political scandal talk
Interactional humour and spontaneity in TV documentaries
The Language of Comic Narratives. Humor Construction in Short Stories
Saving one's face from unintended humour: Impression management in follow-up sports interviews
Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes
This paper contributes to our understanding of the inception of disaster humor by refuting the position of ‘technological determinism’ that is central for the theory of disaster jokes. This view, developed by Christie Davies, ties the emergence of this form of humor to the visual presentation of disaster events on television. The paper reports on the discovery of several contemporary instances of pre-television disaster humor on the topic of the …
Bigger than football’: Racist talk on and off the soccer pitch
Racism is a major social and cultural problem that has, in various forms, plagued football for a long time. Despite the attempts of official bodies to root it out, racist talk and behaviour are still rife among players as well as in fan communities. The present paper provides a case study of online users’ comments on the media coverage of a series of controversial incidents during a recent UEFA Europa League matchinvolving an alleged verbal act o…
Revisiting intertextuality and humour: Fresh perspectives on a classic topic
In humour research, intertextuality has been extensively studied with the aim of understanding how humorous texts are constructed on the basis of previous texts. In this paper, we elaborate on the sociopragmatic functions of intertextuality, pointing out not only how humorous texts rely on previous texts and background knowledge, but also what sociopragmatic functions intertextuality serves in actual communicative situations, e.g. the effect the …
Multimodal storytelling in the news: Sequenced images as ideological scripts of othering
Euphemisms and non-proximal manipulation of discourse space: The case of blue-on-blue
It׳s quite simple, really: Shifting forms of expertise in TV documentaries
Football, Language and Linguistics. Time-critical Utterances in Unplanned Spoken Language, Their Structures and Their Relation to Non-linguistic Situations and Events
The Language of Comic Narratives. Humor Construction in Short Stories
Grammar in the Law
Legal language is seen as a specialized register, that is, a functionally differentiated variety of language used in certain professional contexts.
The dream of a perfect body come true: Multimodality in cosmetic surgery advertising
This article documents the operation of multimodal and rhetorical strategies in cosmetic surgery leaflets, with a focus on the interplay between the verbal and visual channels. It describes how advertising discourse exploits the image of an idealized female body in order to achieve its economic goals. Recipients are targeted through the application of the prevalent ideology of femininity, which in the Western context is increasingly dependent on …
But There Were No Broken Legs”: The emerging genre of football match reports in The Times in the 1860s
The appearance of sports reporting was among the major developments of nineteenth-century journalism. While sports were only very exceptionally covered in the newspapers during the first half of the century, by the end of the Victorian era a diverse array of sports stories provided staple content for the pages of both broadsheet and popular papers. Dealing with the phenomenon of football match reports in The Times , this article documents the ear…
Participation in Public and Social Media Interactions
Online discussion boards are a common forum in which everyday users share troubles, elicit various forms of empathy and sympathy, and also seek advice from others. One challenge facing participants, as well as analysts, is the interpretation of expressions of discontent or dissatisfaction as either troubles talk,complaining, seeking advice, or some combination of these, given that each of these social actions/activities invokes a distinct prefere…
It׳s quite simple, really: Shifting forms of expertise in TV documentaries
Eavesdropping on media talk: Microphone gaffes and unintended humour in sports broadcasts
Participating with media
This chapter discusses adopting a combined media linguistic and socio-pragmatic perspective and explores the types of interactivity and interaction that occur in the media. It focuses on online news media, and explains how media interactivity can translate into actual interaction with the recipients, thereby affecting the overall participation framework of the media discourse event. The chapter outlines several trends and some potential problems …
Representing the other in European media discourses
This book deals with the construction of the ‘other’ in European media at a time when the recently expanded EU is facing new political, economic and social challenges. The aim of the book is to document the diverse discursive forms of othering, ranging from differentiation to discrimination, that are directed against various ‘other Europeans’ in both institutionalized media and such non-elite semi-public contexts as discussion forums and citizen …
Interactional humour and spontaneity in TV documentaries
Multimodal storytelling in the news: Sequenced images as ideological scripts of othering
Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes
This paper contributes to our understanding of the inception of disaster humor by refuting the position of ‘technological determinism’ that is central for the theory of disaster jokes. This view, developed by Christie Davies, ties the emergence of this form of humor to the visual presentation of disaster events on television. The paper reports on the discovery of several contemporary instances of pre-television disaster humor on the topic of the …
Euphemisms and non-proximal manipulation of discourse space: The case of blue-on-blue
Cliché
This entry extends the definition of cliché from its traditional understanding as a trite and stereotypical form of linguistic expression to a broader conception of any unoriginal semiotic communicative act based on the non‐creative reuse of diverse formal elements that are recognizable from other contexts. The definition stresses the constitutive role of metapragmatic awareness – both its absence on the part of the producer of a cliché and its p…
Revisiting intertextuality and humour: Fresh perspectives on a classic topic
In humour research, intertextuality has been extensively studied with the aim of understanding how humorous texts are constructed on the basis of previous texts. In this paper, we elaborate on the sociopragmatic functions of intertextuality, pointing out not only how humorous texts rely on previous texts and background knowledge, but also what sociopragmatic functions intertextuality serves in actual communicative situations, e.g. the effect the …
Those are not my words: Evasion and metalingual accountability in political scandal talk
‘Re-educating the Roma? You must be joking. . .’: Racism and prejudice in online discussion forums
This article explores prejudicial and racist discourse in reader comments in internet news discussion forums. Based on data from an online debate among Czech commenters on the mainstream iDnes.cz news site, it seeks to contribute to the existing critical linguistic approaches to discursive strategies of othering. Analysing user comments referencing a news article on a sensitive social topic, namely the complicated reception of Central European Ro…
Creating and sharing public humour across traditional and new media
Saving one's face from unintended humour: Impression management in follow-up sports interviews
Bigger than football’: Racist talk on and off the soccer pitch
Racism is a major social and cultural problem that has, in various forms, plagued football for a long time. Despite the attempts of official bodies to root it out, racist talk and behaviour are still rife among players as well as in fan communities. The present paper provides a case study of online users’ comments on the media coverage of a series of controversial incidents during a recent UEFA Europa League matchinvolving an alleged verbal act o…
Grammar in the Law
The entry deals with the grammatical and syntactic characteristics of legal language as a specialized register, that is, a functionally differentiated variety of language used in certain professional contexts. Although the concept of “legal language” covers a broad range of different, though related, legal discourses, it is most commonly understood as the written language or style of legal documents, which may not be readily intelligible to the l…
Cartoons in memes: Recycling popular art forms as a humorous response to the Covid-19 pandemic
As an established form of semiotic expression in the digital world, memes provide online users with the possibility to express diverse functions, including articulating shared norms and values. Memes function as multimodal signs, combining pre-existing visual elements with typically innovative textual components. Due to their dependence on current events, they tend to be ephemeral, serving to provide topical—and often humorous—commentary and crit…
Semiotics of humor: Unraveling the dynamics of resemiotization
The meaning-potential of humor – whatever traditional or modern forms it takes – is inseparably linked to the social context, which not only provides the background for the un/successful deployment of humor, but also ends up being shaped by the humor used therein. From a semiotic perspective, humor involves both the handling of complex socially embedded and publicly shared meanings as well as individualized personal motivations that underlie inte…
Sociology (15 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Linguistics (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Art (10 works) · Humor Studies and Applications (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies (7 works)