Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Demetri Martin, Linguist???

One of my sons recently purchased comedian Demetri Martin's book, "This is a Book". As I was flipping through it, I noticed that Demetri Martin appears to have a true appreciation for the many aspects of language and how they can be manipulated to humorous effects. Much of his humor involves morphology, syntax, semantics, semiotics, pragmatics and orthography.

Here are some examples from the book.

Pragmatics


Syntax
"Nearly 1/2 of all people in the United States are torsos."


Semantics
"The boomerang is Australia's chief export (and then import)."


Semiotics


Morphology

A Palindrome


A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MAN AND HIS YOUNG SON. THE MAN IS TRYING TO TEACH THE YOUNG BOY THE NAME OF A PIECE OF FRUIT AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SINGULAR AND PLURAL:

-Son, say a papaya.
-Papayas.
-No "s."

Orthography

1 comment:

Andy Hollandbeck said...

I love Demetri Martin! He's one you should follow on Twitter, too, because he posts some of his drawings...

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