Chapter II

Literature Review

2.1. Rhetoric

2.1.1. Rhetoric Definition

Rhetoric have put attention from inclusive approach to analytic method.The

focus of rhetoricians attention is widening, however, from public to private

spheres, from official to vernacular rhetoric, from oratory to written and

multimedia discourse, from the carefully crafted to spontaneous discourse

emerging from fleeting everyday rhetorical situations. Nowadays, rhetoric is not

only talking about politics, it can be anything. It is not only about politic, but

also about the rhetoric of history and the rhetoric of popular culture; not just

about the rhetoricity of formal argument but also about the rhetoricity of personal

identity. To address these new concerns and sites, we need to continue to

supplement traditional modes of work with new techniques for analyzing the

language of text and talk and with ways of describing the sociocultural and

material contexts of discourse. Since at least as long ago as the Wingspread

conference in 1970, evaluations of the health of rhetoric as a discipline have

stressed the widening, deepening object of rhetorical study and the need for

appropriate methods and conceptual frameworks for exploring this object. In the

proceedings of that conference (Bitzer & Black 1971).

Some definitions of rhetorical discourse distinguish it primarily through the

assumption that it is discourse that is intended to change, and capable of

changing, the situation for which it was designed. Attempting to define and study

rhetorical spaces, and the tensions between presumed rhetorical agency and
acknowledged constraints of context, has proven to be one of contemporary

rhetoricsmost productive theoretical problems (cf. Bitzer 1968; Vatz 1973).

2.1.2. Purpose of Rhetoric

Rhetoric related to the idea of persuasive, therefore rhetoric is an art of

structuring argumentation and creating speech text. The idea of persuasion as

communication method such as invitation, request, or persuasion that try to make

listener feel the emotion.

Rhetoric have many purposes to the audiences, such as :

- To inform is kind of purpose that giving the information or explanation to

the audience.

- To convince the audience about what the speaker talk about.

- To inspire is kind of purpose that make an inspiration to the audience with

good technique of rhetoric and wise.

- To entertain the audience, that makes audience enjoy with speaker rhetoric.

- To actuate (to put in to action), it supposes to giving a direction to the

audience from the speaker in order to do an action.

The purposes of rhetoric basically is to inform or to convince the audience

that performed by the speaker (orator). The idea from the speaker is a thing that

should be listened, because it has a message in order to give information and also

to entertain.
2.2. Narrative Analysis

Labov and Waletzky (1967) pioneered of the study of narrative in their

analysis of oral narratives of personal experience. They defined a structure of

narrative consisting of three elements ; the orientation, the complicating action, and

evaluation. Labov in 1972 refined this structure to include additional elements: the

abstract, the resolution, and coda. Each clause of a narrative is assigned to one of

these elements of narrative structure, but not all elements are necessary in every

narrative the original three defined by Labov and Waletzky (1967) are sufficient

for a narrative.

Narrative Category Narrative Narrative function Linguistic form

question
ABSTRACT What was this Signals that the A short
about? story is about to summarising
begin and draws statement, provided
attention from the before the narrative
listener commences

ORIENTATION Who or what Helps the listener to Characterised by

are involved in identify the time, past continous
the story, and place, persons, verbs; Adjuncts of
when and activity, and time, manner and
where did it situation of the place
take place? story.
COMPLICATING Then what The core narrative Temporally
ACTION happened? category providing ordered narrative
the what clauses with a verb
happened element in the simple past
of the story. or present

RESOLUTION What finally Recapitulates the Expressed as the

happened? final key event of a last of the narrative
story. clauses that began
the complicating
action.

EVALUATION So what? Functions to make Includes:

the point of the intensifiers; modal
story clear. verbs; negative;
repetition;
evaluative
 commentary;
embedded speech;
comparison with
unrealised events

CODA How does it Signal that a story Often a generelised

all end? has ended and statement which is
brongs listener back timeless in feel.
to the point at
which s/he entered
the narrative.
Labovs narrative model

The abstract narratives are organized around a single most reportable

event. Of all the events in the story, this is the most fantastic (the least credible)

and has the greatest effect on the lives of the characters. The abstract is an

introduction to the story and often contains a description of the most reposrtable

event. For example,

Shall I tell you about the first man got killed by a car here. . . Well, I can
tell you that.
is the abstract of a narrative collected by Labov (2013).

The orientation. The orientation contains information on the time, the

place, and the persons involved in the story the background information. It usually

occurs at the beginning of the narratives, but some orienting information may be

postponed until later in the narrative, just before it becomes relevant. An example

of this is found in Jacob Schissels story, a narrative collective by Labov: the

orienting information

When I let go his arm, there was a knife on the table,

is given towards the end of the narrative, just before Schissel is stabbed with the

knife.

The complicating action. it is a chain of causal or instrumental events that

culminates in the most reportable event. The complicating action chain tells what
happened in the story. In Jacob Schissels story, the chain of complication action

is as follows:

1. He saw a rat out in the yard

2. and he started talk about it (sic)
3. and I told him to cut it out.
4. . . . I grabbed his arm
5. and twisted it up behind him.
6. he picked up [the knife]
7. and he let me have it.
Each event is causally related to the one before it, except for events 5 and 7, which

are instrumentally related to events 4 and 6.

The Evaluation, it is where the narrator gives his opinions on the events of

the story, considers alternative outcomes, assigns praise or blame to the characters,

or attempts to add credibility to the story. Evaluations usuallycome at the end of a

narrative, but like orientations, they can be interjected among the events of the

complicating action. For example, Jacob Schissel gave this evaluation on being

stabbed:

And the doctor just says, Just that much more, he says, and youd a been
dead.
This evaluation serves two purposes: first, it presents an alternative outcome in

which the narrator did not survive the stabbing; second, it adds credibility to the

stabbing by quoting a third party witness, the doctor.

The Resolution, some narratives extend the chain of events to a final

resolution of the situation created by the most reportable event. For example, in a

narrative about a fight, the narrator gives the resolution,

An they took us they took us to the hospital.

 The Coda, it signals the end of the story by bringing the listener back to the

present. For example, in the story about the fight, the lines

An that was it. Thats the only fight I can say I ever lost.

relates the events of the narrative to the present.

2.3.The Internal Structure of Jokes

According to Hocket in 1960 who stated in The View from Language that jokes

have three different components:

1. Build-up

2. Pivot

3. Punch line

The build-up forms the body of the jokes. It is the sentence which

introduce the joke, and presents the orientation and much of the complicating

action. The pivot means the word or phrase around which the ambiguity is

created. The punch line serves to conclude the joke and often introduces a

conflicting point of view or scene entirely, as stated on Norrick in 1989. The punch

line represents a surprise effect for the audience and is responsible for their

amusement and appreciation, normally expressed in general laughter.

To have a better understanding of this structure, this is an example from

Alexander in 1997 that stated on Aspect of Verbal Humor in English.

After waiting for half an hour in a Soho restaurants the customer called over
to the waiter : How long will my spaghetti be? he asked. How should I
know, replied the waiter. I never measure it.
The three components of the internal structure according to Hocket in 1960 are:
Build up After waiting for half an hour in Soho restaurant the customer
called over to the waiter.
Pivot How long will my spaghetti be he asked.
Punch Line How should I know, replied the waiter. I never meassure it.
The build-up consists here of the orientation secion and much of the

complication action. It informs the recipient about a customer who is waiting for

his spaghetti in a restaurant. His question How long will my spaghetti be?

represents the pivot of the joke, because the waiter misinterprets the question. The

waiters answer forms the punch which concludes the joke. It serves as uts

resolution. Although stand-up comedians do not explicitly use the exact structure

as described by Hockett (1960) when telling jokes from their own lives or everyday

affairs, we can nevertheless comprehend their structure even if they sometimes skip

the build-up and start immediately with the pivot. This is the reason why listeners

in general do not recognize the pivot term immediately and are amused by the

surprise effect of the following punch line. Whereas the build-up section can be

neglected without having an influence on the success of the joke, there must be a

pivot section which forms the basis for the following punch lines.

The joke mentioned above also contains some structures of narrative as

defined by Labov (1972). There is an orientation and a complication unit, which is

represented by the build-up, and there is a resolution, which is represented by the

punch line.
2.4. Stand Up Comedy

2.4.1. History of Stand Up Comedy

Stand-up comedy is the term for a special genre of comedy in which the

performer, who is called the stand up comedian, stands on the stage and speaks

directly to the audience. In general, stand-up comedians are individual

performers who plant themselves in front of their listener with their microphones

and start telling a succession of funny stories, one-liner or short jokes, and

anecdotes, which are often called bits, in order to make their audiences laugh.

The humorists personalities, their interaction with the audiences and their

ability to spontaneously react to heckling are crucial aspects for successful stand-

up comedy.

According to Double in 2005, the history of stand up comedy originated

from the work of jesters, commedia dell arte, Shakesperean clowns, British

music hall comedian, and American vaudeville entertainers. Mintz (1983:134)

also stresses the connection to the commedia dell'arte troupes in the 16th and

17th centuries and mentions the stock characters and their spontaneous and

uncomplicated performances. Their stories were simple, so that even uneducated

audiences were able to follow them.

In America, the earliest form of stand-up comedy had its roots in vaudeville,

which first started in the form of the minstrel or variety show. White comedians

painted their faces black and started to perform by speaking and singing in black

dialects.

Near the end of the 19th century, the minstrel show developed into

American vaudeville. The first famous vaudeville theater was opened in 1865
and was Tony Pastor's New Fourteenth Street Theater in New York. Tony Pastor

was the first to present vaudeville to a respectable audience and went down in

history as the "father of vaudeville" (Nilsen, 2000:304).

From 1960 on, variety could not withstand the competition from television

and could only be maintained in the early working-class clubs. Entertainment in

these clubs began to boom and new, famous clubs such as the Batley Variety

Club were opened in Yorkshire in 1967. In the meantime, more stand-up

comedians came from the British folk music clubs in which stand-up comedy

was becoming more conversational.

Television and radio further contributed to the increasing interest in stand-

up comedy, and such stars as Bernard Manning, Bobby Thompson, Stan

Boardman, and Frank Carson became famous through television shows like The

Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. In 1979, Peter Rosengard even opened

the first American-style stand-up comedy club, namely the Comedy Store in

London, in which the most successful performers of the 1980's began their

careers. It did not take long before British stand-up comedy began to spread all

over the country, and particularly political humor began to dominate this comedy

scene.

2.4.2. Difference Between Stand Up Monologue and Conversational

Dialogue

According to Attardo (2001), stand up comedy is a highly artificial, scripted

genre. It represents a genre in which a single comedian comes on stage with

microphone and starts performance in front of audience. However, in the

conversation, it is rare that only one person speaks, while the others listen

carefully, and let the speaker finish without interrupting.

2.4.3. Difference between Joke Telling in Stand Up Comedy and

Conversational Joke Telling

According to Attardo and Chabanne (1992), comic monologues are often

difficult to distinguish from jokes from a textuxal point of view and sometimes

they are just a chain of punch line.