Humour is one of the most interesting and puzzling aspects of human behaviour. Despite the attention it has received from fields such as philosophy, linguistics, and psychology, there have been only few attempts to create computational models for humour recognition and analysis. In this thesis, I use corpus-based approaches to formulate and test hypotheses concerned with the processing of verbal humour. The thesis makes two important contributions. First, it brings empirical evidence that computational approaches can be successfully applied to the task of humour recognition. Through experiments performed on very large data sets, I show that automatic classification techniques can be effectively used to distinguish between humorous and non-humorous texts, using content-based features or models of incongruity. Moreover, using a method for measuring feature saliency, I identify and validate several dominant word classes that can be used to characterize humorous text. Second, the thesis provides corpus-based support toward the validity of previously formulated linguistic theories, indicating that humour is primarily due to incongruity and humour-specific language. Experiments performed on collections of verbal humour show that both incongruity and content-based features can be successfully used to model humour, and that these features are even more effective when used in tandem.

La présente thèse est une étude des fonctions et des formes du discours rapporté (DR) en allemand oral à partir de deux corpus audio : des entretiens biographiques et des spectacles comiques. Après une discussion théorique préliminaire portant sur les conceptualisations classiques du phénomène de DR et les théories modernes, inspirées de Bakhtin/ Vološinov, nous envisageons le DR comme une stratégie dont les emplois sont à appréhender au niveau du discours afin de décrire les formes qu’il prend à l’oral. En nous appuyant sur les théories de syntaxe fonctionnelle, nous partons du principe que le discours oral peut s’analyser en unités de communication identifiées comme des gestes/paragraphes oraux, constitués d’une ou plusieurs propositions réalisant un acte de prédication principal. L’analyse s’effectue à deux niveaux : au niveau global du discours, et à l’intérieur du geste/paragraphe à l’échelle inter- et intra-propositionnelle. Dans un premier temps, une analyse énonciative et rhétorique permet de dégager les valeurs discursives du DR dans les deux corpus. Cette analyse met en évidence l’importance de l’usage figuratif de la stratégie de DR en tant que mise en scène explicite de polyphonie énonciative. Dans un deuxième temps, nous analysons l’intégration discursive et syntaxique du DR dans le geste/paragraphe et au niveau de la proposition, en examinant la démarcation du propos rapporté (ou mis en scène) au sein du geste/paragraphe, son rôle dans l’acte prédicatif, et les éléments lexicaux employés pour le situer et le composer. L’analyse révèle que l’aspect figuratif de nombreux DR explique une bonne part des agencements syntaxiques et de l’usage de lexèmes composant le discours rapporté à l’oral souvent non décrits dans les ouvrages de référence de l’allemand standard. / This study based on two corpora of oral communication (interviews and stand up comedy shows) investigates the functions and forms of reported speech in spoken German. We first present the classical and modern conceptualizations of reported speech as found in grammars of the German language, linguistic typology and in the more recent theories of J. Authier-Revuz, L. Rosier, and linguists of the interactional sociolinguistics and conversation analysis orientation (D. Vincent, S. Günthner, D. Tannen), all of which can be seen as inspired in some way by the views of Bakhtin/Vološinov. Following their footsteps, we argue that reported speech can be seen as a discourse strategy that explicitly stages polyphony and the layering of voices within discourse and therefore must be investigated with respect to its rhetorical effects. Adopting the perspective of the functional theories of syntax, we see oral discourse as a process whose product can be divided in moves (M) and discourse acts, expressed by propositions as predication units within the move. The study of reported speech must therefore be analyzed on two different levels: at the discourse level we seek to evaluate the rhetorical and pragmatic effects achieved by the use of (mostly direct) reported speech in the two corpora. Then we describe the role played by reported speech in the predication at the inter- and intrapropositional level within the move. As the discourse analysis shows, reported speech in informal oral communication can be a highly figurative device. This aspect of the use of reported speech accounts in part for specific syntactic constructions that have not always been taken into account in the grammars of standard German.