SERIOUS: Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended

    From The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric

    هزل يراد به جد
    SERIOUS: Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended
    CategoryLinguistic Embellishments
    (ʿilm al-badīʿ)
    SubcategoryPersuasive Tricks
    Built upon5 sources
      
    Annotation Unit
    ARDT CodeSERIOUS
    Level1 (Rhetorical device)
      
    Included in Taxonomy
    ARDTv0.1.1
    v0.1.0
      
    External Identifiers
    BALAGHAScoreCC-2
    BalaghaBaseQ122
    OpenAlexW4415405309
      
    Cite this page
    🔗 Live DOI10.64393/balagha.Q122
     
    Use this page
    DownloadPDF
    JSON

    Definition

    Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended (al-hazl yurād bihi al-jidd) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which an utterance is cast as jest (hazl) while seriousness (jidd) is intended.[1][2][3][4][5]

    Background Information

    The Arabic name al-hazl yurād bihi al-jidd literally describes the operation: hazl is jest, while al-jidd is its opposite, seriousness; the device is therefore named for using jest while intending seriousness.[3][5][1]

    Linguistic Operations

    • The utterance appears humorous, facetious, or mocking on its surface, while the intended communicative purpose remains serious.[3][4]
    • The serious purpose is conveyed through the vehicle of jest, so that seriousness emerges through the humorous expression rather than replacing it.[3][5]
    • The serious purpose may concern praise or blame, expressed through wit or facetiousness.[4][5]

    Recognition

    Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended may be present when:

    • An utterance outwardly appears jesting or humorous, while a serious meaning or purpose is intended.[1][2][3][5]
    • The humorous or facetious expression serves as the vehicle through which the serious purpose is conveyed.[4][5]

    The following diagnostic test aids identification:

    • If the utterance is presented as jest or humour on the surface, but a serious meaning or purpose is intended through that jest, the device is likely present.

    Communicative Enhancements

    • The jest can produce laughter and amusement while conveying an intended serious meaning.[2]
    • When the serious purpose is criticism or rebuke, expressing it through jest can produce an effect of sarcasm or mocking criticism.
    • The separation between the outward jest and the underlying serious purpose can provide a degree of plausible deniability: if challenged over the serious meaning, the communicator may retreat to the surface humorous framing and present the utterance as merely a joke.

    Applying the Recognition Framework

    The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:

    • Use the Definition, Mechanism, and Recognition sections of this page in Step 1.
    • Apply the substitution test in Step 2.
    • Consider contextual indicators in Step 3.
    • Use the Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements section of this page in Step 4.

    Examples

    إذا ما تَمِيمِيٌّ أتاكَ مُفاخِرًا
    فَقُلْ: عَدْ عَنْ ذا، كيفَ أَكْلُكَ لِلضَّبِّ؟

    When a Tamīmī comes to you boasting,
    then say: “Leave that aside — how is your eating of lizards?”

    Explanation
    The utterance takes the form of teasing mockery but conveys serious disparagement. Ṭabāna explicitly explains that the speech is jest because it is intended to produce laughter and amusement, while its intended purpose is serious; Abū Nuwās uses it to disparage the Tamīmī for eating lizards and to prevent him from boasting of noble lineage.[4][1][2]

    أنزلنا الدَّهْرُ على مَعْشر / فَما أكَلنا من ضِيافاتهم
    تَغُرُّ بالناس أحاديثهم / ما أكَلَت منا بَراغيثهم

    Fate decreed that we be guests of people / yet we did not feast upon their bounty.
    Their talk deceives people / but their fleas feasted upon us.

    Explanation
    The speaker presents the complaint in a witty and humorous form, but the intended meaning is serious blame directed at the hosts' poor hospitality.[3][4]

    يا صديقي، ما أروعَ كرمَك! دعوتَنا إلى وليمةٍ فاخرة، وقدَّمتَ لنا ماءً وابتسامة.

    My friend, how magnificent your generosity! You invited us to a grand feast, then served us water and a smile.

    Explanation
    The utterance adopts the outward form of praise and admiration, but the intended purpose is serious blame directed at the host's failure to honour his guests as promised.

    After his friend had borrowed three books and returned none of them, Daniel handed him a fourth and said, “Of course you can borrow this one — I’ve always wanted to donate a small library without the paperwork.”

    Explanation
    The speaker jokingly portrays his friend's repeated failure to return borrowed books as the creation of a donated library, but the jest conveys a serious purpose: blame of his friend's failure to return the books. The serious criticism is therefore conveyed through the humorous framing rather than stated directly.

    Different From

    • Evasive Letterplay — Both devices can provide the communicator with a degree of plausible deniability, but they create it differently. In Humour Through Which Seriousness Is Intended, the communicator may retreat to the utterance's outwardly jesting character ("I was only joking") while its serious meaning remains available to the audience. In Evasive Letterplay, the escape instead depends on a specific alternative linguistic form or reading produced through a formal or grammatical modification of the utterance.

    References

    1. ↑ a b c d Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qazwīnī, known as al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī, al-Īḍāḥ fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ, ed. and comm. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 285, ISBN 9782745139078.
    2. ↑ a b c d Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 688-689.
    3. ↑ a b c d e f W. P. Heinrichs, ‘Rhetorical Figures’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 657, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
    4. ↑ a b c d e f Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), pp. 32-33; §103, ISBN 9783447040327.
    5. ↑ a b c d e f Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 671.



    Page History

    You are viewing the live version of this page. Would you like to view the version included in the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1)?
    Retrieved from "https://al-balagha.com/index.php?title=SERIOUS:_Humour_Through_Which_Seriousness_Is_Intended&oldid=17583"