Intercultural perspectives on humour in public discourse

At the project level: 1) to identify how humour is constructed in German, English and Lithuanian public discourse; 2) to identify linguistic means expressing humour; 3) to identify if English has any impact on expressing humour in German and Lithuanian, especially in translating humour; 4) to identify cross-cultural and culture-specific features of humour in public discourse.

At the institutional level: to promote research cooperation between Vilnius University and the University of Greifswald on the basis of the long-lasting tradition.

• Compiling the corpus of research and setting up the methodology. Working with students on their individual papers focusing on the expression of humour in German, English and Lithuanian
• Discussing the methodology with the German colleagues in Greifswald, July 9-12, 2014
• Symposium summing up the results of research and presenting them to the wider audience (12-13 December, 2014, Vilnius University)

19 people were directly involved in the project (6 professional linguists and 13 students with presentations) and ca. 20 people attended the Humour Symposium held in Vilnius.