On actualizing the axiological concept "acceptance of grief" in humorous discourse

The work is aimed at studying the main humorous characteristics of the axiological concept "acceptance of grief". This concept is considered to be an important value of humorous discourse. Nevertheless, the issue of actualizing this concept in humorous discourse attracts little attention. Moreover, the concept "acceptance" was studied in a context not related to the topic of grief and it was specified as "making a decision" and "making and implementing a decision" while the axiological status of this concept is of recent origin. This work develops an axiological approach for studying humor. The reaction of the audience to the axiological concept "acceptance of grief" is defined. The data comprise recordings and scripts of more than 70 stand-up specials and more than 500 episodes of sitcoms. The research showed that the axiological concept "acceptance of grief" was accompanied mostly by laughter and sometimes by moderate applauding. Axiological characteristics of the analyzed concept (based on literature on such phenomena as death and acceptance, definitions in dictionaries, and data analysis) are distinguished. In humorous discourse the following main characteristics of the axiological concept "acceptance of grief" are actualized: finding a positive side in one's own illness or death; overcoming depression; realizing inevitability of death; treating own death as a common event. The positive side of illness is re-thinking the actions or states which result from diseases, but they can be treated positively under some circumstances. The advantages of death include: having an opportunity to die worthily; getting acknowledgment and becoming famous among other people after the death. In humorous discourse, depression is overcome through laughter therapy and special ritual actions. Realizing of the inevitability of death causes a change in attitude towards life from re-thinking its quality to the conscious will to die, which demonstrates an absolute acceptance of death. The attitude to death as a routine is expressed through the violation of established rituals. The language means which are used to express the axiological concept "acceptance of grief" are also analyzed. They include simile, metaphor, obscene and vulgar words. The axiological concept "acceptance of grief" is often actualized either through a positive assessment of certain aspects of illness or death, or through a negative assessment of various aspects of a healthy and long life. It is also worth mentioning that in stand-up comedies the concept "acceptance of grief" draws attention more frequently than in sitcoms.