This dissertation takes a discursive approach to Hawai'i stand-up comedy, which is a highly dramaturgical genre, and it examines the cultural specificity of Hawaii comedy in an explicitly interactional context. This culturally-specific performative genre is a discursive site where comedians and their audiences jointly construct multivocal humor…

This minimally revised version of the author's 1935 M.A. thesis has been published at this time not only because it is considered an invaluable contribution to the sociolinguistic history of Hawaii but also because increased interest in problems of pidgin and creole languages seems to make it particularly relevant. Initial chapters deal with the…