Who's on first?

The famous "Who's on First?" skit by Abbott and Costello plays on linguistic ambiguity, particularly homophones and pragmatic misunderstandings. Some of the linguistic elements include:

Homophones and Phonetic Ambiguity: The player names—“Who,” “What,” and “I Don’t Know”—sound like everyday words and phrases, leading to humorous misunderstandings as the characters try to clarify who’s playing each position. The sketch plays on the phonetic similarity between the names and the questions. For example, “Who’s on first?” seems like a question about the first baseman’s identity, but it’s actually the player’s name.

Pragmatic Ambiguity: Costello expects typical answers, while Abbott uses player names literally, leading to misunderstanding.

Conversational Implicature: Costello anticipates a straightforward response but gets disrupted by names as answers.

Syntactic Ambiguity: Questions and statements overlap due to the structure of the dialogue.

Miscommunication: The skit shows how language depends on context and shared understanding.

#Linguistics #Language #English #whosonfirst #baseball #abottandcostello #PhoneticFun #LinguisticHumor #HomophoneHilarity

[lonniemathias]

What you're saying is a typical couple's argument. It's hilarious.

[gustavgnoettgen]

"Who gets it."
"Why shouldn't he?"

[lennyhall]

Love the classics and I'm 41 lol still never gets old and I don't care ohh he's our shortstop lol

[sporksabre]

No, What's the second basemans name.

[donovanulrich]

Unless there's a crime been committed
This is the game the constitution provides I play
No I'm not a "formal or politically correct" lawyer or representative
I'm a common soul like the rest of us, unless there is a crime