Don Lee Fred Nilsen (born October 19, 1934) is an American linguist and humor scholar. He is Professor of Linguistics in the emeritus College at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. He has published extensively on semantics, deep cases, and

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

. Together with his wife Alleen Nilsen, Nilsen is co-founder of the International Society for Humor Studies and served as its executive secretary. Alongside Alleen Nilsen, he was also co-president of American Name Society.

Work

Don Lee Fred Nilsen was born in 1934 in

Palmyra, Utah Palmyra is a census-designated place (CDP) in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 491 at the 2010 census. Palmyra is located directly west of Springville and no ...

, United States. He obtained his bachelor's degree in French from Brigham Young University in 1958, followed by a master's degree in linguistics from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in 1961, and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Michigan in 1971. Since 1971, he has worked at

. Don Nilsen's areas of interest in English Linguistics include Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse Theory. He has a particular interest in sophisticated discourse forms: Double Entendre, Symbolism, Metaphor, Irony, Parody, Paradox, Wit, Symbolism, Humor, Comedy and Tragi-comedy. Together with his wife Alleen Nilsen, Nilsen founded the International Society for Humor Studies. Nilsen served as executive secretary of the organization until 2005 and is still the organization's historian. In 2014, the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor named Don and Alleen Nilsen recipients of the Doug Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award for their significant contribution to the understanding and application of humor.

Select bibliography

* ''The instrumental case in English: syntactic and semantic considerations'' (1973) Mouton * ''Language Play: An Introduction to Linguistics'' (w/ Alleen Nilsen) (1978) Newbury House Publishers * ''Humor in American Literature: A Selected Annotated Bibliography'' (1992) Routledge * ''Humor in Irish Literature: A Reference Guide'' (1996) Greenwood Press * ''Humor in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century British Literature'' (1998) Greenwood Press * ''Encyclopedia of 20th-century American Humor'' (w/ Alleen Nilsen) (2000) Oryx Press * ''The Language of Humor: An Introduction'' (w/ Alleen Nilsen) (2018) Cambridge University Press

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsen, Don Humor researchers University of Michigan alumni Linguists from the United States 1934 births Arizona State University faculty Brigham Young University alumni Living people American University alumni