Haugh2017a
| Haugh2017a | |
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| BibType | INCOLLECTION |
| Key | Haugh2017a |
| Author(s) | Michael Haugh |
| Title | Mockery and (non-)seriousness in initial interactions amongst American and Australian speakers of English |
| Editor(s) | Donal Carbaugh |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Mockery, Non-serousness, Initial interaction, American speakers, Australian Speakers |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Year | 2017 |
| Language | English |
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| Pages | 104-117 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.4324/9781315709321-21 |
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| Howpublished | |
| Book title | Handbook of Communication in Cross-Cultural Perspective |
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Abstract
The diverse range of practices referred to by native terms such as leasing in English or linked to culturally-shaped notions such as non-seriousness have arguably only been addressed in passing from an emic, cultural insider’s perspective in research to date. The aim in this chapter is to start to redress this relative neglect by working towards an emically-informed account of non-serious leasing in English that offers a path for subsequent analyses of ‘teasing’-like practices amongst speakers of different (varieties of) languages and cultures. Drawing from a combination of methods and analytical frameworks from interactional pragmatics and cultural discourse analysis, “acts” of mockery are examined as they are accomplished in a particular “style”, namelk, non-serieus talk, in a particular type of locally situated “event”, namely, interactions amongst American and Australian speakers of English in which they are getting acquainted . In the course of this analysis it is argued that there is a nuanced inferential substrate underpinning jocular mockery that is immanent to the style of non-serieus talk within episodes of getting acquainted from an emic, insider’s perspective. In particular, through an analysis of expressions of the form “[just/only] [joking/kidding]” by which participants (ostensibly) disavow a serious stance, it is suggested that non-seriousness may itself be invoked as an interpretive and evaluative resource in social interaction. The extent to which non-seriousness is culturally shaped is then briefly considered through examining variability in evaluations of jocular mockery amongst American and Australian speakers of English. The chapter concludes by suggesting that jocular mockery should be analysed not only as a locally situated interactional achievement, but as a socioculturally-
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