Sugita2012

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Sugita2012
BibType ARTICLE
Key Sugita2012
Author(s) Yuko Sugita
Title Minimal affect uptake in a pre-climax position of conversational 'scary' stories
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Affiliation, Alignment, Anticipatory affect, Multimodal analysis, Minimal uptake, Scary stories
Publisher
Year 2012
Language English
City
Month
Journal Journal of Pragmatics
Volume 44
Number 10
Pages 1273–1289
URL Link
DOI 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.05.012
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Analyzing pre-climax positions of everyday affect-laden telling activities, this paper shows that particular facial expressions, such as raised eyebrows with an open mouth or jaw-dropping, are the devices which are preferably deployed by story recipients as a minimal uptake to display affiliation, especially in the case of “scary” stories.

During the course of conversational storytelling, it is structurally necessary that recipients warrant the teller's speakership. At the same time, a particular affective display—not only in response to what has been said but also to what comes at the climax—appears to become relevant. Immediately prior to the climax, when the teller employs elaborate multimodal cues, the recipient's display of an “anticipatory affect” is made relevant. A particular type of affect signals the anticipation of what kind of climax is approaching. The present paper explores how story recipients accomplish this two-fold task, namely to display alignment with the speaker's role allocation and listenership on the one hand and affiliation on the other. The study argues that a minimal uptake is called for, requiring only a minimal slot in the flow of storytelling and facial expressions that are most likely to fit this slot.

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