Drew1987
| Drew1987 | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Drew1987 |
| Author(s) | Paul Drew |
| Title | Po-faced receipts of teases |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Teasing |
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| Year | 1987 |
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| Journal | Linguistics |
| Volume | 25 |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 219–253 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1515/ling.1987.25.1.219 |
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Abstract
This paper concerns the verbal activity of 'teasing'; that is, mocking but playful jibes against someone. The particular phenomenon investigated is that of 'po-faced' responses to teasing. In a large collection of teases occurring in natural conversations, recipients of teases recurrently respond quite seriously to the teasing proposal. Even where there is evidence that they recognize that the tease was meant humorously, recipients nevertheless usually deny and correct the tease: in only a small minority of cases do they play along with it. This paper first documents a continuum of responses, the most common of which are patterns of serious responses to teases. The analysis proceeds, using the conversation analytic approach, to account for the phenomenon of 'po-faced' responses, by first identifying the sequential environment in which teasing occurs: namely, one in which recipient has been complaining, extolling, bragging, etc., in a somewhat overdone or exaggerated fashion. Thus teasing can be a form of social control of minor conversational transgressions. Also teasing jokingly attributes certain deviant actions!identities which are mapped onto (an) identity (s) which recipient actually possesses; insofar as recipients see themselves as conceivably portrayed as deviant, teasing is 'close to the bone'. Recipients respond to these 'social control' and 'deviance attribution' properties defensively, hence in a po-faced manner.
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