Humor in Interaction

Edited by Neal R. Norrick and Delia Chiaro
Saarland University / Alma mater studiorum Università di Bologna
This is the first edited volume dedicated specifically to humor in interaction. It is a rich collection of essays by an international array of scholars representing various theoretical perspectives, but all concerned with interactional aspects of humor. The contributors are scholars active both in the interdisciplinary area of humor studies and in adjacent disciplines such as linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics, gender and translation studies. The volume effectively offers an overview of the range of phenomena falling in the broad category of ‘conversational humor’, and convincingly argues for the many different functions humor can fulfill, bypassing simplistic humor theories reducing humor to one function. All the articles draw on empirical material from different countries and cultures, comprising conversations among friends and family, talk in workplace situations, humor in educational settings, and experimental approaches to humor in interaction. The book is sure to become an important reference and source of inspiration for scholars in the various subfields of humor studies, pragmatics and (socio-)linguistics.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 182]  2009.  xvii, 238 pp.
Publishing status: Available
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027254276 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00
 
PaperbackAvailable
ISBN 9789027256164 | EUR 33.00 | USD 49.95
 
e-BookSold by e-book platforms
ISBN 9789027289339 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00
 
Google EditionForthcoming
ISBN 9789027289339 | EUR 33.00 | USD 49.95
 
 

Table of Contents

Introduction: Humor and interaction
Neal R. Norrick and Delia Chiaro
ix–xvii
The occasioning of self-disclosure humor
Susan M. Ervin-Tripp and Martin Lampert
3–28
Direct address as a resource for humor
Neal R. Norrick and Claudia Bubel
29–48
An interactional approach to irony development
Helga Kotthoff
49–78
Multimodal and intertextual humor in the media reception situation: The case of watching football on TV
Cornelia Gerhardt
79–98
Using humor to do masculinity at work
Stephanie Schnurr and Janet Holmes
101–124
Boundary-marking humor: Institutional, gender and ethnic demarcation in the workplace
Bernadette Vine, Susan Kell, Meredith Marra and Janet Holmes
125–140
Impolite responses to failed humor
Nancy Bell
143–164
Failed humor in conversation: A double voicing analysis
Béatrice Priego-Valverde
165–184
Humor and interlanguage in a bilingual elementary school setting
Kristin Kersten
187–210
Cultural divide or unifying factor?: Humorous talk in the interaction of bilingual, cross-cultural couples
Delia Chiaro
211–232
Name index
233–235
Subject index
237–238

Quotes

“This fascinating volume offers a range of perspectives on humour in interaction, in contexts as diverse as the home, the workplace and the school, and also in experimental settings. The resulting collection will be an invaluable resource for scholars, and makes a significant contribution to the development of the burgeoning field of language and humour studies.”
Jennifer Coates, Professor of English Language & Linguistics, Roehampton University London
“Most theoretical models of verbal humor are text-oriented. In contrast, the present interactional approach is speaker- and listener-oriented. Every paper in this volume demonstrates practical ways of collecting and interpretinginteractional data. An interactional approach allows an interdisciplinary description of how humor functions in discourse. This empirical groundedness shows that humor is an important linguistic tool in our everyday interaction. It serves multiple functions, such as construction of complex social identities or in-group affiliation. People draw on humor to construct their identities or to create intertextual connections. An interactional approach to humor emphasizes that any use of humor can be understood only in a particular context.”
Ksenia Shilikhina, Voronezh State University, on Linguist List 21.3430 (2011)
“This study of reality humor deserves the attention of those studying social interaction.”
P.L. Derks, emeritus, College of William and Mary, in Choice, Vol. 41 No.11 (2010)

Subjects

Benjamins Subject classification

BIC Subject

CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis

BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2009016221
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