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Failed humor in conversation: disalignment and (dis)affiliation as a type of interactional failure

  • Béatrice Priego-Valverde

    Béatrice Priego-Valverde is Associate Professor at Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France and Laboratoire Parole et Langage (CNRS). Her area of research is mostly humor in conversation she analyzes within Interactional Linguistics and Conversation Analysis frameworks. She has published on (failed) humor in conversation, self-deprecating humor and teasing in conversation.

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Published/Copyright: August 25, 2021

Abstract

This article reports on research on failed humor in French conversation. The aim is to investigate disalignment and (dis)affiliation as a type of interactional failure. For this purpose, 1,345 instances of humor were identified within a corpus of eight interactions in French. Among them, 259 were instances of failed humor, 158 of which were produced by the recipient, i.e., the participant who had taken the turn to produce humor. These 158 instances were analyzed using a method combining Conversation Analysis and corpus-based approaches. Conversation is seen as intrinsically dynamic: participants constantly shift between serious and humorous frames, different activities and different roles within them. In this light, each instance of failed humor was analyzed in relation to the frame and the type of activity within which it was embedded. All of the instances were found to be either disaligned and affiliated or disaligned and disaffiliated. Viewing conversation through its dynamism thus brings to light the ways in which disalignment and (dis)affiliation are a type of interactional failure. The analysis of three examples of disaligned and (dis)affiliated humor illustrates this type of interactional failure.


Corresponding author: Béatrice Priego-Valverde, Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL, UMR 7309, Aix-en-Provence, France, E-mail:

About the author

Béatrice Priego-Valverde

Béatrice Priego-Valverde is Associate Professor at Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France and Laboratoire Parole et Langage (CNRS). Her area of research is mostly humor in conversation she analyzes within Interactional Linguistics and Conversation Analysis frameworks. She has published on (failed) humor in conversation, self-deprecating humor and teasing in conversation.

Transcription conventions

@ Laughter
{smiling voice} Before the segment concerned
: Vocalic extension
+ Silent pause
Rising tone
a- Truncated word
§word§ Reported speech
underlined word Overlap
/ Self-interruption
* Undetermined noise
→ s Witch into a humorous frame
In bald Instance of failed humor

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to Oriana Collins for her proofreading of the present article, as well as very helpful comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers.

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Received: 2020-10-08
Accepted: 2021-07-22
Published Online: 2021-08-25
Published in Print: 2021-10-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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