5. Laughter as a “serious business”: Clients’ laughter in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome
-
Olga Zayts
Abstract
This chapter examines the use of laughter in the context of prenatal screening (PS) for Down’s syndrome in Hong Kong. Scholars interested in humor typically approach laughter as a phenomenon that accompanies funny, amusing, and humorous situations. In our previous work on nurses’ laughter in PS (Zayts and Schnurr, 2011) we have shown that laughter may also be used to perform ‘serious business’, for example, it may be employed by nurses to help them facilitate clients’ decision-making process regarding testing for Down’s syndrome. This chapter focuses on the second part of the laughter sequences, in particular it examines what is interactionally achieved through the reciprocation of the nurses’ laughter by their clients. Drawing on 34 video-recorded consultations between nurses and pregnant women, and using conversation analysis, we show that the reciprocated laughter in these sequences can be affiliative and serve to establish rapport between the participants. It can also be disaffilitative, particularly in interactional contexts when participants engage in negotiating their epistemic and deontic statuses and authority. The negotiation of epistemic statuses is observed in consultations with more experienced and knowledgeable clients who use laughter to terminate the topic of ‘inquiring about their knowledge’. The negotiation of deontic authority happens in decision-making phases of these consultations and through laughter the clients affirm their right and sufficient knowledge to make a decision.
Abstract
This chapter examines the use of laughter in the context of prenatal screening (PS) for Down’s syndrome in Hong Kong. Scholars interested in humor typically approach laughter as a phenomenon that accompanies funny, amusing, and humorous situations. In our previous work on nurses’ laughter in PS (Zayts and Schnurr, 2011) we have shown that laughter may also be used to perform ‘serious business’, for example, it may be employed by nurses to help them facilitate clients’ decision-making process regarding testing for Down’s syndrome. This chapter focuses on the second part of the laughter sequences, in particular it examines what is interactionally achieved through the reciprocation of the nurses’ laughter by their clients. Drawing on 34 video-recorded consultations between nurses and pregnant women, and using conversation analysis, we show that the reciprocated laughter in these sequences can be affiliative and serve to establish rapport between the participants. It can also be disaffilitative, particularly in interactional contexts when participants engage in negotiating their epistemic and deontic statuses and authority. The negotiation of epistemic statuses is observed in consultations with more experienced and knowledgeable clients who use laughter to terminate the topic of ‘inquiring about their knowledge’. The negotiation of deontic authority happens in decision-making phases of these consultations and through laughter the clients affirm their right and sufficient knowledge to make a decision.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1. Language play in conversation 11
- 2. Playing with turns, playing with action? A social-interactionist perspective 47
- 3. The shape of tweets to come: Automating language play in social networks 73
- 4. “This system’s so slow”: Negotiating sequences of laughter and laughables in call-center interaction 93
- 5. Laughter as a “serious business”: Clients’ laughter in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome 119
- 6. Jocular language play, social action and (dis)affiliation in conversational interaction 143
- 7. “Everything he says to me it’s like he stabs me in the face”: Frontstage and backstage reactions to teasing 169
- 8. Cities, conviviality and double-edged language play 199
- 9. Building rapport and a sense of communal identity through play in a second language classroom 219
- 10. The first English (EFL) lesson: Initial settings or the emergence of a playful classroom culture 245
- 11. The emergence of creativity in L2 English: A usage-based case-study 281
- 12. Teaching language learners how to understand sarcasm in L2 English 317
- 13. Anti-language: Linguistic innovation, identity construction, and group affiliation among emerging speech communities 347
- 14. Celebrations of a satirical song: Ideologies of anti-racism in the media 377
- Index 403
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1. Language play in conversation 11
- 2. Playing with turns, playing with action? A social-interactionist perspective 47
- 3. The shape of tweets to come: Automating language play in social networks 73
- 4. “This system’s so slow”: Negotiating sequences of laughter and laughables in call-center interaction 93
- 5. Laughter as a “serious business”: Clients’ laughter in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome 119
- 6. Jocular language play, social action and (dis)affiliation in conversational interaction 143
- 7. “Everything he says to me it’s like he stabs me in the face”: Frontstage and backstage reactions to teasing 169
- 8. Cities, conviviality and double-edged language play 199
- 9. Building rapport and a sense of communal identity through play in a second language classroom 219
- 10. The first English (EFL) lesson: Initial settings or the emergence of a playful classroom culture 245
- 11. The emergence of creativity in L2 English: A usage-based case-study 281
- 12. Teaching language learners how to understand sarcasm in L2 English 317
- 13. Anti-language: Linguistic innovation, identity construction, and group affiliation among emerging speech communities 347
- 14. Celebrations of a satirical song: Ideologies of anti-racism in the media 377
- Index 403
