8. Cities, conviviality and double-edged language play
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Emi Otsuji
Abstract
In this paper we examine different ways in which seemingly joking encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive joking behavior in the workplace but also on the ways in which fellow workers are described, on the significant work that casually humorous language does in making and unmaking boundaries. Metrolingual conviviality, as people engage in everyday multilingual practices, and both celebrate and challenge the diverse environments in which they live and work, is often double-edged. The interaction between fixity (pre-given fixed ascriptions of linguistic and cultural identities and practices) and fluidity (creative linguistic and cultural forces that transgress fixity) that underpins light-hearted banter creates an urban space of doubleedged conviviality, reconfirming, reinforcing, subverting or adjusting the original fixity. Playful language works on multiple levels, both constructing solidarities (of the workplace, masculinity, or ethnicity) and creating potential fissures. This analysis of the complex roles of language play in the making of conviviality sheds light on the different cultural and linguistic tensions at play in the city.
Abstract
In this paper we examine different ways in which seemingly joking encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive joking behavior in the workplace but also on the ways in which fellow workers are described, on the significant work that casually humorous language does in making and unmaking boundaries. Metrolingual conviviality, as people engage in everyday multilingual practices, and both celebrate and challenge the diverse environments in which they live and work, is often double-edged. The interaction between fixity (pre-given fixed ascriptions of linguistic and cultural identities and practices) and fluidity (creative linguistic and cultural forces that transgress fixity) that underpins light-hearted banter creates an urban space of doubleedged conviviality, reconfirming, reinforcing, subverting or adjusting the original fixity. Playful language works on multiple levels, both constructing solidarities (of the workplace, masculinity, or ethnicity) and creating potential fissures. This analysis of the complex roles of language play in the making of conviviality sheds light on the different cultural and linguistic tensions at play in the city.
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
