Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction 1
4. 1. Language play in conversation 11
5. 2. Playing with turns, playing with action? A social-interactionist perspective 47
6. 3. The shape of tweets to come: Automating language play in social networks 73
7. 4. “This system’s so slow”: Negotiating sequences of laughter and laughables in call-center interaction 93
8. 5. Laughter as a “serious business”: Clients’ laughter in prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome 119
9. 6. Jocular language play, social action and (dis)affiliation in conversational interaction 143
10. 7. “Everything he says to me it’s like he stabs me in the face”: Frontstage and backstage reactions to teasing 169
11. 8. Cities, conviviality and double-edged language play 199
12. 9. Building rapport and a sense of communal identity through play in a second language classroom 219
13. 10. The first English (EFL) lesson: Initial settings or the emergence of a playful classroom culture 245
14. 11. The emergence of creativity in L2 English: A usage-based case-study 281
15. 12. Teaching language learners how to understand sarcasm in L2 English 317
16. 13. Anti-language: Linguistic innovation, identity construction, and group affiliation among emerging speech communities 347
17. 14. Celebrations of a satirical song: Ideologies of anti-racism in the media 377
18. Index 403