The pragmatics of humor support
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Jennifer Hay
Abstract
Many researchers claim joking and laughter to be an adjacency pair. There are, however, a range of strategies used for supporting humor in conversation, of which laughter is just one. This paper uses natural conversational data to illustrate a variety of humor support strategies. Common support strategies include contributing more humor, playing along with the gag, using echo or overlap, offering sympathy and contradicting self-deprecating humor.
There are four implicatures associated with full support of humor: recognition of a humorous frame, understanding the humor, appreciating the humor, and agreeing with any message associated with it. Recognition, understanding and appreciation are in an entailment relationship, and this relationship can be exploited to display recognition and understanding while denying appreciation. The implicature of agreement is particularly salient when teasing or self-deprecating humor is being supported.
© Walter de Gruyter
