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Introduction: Conversational humor: Forms, functions and practices across cultures

• Kerry Mullan

  Kerry Mullan is Senior Lecturer and Convenor of Languages at RMIT University. She is Higher Degree by Research program leader for the Social and Global Studies Centre. She teaches French language and culture, and sociolinguistics. Her main research interests are cross-cultural communication and differing interactional styles, particularly those of French and Australian English speakers. She also researches in the areas of intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, language teaching and conversational humor.

  and Christine Béal

  Christine Béal is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 and a member of Praxiling, a CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) Research Lab specializing in linguistics and communication. Her areas of expertise are French linguistics, interactional linguistics and cross-cultural pragmatics. Her work is based on naturally occurring data (spontaneous talk between work colleagues, meetings, job interviews, among friends) in French and English. She has focused on terms of address, speech acts, politeness, rituals and routines, turn-taking and conversational humor.