Self-mockery: A study of Persian multi-party interactions
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Javad Zare
Javad Zare holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Isfahan and is currently a lecturer at Esfarayen University of Technology. His areas of research interest include pragmatics, discourse analysis, and English for academic purposes.
Abstract
This study investigated self-mockery as an exemplar of jocular mockery. Drawing on authentic verbal data, collected in a university dormitory in Isfahan, Iran, this paper examined the interactional functions of self-mockery, and how self-mockery arose and was responded to in Persian face-to-face multi-party interactions. Seven cases of self-mockery were identified in the recorded transcripts of six multi-party conversations. Analysis of the transcripts indicates that self-mockery was performed to fulfill three interactional functions: (i) saving one’s own face; (ii) saving the face of the listeners; and (iii) bringing reciprocated amusement to the conversation. Furthermore, self-mockery was performed in response to either humor initiated by other interlocutors, or the display of humiliation. The results also revealed two interactional functions for the recipients’ responses, including (i) saving the face of the self-mocker; and (ii) bringing amusement to the conversation. By and large, the results indicated that the relative appropriateness of the response strategy may depend on the interactional function of self-mockery that the recipient wishes to fulfill. And finally, the results showed that the self-mockers and the recipients go along with each other’s interactional exchanges to maintain interactional solidarity.
About the author
Javad Zare holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Isfahan and is currently a lecturer at Esfarayen University of Technology. His areas of research interest include pragmatics, discourse analysis, and English for academic purposes.
Acknowledgments
My acknowledgements go to all the graduate and postgraduate students who provided me the recording of their dormitory conversations. I am also grateful to Zahra Keivanloo-Shahrestanaki who helped me transcribe the recording.
Appendix: transcription conventions
- (.)
untimed brief pause
- +
pause up to one second
- wo–
incomplete or cut-off utterance
- //words\
- /words\\
simultaneous speech
- ( )
indecipherable speech
- (hello)
transcriber’s best guess at an unclear utterance
- {it was}
words added in English translation to help comprehension.
- […]
section of transcript omitted
- [laughs]
paralinguistic features in square brackets
- [laughs]: no:
laughter throughout the utterance of the word in between the colons
All names are pseudonyms.
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- “Occupy Central” and the rise of discursive illusions: a discourse analytical study
- “To be real honest, I’m just like you”: analyzing the discourse of personalization in online sermons
- Analogies in interaction: practical reasoning and participatory design
- Doing equality and difference: Representation and alignment in Finnish identification
- The use of demo-prefaced response displacement for being a listener to distressful experiences in Japanese interaction
- Self-mockery: A study of Persian multi-party interactions
