Jocular Mockery as Interactional Practice in Everyday Anglo-Australian Conversation

Abstract

Teasing in everyday interactions, which combines elements of (ostensible) provocation and (ostensible) playfulness in a figurative cutting down or diminishment of a target, has been the subject of a growing body of studies. However, what has arguably not been as well studied to date is the interactional mechanics of the different kinds of social actions through which teasing is accomplished. In this paper, the way in which teasing as mocking/ridiculing can be accomplished within a jocular or non-serious frame, or what is here termed jocular mockery, is examined building on methodological and analytical insights from both interactional pragmatics and corpus-assisted pragmatics. It is argued based on this analysis that jocular mockery constitutes a recognisable and recurrent practice in everyday interactions amongst (Anglo-)Australian speakers of English. A framework for examining the dynamics of jocular mockery within everyday interactions is also proposed.

Self-disclosure in initial interactions amongst speakers of American and Australian English

“…metapragmatic awareness) and variation in the situated instantiation of those meanings. Notably, while the emphasis in interactional pragmatics is on detailed analyses of pragmatic phenomenon in the situated, sequential contexts in which they occur, it is not assumed that such an approach requires eschewing more quantitatively oriented corpus-based methods (Haugh 2014).…”

“…Drawing from analytical approaches in interactional pragmatics (Arundale 2010a;Haugh 2012Haugh , 2014Haugh , 2015 and cultural discourse analysis (Berry 2009;Carbaugh 2007;Scollo 2011) we analyse interactions in intracultural settings where Australians and Americans are getting acquainted with other Australians and Americans, respectively. In the course of this analysis we identify a number of putative similarities and differences in the sequential organisation of self-disclosure practices, as well as the cultural interpretative value placed on these different practices from an emic or cultural insider's perspective.…”

“It's just a bit of cultural […] lost in translation”: Australian and British intracultural and intercultural metapragmatic evaluations of jocularity

“…Jocular verbal behaviours such as teasing, banter, jocular mockery or jocular abuse have been extensively analysed in the last few decades (e.g. Straehle, 1993;Boxer and Cortés-Conde, 1997;Keltner et al, 1998Keltner et al, , 2001Lampert and Ervin-Tripp, 2006;Lytra, 2007;Schnurr, 2009;Haugh, 2010Haugh, , 2014Sinkeviciute, 2013). Although some studies have revealed that the targets are more likely to reject teases and feel insulted rather than to accept them (e.g.…”

“…In general, there exists an expectation among native speakers of varieties of English that responses to teasing, banter or jocular mockery should be non-serious (Haugh, 2014;Goddard, 2009;Fox, 2004; [ 1 9 _ T D $ D I F F ] Sinkeviciute, 2017c). Many analyses of naturally-occurring conversations have indeed shown that the playful side of affiliative humorous practices is their main feature, for it stresses the non-seriousness of verbal behaviour, whether from the instigator's or the target's perspective (Haugh, 2010(Haugh, , 2014Haugh and Bousfield, 2012;Dynel, 2008;Radcliffe-Brown, 1940). Non-serious reactions to jocularity have been referred to as the ''preferred reaction'' in public, i.e.…”

“…] and most English conversation 3 [ 1 9 _ T D $ D I F F ] will involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, mockery or just silliness.'' Similarly to the British, Australians are said to be perfectly capable of self-mockery (Sharp, 2012:88;Penney, 2012:35;Haugh, 2010Haugh, , 2014. Indeed, in an Australian cultural context teasing and (self-)mockery are ''a recurrent and [ 2 0 _ T D $ D I F F ] recognizable practice[s] in interactions'' (Haugh, 2014:78) and it is quite natural for even strangers to jocularly mock each other in the process of getting acquainted (Haugh, 2011;Goddard, 2006).…”