Not taking yourself too seriously in Australian English: Semantic explications, cultural scripts, corpus evidence

Goddard, Cliff

doi:10.1515/iprg.2009.002

Cited by 100 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Goddard (2009) addresses this issue by coupling NSM and cultural script analysis of the phrase not taking yourself too seriously with the analysis of online corpora and Internet searches to demonstrate that it is indeed more prevalent in Australian English than other varieties, thus supporting his hypothesis that it encodes typically Australian communicative norms and social attitudes. While we take a very different approach to Goddard's in our study, in many ways our aim is similar: in asking a large number of teenagers what they think of when they hear the term 'Australian English' we can demonstrate empirically what associations between language and culture are widely held in this particular segment of the population.…”

Section: Studies Of Attitudes To Accent and Varieties Of Australian Ementioning

confidence: 93%

Is the Cultural Cringe Alive and Kicking? Adolescent Mythscapes of Australian English in Queensland and Victoria

Willoughby

Starks

Taylor-Leech

2013

Australian Journal of Linguistics

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Although there is a growing literature on grammatical, lexical and phonological aspects of Australian English, there are comparatively few studies of attitudes towards this variety of English. What literature there is tends to be either anecdotal or based on media language or on findings from experimental, subjective reaction tests where samples of speech are matched against those produced by speakers of other varieties of English. This study aims to add to existing research through an examination of responses of Australian adolescents to the following question: 'When you think about ''Australian English'', tell me the first three things that come into your mind'. The findings fall into three broad overlapping categories: (i) comments about language features; (ii) comments about attitudes towards those features; and (iii) comments about culture. All three categories contain responses which suggest that young Australians associate Australian English with rural and informal lifestyles. Those who provide attitudinal judgments either describe the variety in neutral terms or give it evaluations typical of those reported for broad and vernacular varieties of English. Of particular interest is the frequency with which categories overlap and intersect, and the mythscapes they construct of Australian language and identity.

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Section: Studies Of Attitudes To Accent and Varieties Of Australian Ementioning

confidence: 93%

Is the Cultural Cringe Alive and Kicking? Adolescent Mythscapes of Australian English in Queensland and Victoria

Willoughby

Starks

Taylor-Leech

2013

Australian Journal of Linguistics

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“…Goddard, 2006Goddard, , 2009Sinkeviciute, 2014) and Aboriginal communities (e.g. Garde, 2008) and uses Australian samples to test interrelationships between humor and various individual difference variables (e.g.…”

Section: Workplace Humor In Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Why did the emu cross the road? Exploring employees’ perception and expectations of humor in the Australian workplace

Wijewardena¹,

Samaratunge

Härtel

et al. 2016

Australian Journal of Management

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Workplace humor is currently an emerging area of study in management research. While studies on the functions and outcomes of workplace humor in the United States abound, there is little research on humor in Australian workplaces. This limits Australian organizations from tapping the rich potential of humor to achieve positive employee and organizational outcomes. This study aims to start a research agenda on workplace humor in Australia by conducting a survey study of Australian employees' perception of the occurrence and acceptability of humor behavior in their workplaces and by analyzing humor events at work. To achieve the latter objective, first, the scattered workplace humor literature is reviewed to develop a single framework that can effectively situate and capture humor events. Findings from 433 respondents indicate that humor occurs across a variety of organizations in Australia and that employees report positive views toward workplace humor. A surprising finding was that employees reported they expect their managers to use humor with them. Implications for managers and future research directions are developed.

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“…For example, it has been claimed that Americans compliment a lot (Tottie 2002;Goddard 2012a, Goddard 2012b, talk about themselves a lot, and do not value self-deprecation (Tottie 2002). In contrast, it has been claimed that Anglo-Australians tend to downplay achievement and favour self-deprecation (Goddard 2006, Goddard 2012a, and Goddard 2012b as part of the broader qualitative or cultural value said to be placed on not taking oneself too seriously (Goddard 2009). However, while studies such as these hint at cultural variability in the conduct of talk itself, they often proceed with a view of talk which overlooks specific uses of languages in context as well as the cultural features in that very talk.…”

Section: Self-disclosure In Initial Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Haugh

Carbaugh

2015

Multilingua

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Getting acquainted with others is one of the most basic interpersonal communication events. Yet there has only been a limited number of studies that have examined variation in the interactional practices through which unacquainted persons become acquainted and establish relationships across speakers of the same language. The current study focuses on self-disclosure practices in initial interactions between first language speakers of English from Australia and the United States. It was found that while both American and Australian participants volunteered self-disclosures in the context of presentation-eliciting questions, there was a noticeable tendency for the American participants to selfdisclose without being prompted by questions from the other participant. We also found that there was a tendency for the Australians to use positive assessments in response to self-disclosures less often and with a lesser degree of intensity than the American participants. These tendencies in self-disclosure practices are argued to reflect the ways in which underlying cultural premises are used by participants. However, given that a significant degree of interspeaker and same-speaker variability was also observed, it is concluded that the study of pragmatic variation be situated on the level of interactional routines, relational dyads, and upwards that are engaged in particular social activities.

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Not taking yourself too seriously in Australian English: Semantic explications, cultural scripts, corpus evidence

Abstract: In the mainstream speech culture of Australia (as in the UK, though perhaps more so in Australia), taking yourself too seriously is culturally proscribed. This study applies the techniques of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) semantics and ethnopragmatics (Goddard

Cited by 100 publications

References 22 publications

Is the Cultural Cringe Alive and Kicking? Adolescent Mythscapes of Australian English in Queensland and Victoria

Is the Cultural Cringe Alive and Kicking? Adolescent Mythscapes of Australian English in Queensland and Victoria

Why did the emu cross the road? Exploring employees’ perception and expectations of humor in the Australian workplace

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

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