Past Event

Two interactional functions of self-mockery in everyday English conversations: A multimodal analysis 

Self-mockery, mocking, and teasing all belong to the broad category of verbal play. There is overlap between mocking and teasing, though these actions involve different interactional practices. Teasing usually involves “mocking but playful jibes against someone” (Drew, 1987: 219). However, in self-mockery, the speaker (rather than the listener or recipient) is the butt of the humor (Glenn, 1991/1992; Schnurr and Chan, 2011). Studies specifically focused on self-mockery are still very rare compared to the number of studies on the broad topic of teasing. This study uses a conversation analytic framework and multimodal interaction analysis to investigate the interactional functions of self-mockery. The results provide practical insight concerning how self-mockery is occasioned, produced, and responded to in the multimodal exchanges of everyday English conversations.

The data analyzed in this study were collected from two video recordings of face-to-face everyday conversations in multi-party interaction. By analyzing the actions of the self-mockers and the recipients, the study closely examines all levels of linguistic expressions (including verbal expressions and prosodic cues) and of coordinated embodied actions (such as gaze, gesture, and body posture). The study proposes two interactional functions of self-mockery in everyday English conversations. The first function is face-saving. This kind of self-mockery is generally expressed following displays of embarrassment, and it involves admitting one’s weaknesses or conversational transgressions in relation to the other speakers. The second function of self-mockery is to bring shared amusement to a conversation. In this case, the self-mockers put themselves in a humorous light, coordinating their verbal expressions with exaggerated off-record markers (e.g., gestures or prosodic variations). The recipients often play along with such self-mockery, which can lead to a series of mutually amusing, jocular exchanges. In one type of interactional context, self-mockery saves the speaker’s own face by helping to overcome momentary embarrassment. In another interactional context, the speaker uses self-mockery to save the face of the recipients, by exposing his or her own weaknesses in comparison with those of the recipients. In such a face-saving situation, the recipients usually disaffiliate with the speaker’s self-mockery and try to correct it. In all these situations, the return of mutual gaze during the course of self-mockery invites responses from the recipients, and gaze plays an important role for both the interactional function of face recovery and for jocular exchanges.

About the Presenter

Dr. Changrong Yu is currently doing her postdoctoral research in English Philology with the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her research interests include discourse and conversation analysis, with a special emphasis on the coordination of verbal expressions, prosodic cues, and embodied actions. Her most recent research focuses on the actions of teasing and humor, as observed in everyday North American English conversations. She holds a PhD in English Philology from the University of Oulu, Finland. Her doctoral research used a conversation analytic framework to examine emotional display in storytelling, argument, and teasing. She completed her master’s degree in English Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China (in 2000), with a specialty in studies of translation theory and practice between English and Chinese in both directions. Her areas of teaching experience include conversation and discourse studies, pragmatics, translation theory and practice, intercultural English, and English as a second language.