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Metapragmatics of Humor: Current research trends
Edited by Leonor Ruiz-Gurillo
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 14] 2016
► pp. 215–233

Teasing in casual conversations

An opportunistic discursive strategy

| Aix-Marseille Université, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix en Provence, France

In order to study teasing in casual conversations, I will focus the present work on a specific humorous device that frequently occurs in casual conversations: “linguistic pinning” (Traverso, 1999) described as a verbatim repetition of a word or expression said by the hearer to create humor. Teasing, as many other forms of conversational humor in a broad sense, is thus seen as a rebound on, at least, the prior turn. Consequently, the humorous speaker will be depicted as both a participant able to adapt her/himself to the context (discursive and more generally, relational) and an opportunist, watching out for the possibility of producing humor.

After a description of the forms and function of linguistic pinning and after a comparison to other related phenomena (repetition and punning), I will analyze seven examples of pinning to show its discursive functioning and some reactions it triggers.

Keywords: Teasing, casual conversation, “linguistic pinning”, conversational humor
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Teasing and teasing in casual conversations
  • 3.Linguistic pinning as a specific teasing device
    • 3.1Formal and functional characteristics of linguistic pinning
    • 3.2Pinning and repetitions
    • 3.3Pinning and punning
  • 4.The data
  • 5.Analysis of the data
    • 5.1Pinning revealing a linguistic inappropriateness (real or considered as such)
    • 5.2Pinning revealing a second meaning
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 24 November 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.14.11pri
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Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Priego-Valverde, Béatrice
2021. Failed humor in conversation: disalignment and (dis)affiliation as a type of interactional failure. HUMOR 34:4 ► pp. 613 ff. DOI logo
Sheikhan, Amir & Michael Haugh
2023. Epistemics and conversational humour in intercultural first conversations. In The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 335], ► pp. 110 ff. DOI logo
Sinkeviciute, Valeria
2022. Teasing. In Handbook of Pragmatics [Handbook of Pragmatics, ], ► pp. 156 ff. DOI logo

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