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Bonding through Context: Language and interactional alignment in Japanese situated discourse
Edited by Risako Ide and Kaori Hata
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 314] 2020
► pp. 173–196

Chapter 8
Micro-bonding moments

Laughter in the joint construction of mutual affiliation in initial-encounter interactions by first and second language speakers of Japanese

| University of Tsukuba

In the present study, I examine the interaction of one pair of participants (a first and second language speaker of Japanese), which is part of a larger corpus of dyadic initial interactional data gathered by video recording pairs of participants asked to participate in a topical discussion task. Bringing to bear on these data a microethnographic methodology, I show some of the functions of laughter deployed by the participants. In particular, the findings of the analyses indicate that, in my data, laughter was used both to indicate the frame or tenor of the interaction, to display an orientation to and interactionally co-constitute a moral order, and to negotiate and coordinate joint participation in a next course of action.

Keywords: getting acquainted, joint laughter, co-determination of action, impropriety, conversation analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data, participants, methodology
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Co-determination of a course of action
    • 3.2Being naughty
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.314.08bus
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