Part of
Structures in Discourse: Interaction, adaptability, and pragmatic functionsEdited by Martin Gill, Aino Malmivirta and Brita Wårvik
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 345] 2024
► pp. 83–102
Edited by Martin Gill, Aino Malmivirta and Brita Wårvik
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 345] 2024
► pp. 83–102
The uses of laughter in epideictic radio interviews
A number of researchers have dealt with laughter as a
strategic device in broadcast interviews and press conferences. I consider
how laughter works in a genre in which part of the purpose is to praise the
interviewee – what I call epideictic interviews. These interviews have
interactional problems around presenting and accepting praise. Laughter can
be placed so that it acknowledges and mitigates these problems. Typically,
interviewee laughter comes in response to interviewer praise, or in the
performance of humorous material. Interviewer laughter often marks for the
audience that material is to be taken as non-serious. Analysis of laughter
tells us both about the peculiarities of interaction in this broadcast
genre, and about the difficulties in performing and listening to praise.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Approaches to laughter in broadcasting
- 3.Data and methods
- 4.The rhetoric of praise
- 5.Responding to praise
- 6.Interviewer laughter – signalling non-seriousness and seriousness
- 7.Moving out of laughter
- 8.Working together
- 9.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements -
Data excerpts -
References
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