El humor verbal en situaciones comunicativas de mediación informalun análisis sociopragmático en la conversación coloquial

  1. Linares Bernabéu, Esther 1
  1. 1 IULMA – Universitat de València
Journal:
Anuari de Filologia. Estudis de Lingüística

ISSN: 2014-1408

Year of publication: 2022

Issue: 12

Pages: 275-294

Type: Article

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Anuari de Filologia. Estudis de Lingüística

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the uses and functions of verbal humour in informal communicative situations of mediation from a sociopragmatic perspective (Norrick & Spitz 2008, Schnurr & Plester 2017). We start from the hypothesis that the speaker acting as mediator employs humour markers during their interaction with the parties in conflict in order to relativize the dispute, protect their image and re-establish interpersonal relationships (Jacobs 2002, Fraser 2007). In order to verify this conjecture, our research uses the Val.Es.Co. corpus (Briz et al. 2002, Pons 2022) and analyses the conversational sequences in which situations of informal mediation take place during conflict talk. The results show that humour is a pragmatic tool for mediation insofar as it minimises the illocutionary force of the message, reconceptualises issues in conflict and promotes the creation of bonds between the participants. Furthermore, the data show that the communicative success of verbal humour depends on the seriousness of the conflict, the social power relations between participants and their common knowledge.

Bibliographic References

  • ALBELDA MARCO, M. y CESTERO MANCERA, A. M. (2011), «De nuevo, sobre los procedimientos de atenuación», Español Actual, 96, 9-40.
  • ALVARADO ORTEGA, M. B. (2016), «Variability, adaptability and negotiability in conversational humor: A matter of gender», en Metapragmatics of humor: Current Research Trends, Ruiz-Gurillo, L. (ed.), Ámsterdam, John Benjamins, pp. 193-214.
  • ATTARDO, S. (2020), The Linguistics of Humor: An Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  • AURELI, F. y SMUCNY, D. A. (2000), «The role of emotion in conflict and conflict resolution», en Natural conflict resolution, Aureli, F. y de Waal, F. B. M. (eds.), Los Ángeles, University of California Press, pp. 199-244.
  • BERGER, P. L. (2018), «Conclusion: General observations on normative conflicts and mediation», en The limits of social cohesion, Peter Berger (ed.), Boulder, Westview Press, pp. 352-372.
  • BRIZ GÓMEZ, A. (2005), «Eficacia, imagen social e imagen de cortesía. Naturaleza de la estrategia atenuadora en la conversación cotidiana española», Estudios de la (des) cortesía en español, 53-91.
  • BRIZ GÓMEZ, A. y GRUPO VAL.ES.CO. (2002), Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales, Anejo de la Revista Oralia, Madrid, Arco-Libros.
  • BROWN, P. y LEVINSON, S. C. (1987), Politeness: Some universals in language usage, vol. 4, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • COATES, J. (2007), «Talk in a play frame: More on laughter and intimacy», Journal of Pragmatics, 39(1), 29-49.
  • CORA GARCIA, A. (2019), How Mediation Works, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • COULTER, J. (1990), «Elementary properties of argument sequences», en Interaction
  • competence, Psathas, G. (ed.), Lanham, International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis/University Press of America, pp. 181-203.
  • DYNEL, M. (2008), «No aggression, only teasing: The pragmatics of teasing and banter», Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 4(2), 241-261.
  • FRASER, B. (2007), «Pragmatic tactics in mediation», Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 3(1), 61-78.
  • GARCÍA-RAMÓN, A. (2019), «Epistemic incongruence, intensifying particles and information elaboration», Revista Signos, 52(101), 804.
  • GOFFMAN, E. (1976), «Replies and responses», Language in society, 5(3), 257-313.
  • GOFFMAN, E. (1967), Interactional ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior, Nueva York, Pantheon Books.
  • GRECO MORASSO, S. (2009), Argumentative and other communicative strategies of the mediation practice, tesis doctoral, Lugano, Università della Svizzera italiana.
  • GRECO MORASSO, S. (2011), Argumentation in dispute mediation: A reasonable way to handle conflict, vol. 3, Ámsterdam, John Benjamins.
  • HARRIS, S. (1995), «Pragmatics and power», Journal of Pragmatics, 23(2), 117-135.
  • HAUGH, M. (2013), «Im/politeness, social practice and the participation order», Journal of Pragmatics, 58, 52-72.
  • HAY, J. (2000), «Functions of humor in the conversations of men and women», Journal of Pragmatics, 32(6), 709-742.
  • HERITAGE, J. (2012), «Epistemics in action: Action formation and territories of knowledge», Research on language & social interaction, 45(1), 1-29.
  • HICKS, T. (2001), «Another look at identity-based conflict: The roots of Conflct: The roots of conflict in the psychology of consciousness», Negotiation Journal, 17(1), 35-45.
  • HOLMES, J. (2000), «Politeness, power and provocation: how humour functions in the workplace», Discourse Studies, 2(2), 159-185.
  • HOLMES, J. (2006), «Sharing a laugh: Pragmatic aspects of humor and gender in the workplace», Journal of pragmatics, 38(1), 26-50.
  • JACOBS, S. (2002), «Maintaining neutrality in dispute mediation: Managing disagreement while managing not to disagree», Journal of pragmatics, 34(10-11), 1403-1426.
  • KANT, I. (2001 [1790]), Kritik der Urteilskraft, Hamburgo, Meiner.
  • KOCH, P. y OESTERREICHER, W. (1985), «Sprache der Nähe – Sprache der Distanz. Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit im Spannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie und Sprachgeschichte», Romanistisches Jahrbuch, 36(1), 15-43.
  • LINARES BERNABÉU, E. (2021a), «Mitigation as a pragmatic strategy in subversive female stand-up comedy», en Gender and Identity in Humorous discourse / Género e identidad en el discurso humorístico, Linares-Bernabéu, E. (ed.), Frankfurt, Peter Lang, pp. 93-116.
  • LINARES BERNABÉU, E. (2021b), El monólogo humorístico subversivo en español: pragmática, humor verbal y construcción discursiva del género, Madrid, Vervuert.
  • MALEY, Y. (1995), «From adjudication to mediation: Third party discourse in conflict resolution», Journal of pragmatics, 23(1), 93-110.
  • MARTIN, R. (2007), The psychology of humour: An integrative approach, Burlington, MA, Elsevier.
  • NORRICK, N. R. (1993), Conversational joking: Humor in everyday talk, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
  • NORRICK, N. R. y SPITZ, A. (2008), «Humor as a resource for mitigating conflict in interaction», Journal of Pragmatics, 40(10), 1661-1686.
  • PARTINGTON, A. (2006), The linguistics of laughter: A corpus-assisted study of laughter-talk, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge.
  • PONS BORDERÍA, S. (dir.), Corpus Val.Es.Co 3.0. [en línea]. Valencia, Salvador Pons Bordería. 14/12/2021 [Consulta: 18/02/2022]. Disponible en: <http://www.valesco.es>.
  • RAN, Y. y ZHAO, L. (2018), «Building mutual affection-based face in conflict mediation: A Chinese relationship management model», Journal of Pragmatics, 129, 185-198.
  • RUIZ GURILLO, L. (2012), La lingüística del humor en español, Madrid, Arco Libros.
  • RUIZ GURILLO, L. (2019), Humor de género, Madrid, Vervuert.
  • RUIZ-GURILLO, L. (2021), «Disrupted vs. sustained humor in colloquial conversations in peninsular Spanish», Journal of Pragmatics, 178, 162-174.
  • SHAPIRA, O. (2016), A Theory of Mediators' Ethics: Foundations, Rationale, and Application, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • SHERZER, J. (1985), «Puns and jokes», en Handbook of Discourse Analysis, vol. 3, Van Dijk, T. A. (ed.), London, Academic Press Inc. Ltd, pp. 78-92.
  • SCHNURR, S. y PLESTER, B. (2017), «Functionalist discourse analysis of humor», en The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor, Attardo, S. (ed.), Routledge, Nueva York, pp. 309-321.
  • SIMMEL, G. (1904), «The sociology of conflict I», American journal of sociology, 9(4), 490-525.
  • SIMMEL, G. (1955), Conflict and the web of group-affiliations, Nueva York, Free Press.
  • SCHIFFRIN, D. (1985), «Conversational coherence: The role of well», Language, 640-667.
  • TANNEN, D. (1984), «The pragmatics of cross-cultural communication», Applied linguistics, 5(3), 189-195.
  • TANNEN, D. (2006), «Intertextuality in interaction: Reframing family arguments in public and private», Text & talk (Print), 26(4-5), 597-617.
  • VERSCHUEREN, J. (2019), «Indexical ‘mismatch’; or, adaptability at work», Pragmatics, 29(2), 302-308.
  • WALL JR, J. A., STARK, J. B. y STANDIFER, R. L. (2001), «Mediation: A current review and theory development», Journal of conflict resolution, 45(3), 370-391.
  • YUS, F. (2016), Humour and Relevance, vol. 4, Ámsterdam, John Benjamins.
  • ZELIZER, C. (2010), «Afrontar la paz o la guerra mediante la risa: el humor y la consolidación de la paz», Journal of Conflictology, 1(2), 1-9.
Data source: Dialnet