Laughter and language attitudes in students’ discussions about language use in Nigeria

IF 1.4 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Language & Communication Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2024.11.008

Sopuruchi Christian Aboh, Hans J. Ladegaard

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The role of laughter in evaluating language use has received little attention in language attitude research and laughter studies. In this paper, which draws on focus group discussions involving 132 Nigerian university students, we analyse how students use laughter to perform social actions in evaluating language use in Nigeria. The analysis shows that participants use laughter to deride the outgroup, reinforce ingroup coherence, mark their own or others' linguistic inferiority, and mitigate self-face-threatening linguistic behaviour. We argue that a comprehensive theory of laughter should include the functions of laughter: especially how people use it to ‘do things’ in discourse. The implications of the findings vis-à-vis language attitude research are discussed.

查看原文本刊更多论文

尼日利亚学生讨论语言使用时的笑声与语言态度

在语言态度研究和笑声研究中，笑在评价语言使用中的作用很少受到重视。在这篇论文中，我们利用了涉及132名尼日利亚大学生的焦点小组讨论，分析了学生在评估尼日利亚语言使用时如何使用笑声来执行社会行动。分析表明，参与者用笑来嘲笑外群体，加强内群体的一致性，标记自己或他人的语言自卑，并减轻自我威胁的语言行为。我们认为，一个全面的笑理论应该包括笑的功能：特别是人们如何在话语中使用它来“做事”。研究结果对-à-vis语言态度研究的意义进行了讨论。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Language & Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.