La producción de significado y la construcción de la identidad social en el uso humorístico del lenguaje

Abstract

This article examines interactional spontaneous humorous remarks (ocurrencias) in Spanish. 680 hours of natural conversational data from a group of Colombian graduate students were collected and transcribed using observational methods from an ethnographic approach. By examining conversational joking among participants, this study provides a detailed description of humorous remarks forms and functions within social interactions in informal contexts. Results show that participants use humorous remarks to both establish their own hierarchical position in the group, as well as regulate their relationships and the interaction itself. Therefore, it is argued that beyond humor, these remarks play a role as discourse markers since they guide the process of meaning and identity construction by the subjects.