{"title":"Laughter and language attitudes in students’ discussions about language use in Nigeria","authors":"Sopuruchi Christian Aboh, Hans J. Ladegaard","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2024.11.008","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"100 ","pages":"Pages 46-59"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language & Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530924000879","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
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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.
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.
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