The laughter as a strategic device: Exploring its pragmatic functions in conversations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58881/jlps.v4i2.123Keywords:
Laughter, pragmatic functions, spontaneous conversations, multifaceted phenomenon, reveal inferencesAbstract
This study investigates the pragmatic functions of laughter in everyday conversation and explores its interactional significance. The primary objective is to understand how laughter, beyond signaling humor, serves multiple communicative purposes across different social contexts. A corpus of forty-one spontaneous conversations was compiled, comprising 20 male-female and 21 same-gendered dyads, with participants aged between 18 and 29. Each session lasted approximately 1.5 hours, resulting in rich data for analysis. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative discourse analysis with quantitative frequency counts. Analytically, laughter was examined in terms of its placement, function, and response within interactional sequences. The findings reveal that laughter not only enriches discourse with humour but also facilitates inferencing, expresses relational closeness, mitigates face-threatening acts, prompts requests, eases conflict, and provides access to otherwise withheld information. Quantitative analysis highlighted notable gender-based patterns in initiated, responsive, and one-sided laughter. Male and female participants differed in how they used and responded to laughter, suggesting gendered communication tendencies. Overall, the study concludes that laughter plays a central role in shaping conversational dynamics and often functions as a barometer of interpersonal connection. It underscores the need to view laughter as a serious pragmatic tool embedded in the architecture of talk.
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