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Putting aspiration into words: 'Laugh particles', managing descriptive trouble and modulating action
journal contribution
posted on 2012-02-07, 13:14 authored by Jonathan Potter, Alexa HepburnThis paper focuses on the phenomenon of ‘laugh particles’ interpolated within words and
their role in interaction. It starts with an overviewof the phenomenon, suggesting that it is
less analytically presumptive to consider ‘interpolated particles of aspiration’ (IPAs). IPAs:
(a) are objects that may but often do not accompany stand alone laughter; (b) are discrete
and targetable objects; (c) are not propositional; (d) can be used with little disruption of
delivery (order and timing). A series of examples are used to illustrate two uses of IPAs.
First, they can be used to mark one or more lexical items as having some problem or
insufficiency. Second, they can be used as a resource for action formation, inserted into
words to modulate the nature or strength of the action. In both cases, the use of IPAs does
not cancel the use of the words it is interpolated into. In both cases IPAs are designed as
markers or flags of trouble. Alternative accounts for the use of IPAs (that they mark
quotation, that they mark a word as inapposite) are critically explored and limitations of
the idea that they mark the speaker’s stance on the action are outlined.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Citation
POTTER, J. and HEPBURN, A., 2010. Putting aspiration into words: 'Laugh particles', managing descriptive trouble and modulating action. Journal of Pragmatics, 42 (6), pp. 1543 - 1555.Publisher
© Elsevier B.V.Version
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publication date
2010Notes
This article is closed access, it was published in the serial, Journal of Pragmatics [© Elsevier B.V.]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.10.003ISSN
0378-2166;1879-1387Publisher version
Language
- en