Eric HAUSER (ハウザー エリック)

Abstract

Work on conversational humor often focuses on the use of laughter, smiling, and other contextualization cues used to frame an utterance or turn as nonserious. However, a possibly nonserious turn can also be delivered in a deadpan manner, with few or no such contextualization cues. Deadpan delivery of a possibly nonserious turn results in ambiguous framing of the turn for its recipients. In this paper, we use multimodal conversation analysis to analyze a single case from multiparty Japanese conversation in which a possibly nonserious turn is delivered in a deadpan manner and its recipients attempt, through the use of other-initiated repair, to resolve the ambiguity. We show how the producer of the possibly nonserious turn manipulates the repair work in order to generate humor. We also show how the possibly nonserious turn, and responses to it, can be seen as a type of collaborative conversational humor in Japanese, which can be referred to as manzai-like humor. This paper thus contributes to two relatively under-researched areas of conversational humor: 1) deadpan delivery of a possibly nonserious turn, including the ambiguous framing inherent in such delivery and how recipients attempt to repair this ambiguity, and 2) collaborative manzai-like humor in Japanese conversation.

Abstract

Drawing on video-recorded data from an educational institution called Tokyo Global Gateway, we investigate how visiting students use English for sequence-initiating actions addressed either to a teacher (called an agent) or other students. As the students usually use Japanese to address another student, we analyze how they accomplish targeting the agent when they use English to address another student. By doing this, the students position the agent as a legitimate overhearer. We also investigate the resources students use to construct sequence-initiating actions and how they recycle resources from the substrate (i.e., local environment of talk, embodied conduct, and other semiotic resources). Students’ sophisticated use of resources, including those recycled from the substrate, demonstrates that their often simple language belies a high degree of displayed interactional competence. This study contributes to research on participation and language choice in educational institutions and the use of recycled resources in the construction of actions-in-interaction.

Two locations in a Self-Access Learning Center where service transactions regularly occur are described. The locations are a coffee shop and a service counter. The use of English is stipulated in both locations, but the default language for service transactions in the coffee shop is Japanese, while at the service counter, it is English. The descriptions of the two locations focus on spatiality, the linguistic landscape, and aspects of the people who work there. Transcripts of video-recorded service transactions are shown to illustrate default language choice and to show how, even in the coffee shop, the use of English is still an option. Possible reasons for the differences in the default language are discussed, followed by a discussion of implications for this Self-Access Learning Center and, more generally, for the design and construction of physical spaces for the use of English.サービス取引が定期的に行われるSelf-Access Learning Center内の 2 つの場所について叙述します。場所は喫茶店とサービスカウンターです。どちらの場所でも英語の使用が規定されていますが、喫茶店ではサービス取引のデフォルト言語は日本語ですが、サービスカウンターでは英語です。2 つの場所の叙述は、空間性、言語的景観、そしてそこで働く人の側面に焦点を当てています。ビデオ録画されたサービス取引のトランスクリプトは、デフォルトの言語選択を示し、コーヒー ショップであっても英語の使用が依然として選択肢であることを示しています。デフォルト言語の違いについて考えられる理由が議論され、その後、このSelf-Access Learning Center、そしてより一般的には英語を使用するための物理的空間の設計と作り方への影響について議論されます。

Gaze has been shown to be an important resource in both mundane and institutional interaction for next speaker selection and for displaying availability and willingness to be selected. In institutional interactions, participants' actions can be predictable due to factors such as how actions are projected, how participants are categorized, and the structure of the activity. This predictability enables participants to anticipate what will happen next, which can be seen through their actions before this anticipated next action actually occurs. Focusing on teacher-student interaction in two distinct EFL educational settings, this paper examines how students employ gaze shifts to anticipate and predict teacher's selection of the next speaker. The analysis displays how, in institutional interaction, the current state of the activity can make a next action, such as turn allocation, more or less predictable, allowing for participants to anticipate the next action and to act accordingly. The ability to anticipate the teacher’s next action in a local context in which this action is predictable is part of students’ classroom interactional competence. In addition, the data show that students' gaze shifts toward the teacher signal willingness to participate, while shifts away indicate resistance. The study highlights how participants navigate learning activities by anticipating and shaping actions, with gaze serving as a crucial interactional resource.