DOCSLIB.ORG

Laughter in Interaction: Semantics, Pragmatics, and Child Development

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Laughter in Interaction: Semantics, Pragmatics, and Child Development Laughter in interaction : semantics, pragmatics, and child development Chiara Mazzocconi To cite this version: Chiara Mazzocconi. Laughter in interaction : semantics, pragmatics, and child development. Linguis- tics. Université de Paris, 2019. English. NNT : 2019UNIP7139. tel-03125606 HAL Id: tel-03125606 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03125606 Submitted on 29 Jan 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Thèse de doctorat Université de Paris Préparée à l’ Université Paris Diderot Ecole doctorale 132 - Sciences du langage Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle UMR 7110 Laughter in interaction: semantics, pragmatics, and child development Par: Dirigée par: Chiara Mazzocconi Prof. Jonathan Ginzburg Thèse de doctorat de Linguistique Présentée et soutenue publiquement à Paris le 27 Septembre 2019 Rapporteurs : Scott, Sophie K. / PR / University College London Holler, Judith / PR / Max Planck Institute Examinateurs : Gervain, Judit / DR / CNRS Université de Paris Pelachaud, Catherine / DR / CNRS Sorbonne Université Morgenstern, Aliyah / PR / Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Priego-Valverde, Béatrice / MCF / Aix-Marseille Université Directeur de thèse : Ginzburg, Jonathan / PR / Université de Paris ii “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka! I found it!” but “That’s funny . ”” Isaac Asimov iii UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS Abstract Science du Langage Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle - UMR 7110 Doctor of Philosophy Laughter in interaction: semantics, pragmatics, and child development by Chiara Mazzocconi Laughter is a social vocalization universal across cultures and languages. It is ubiq- uitous in our dialogues and able to serve a wide range of functions. Laughter has been studied from several perspectives, but the classifications proposed are hard to integrate. Despite being crucial in our daily interaction, relatively little attention has been devoted to the study of laughter in conversation, attempting to model its sophis- ticated pragmatic use, neuro-correlates in perception and development in children. In the current thesis a new comprehensive framework for laughter analysis is proposed, crucially grounded in the assumption that laughter has propositional content, argu- ing for the need to distinguish different layers of analysis, similarly to the study of speech: form, positioning, semantics and pragmatics. A formal representation of laughter meaning is proposed and a multilingual corpus study (French, Chinese and English) is conducted in order to test the proposed framework and to deepen our understanding of laughter use in adult conversation. Preliminary investigations are conducted on the viability of a laughter form-function mapping based on acoustic features and on the neuro-correlates involved in the perception of laughter serving different functions in natural dialogue. Our results give rise to novel generalizations about the placement, alignment, semantics and function of laughter, stressing the high pragmatic skills involved in its production and perception. The development of the semantic and pragmatic use of laughter is observed in a longitudinal corpus study of 4 American-English child-mother pairs from 12 to 36 months of age. Results show that laughter use undergoes important development at each level analysed, which complies with what could be hypothesised on the base of phylogenetic data, and that laughter can be an effective means to track cognitive/communicative devel- opment, and potential difficulties or delays at a very early stage. Key words: Laughter taxonomy, dialogue semantics, pragmatics, laughter func- tions, fNIRS, laughter development, laughter evolution, mother-child interaction, communicative development. v Résumé Le rire en interaction: sémantique, pragmatique et développement de l’enfant. par Chiara Mazzocconi Le rire est une vocalisation universelle à travers les cultures et les langues. Il est omniprésent dans nos dialogues et utilisé pour un large éventail de fonctions. Le rire a été étudié sous plusieurs angles, mais les classifications proposées sont difficiles à intégrer dans un même système. Malgré le fait qu’il soit crucial dans nos interactions quotidiennes, le rire en conversation a reçu peu d’attention et les études sur la pragmatique du rire en interaction, ses corrélats neuronaux perceptuels et son développement chez l’enfant sont rares. Dans cette thèse, est proposé un nouveau cadre pour l’analyse du rire, fondé sur l’hypothèse cruciale que le rire a un contenu propositionnel, plaidant pour la nécessité de distinguer différentes couches d’analyse, tout comme dans l’étude de la parole: forme, positionnement, sémantique et pragmatique. Une représentation formelle de la signification du rire est proposée et une étude de corpus multilingue (français, chinois et anglais) est menée afin d’approfondir notre compréhension de l’utilisation du rire dans les conversations entre adultes. Des études préliminaires sont menées sur la viabilité d’un mappage forme-fonction du rire basée sur ses caractéristiques acoustiques, ainsi que sur les corrélats neuronaux impliqués dans la perception du rire qui servent différentes fonc- tions dans un dialogue naturel. Nos résultats donnent lieu à de nouvelles généralisa- tions sur le placement, l’alignement, la sémantique et les fonctions du rire, soulignant le haute niveau des compétences pragmatiques impliquées dans sa production et sa perception. Le développement de l’utilisation sémantique et pragmatique du rire est observé dans une étude de corpus longitudinale de 4 dyades mère-enfant de l’age de 12 à 36 mois, locuteurs d’anglais américain. Les résultats montrent que l’utilisation du rire subit un développement important à chaque niveau analysé et que le rire peut être un indicateur précoce du développement cognitif, communicatif et social. Mots clefs: Taxonomie du rire, sémantique du dialogue, pragmatique, fonctions du rire, fNIRS, développement du rire, évolution du rire, interaction mère-enfant, développement de la communication. vii Acknowledgements I am so grateful to so many people for these four years that this is for me the most intense section of my thesis. I was so lucky in every encounter I made, and I got so much help and inspiration from people around me! I firstly owe heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Jonathan Ginzburg, for taking me as his student, for being an example of creativity and curiosity both in the academic world and outside, for all the fun chats, for all the laughs produced and discussed, for allowing me to follow (as far as possible!) my passions and my inclinations, supporting me even when I really didn’t expect it, as well as for bearing with my character and tolerating my unstoppable desire to go to all of the talks and trainings possible. But especially for all the fun anecdotes I’ll bring with me (about which I’m not sure he’s totally aware!)! Special thanks are then for all the components of the jury: to Judith Holler and Sophie Scott for taking the time to read and correct my thesis (during summer!) and to Judit Gervain, Catherine Pelachaud, Aliyah Morgenstern and Beatrice Priego- Valverde for having accepted to come discuss my work with me. Especially thanks to Judit Gervain for having helped me so much in a moment when I felt really stuck and for being an example of talent, passion and efficiency. I owe also deep thanks to Sophie Scott for having welcomed me in her lab, offering me her time and allowing me, despite the total lack of experience, to conduct my first brain imaging experi- ment. I will bring forever with me memories of the long hours spent with Gulun Jin, an amazing work mate and friend, preparing stimuli and trying to figure out stuff! I am also very thankful to Paola Pinti for her precious help and time spent trying to fill my lacunae! I am very grateful to all the Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle for having been a very stimulating working environment and to the Labex EFL for offering me the possibility to take part in conferences and summer schools which turned out to be really valuable experiences for my personal and professional growth. I am especially thankful to Marina Davila Ross for allowing me to take part in a life changing ex- perience with the Danau Girang Field Centre in one of the most magical place I’ve ever been, teaching me to observe with patience and method animal behaviour and putting all my research in perspective; and thanks to Danica Stark for accompany- ing me in this exciting and moving experience, through trees, rivers, primates and crocodiles of the Borneo tropical rainforest. Thanks also to all the organisers and participants of the 16th International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter for being such a warm, light-hearted, fun and welcoming community and to all the friends with whom I shared ESSLLI 2018 for being a special team to spice up long days of learning! viii A special place in my heart is taken for sure by Ye Tian, without which this all PhD adventure would have never started! For encouraging me since my master in going on and not being scared of the unknown, for being an example of sparkly creativity and intelligence at the service of an enthusiastic search for knowledge. A big grateful hug is then for Vlad, for our uncountable Skype calls, for being one of the few person I could talk with about a single laughter for hours! For being an amazing conference and party mate! For showing me around Saint Petersburg and for being always serene and encouraging. The one that, knowing it or not, was a special rock in the last two years of this adventure.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Issue 4 October 1, 2019
    WELCOME! Issue 4 October 1, 2019 Welcome to Fleas on the Dog! We’re a no frills brown bag BYOW(eed) online lit rag. (We like to think we’re underground with our heads sticking out.). We don’t care about pretty pictures or fancy layouts. We’re interested in one thing and one thing only: GOOD WRITING. Our sole mandate is quality which means if your mother likes your writing we probably won’t. With this issue we are introducing 2 new categories. The first is Poetry. We were deluged with it even though we only call for short fiction and nonfiction. Apart from the obscene sonnets we carved into washroom walls, we don’t know a heck of a lot about it. (The Wasteland is an album by U2, right?) So we coerced, no, invited, bardo-bard Hezekiah Scretch to abase himself as our Poetry Editor. The fact that he despises verse of any kind is only important if you’re a nitpicker. And so the dude quintet has become the dude sextet. The other new category is Plays (Drama). Since all six of us agreed that Shakespeare’s Death of a Salesman is our all-time favourite comedy, we knew we were on the right track. Besides, what Streetcar wouldn’t Desire such a category? So if your name’s Sam Shepard or David Mamet (and even if it isn’t) you’re welcome to submit your play, previously performed or perennially rejected. We’re proud to announce two writers are making their publishing debut in Issue 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Wildflower Girl
    Wildflower Girl By Dana Stewart Quinney Hidden Shelf Publishing House P.O. Box 4168, McCall, ID 83638 www.hiddenshelfpublishinghouse.com Copyright © 2019, Dana Stewart Quinney Hidden Shelf Publishing House All rights reserved Cover photo: Dana Quinney as a child Graphic design: Allison Kaukola (back cover), Kristen Carrico (front cover) Interior layout: Kerstin Stokes Editor: Carol Anne Wagner Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Quinney, Dana Stewart Wildflower Girl ISBN: 978-1-7338193-0-5 Printed in the United States of America WILDFLOWER GIRL “When Dana was three years old, she mastered a somersault, a monumental time in her young life. She wanted to remember that somersault forever, and her Mom taught her a way. She applied the same method toward remembering all the important events in her life. They are assembled together in this captivating compi- lation of short stories. Travel with Danny through these magical times as she witnesses a murder (or did she?) from her secret watching place, finds the stars with her adventuresome father, and almost loses her life in her grandpa’s waders. And, always the botanist and biologist, twenty years after Danny’s grandpa told her that “all of the animals isn’t all found out” she discovers a new species of Fairy Shrimp. I became lost in these fascinating stories.” – Carol Howell, Jade Mist Shetland Sheepdogs “This lovely book of short stories is like a portal, taking the reader back to a simpler, more innocent time in a magical place. It is a place that was real, but unavailable to anyone in today’s world, unless you allow this book to take you there.
    [Show full text]
  • An Intimate Look Back at 1968
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research New York City College of Technology 2019 Nothing Is Revealed: An Intimate Look Back at 1968 Aaron Barlow CUNY New York City College of Technology How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/462 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Nothing Is Revealed An Intimate Look Back at 1968 Aaron Barlow Cover Photo by Atlas Green (CC0) Published by: Brooklyn, NY 2019 ISBN-13: 9781697690675 PUBLISHED UNDER AN ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE ii For all of those who didn’t make it far enough to be able to look back ii Introduction This project isn’t simply one of memoir. It’s a cultural study from a personal base, one created, also, through a unique temporal framework, a moving narrative composed of blog posts each focused on the exact day fifty years earlier. Its sub- jectivity is deliberate, for the intent is to provide an impression of a significant year through the eyes of a young man in the process of coming of age. It’s also a political tale sparked by the rise of Donald Trump to the Presiden- cy of the United States, one detailing the seeds of that rise and the false populism and white nationalism that are still buoying him in 2019. Sexual violence. Racial violence. Political violence.
    [Show full text]
  • Asfacts Apr12.Pub
    ASFACTS 2012 APRIL “L ET IT RAIN ” S PRING ISSUE Fiction, Third Edition edited by John Clute, David Lang- ford, Peter Nicholls & Graham Sleight, Jar Jar Binks Must Die… and Other Observations about Science Fic- tion Movies by Daniel M. Kimmel, Wicked Girls by Se- anan McGuire, WRITING EXCUSES , S EASON 6 BY BRAN- DON SANDERSON , Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette Kowal, & Jordan Sanderson, and The Steam- UTHORS UBONICON RIENDS punk Bible by Jeff VanderMeer & S.J. Chambers. NM A & B F GRAPHIC STORY: The Unwritten, Vol. 2: Leviathan AMONG 2012 H UGO NOMINEES by Mike Carey, Locke & Key, Vol. 4: Keys To The King- dom by Joe Hill, Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplica- Nominees for the Hugo Awards and for the John tion by Howard Tayler, DIGGER BY URSULA VERNON , W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were an- and Fables, Vol. 15: Rose Red by Bill Willingham & nounced the first weekend of April at Eastercon by Chi- Mark Buckingham. con 7. Among the nominees are three NM authors for DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG: Captain best novel (and George RR Martin’s HBO series of America: The First Avenger, GAME OF THRONES : S EASON Game of Thrones for dramatic presentation). Of other 1, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Hugo interest are nominations for 2011 visitors to Albuquer- and Source Code . DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – que – Catherynne M. Valente, Paul Cornell and John SHORT: Community : “Remedial Chaos Theory,” “The Picacio – and Bubonicon 44 guests Brandon Sanderson Drink Tank’s Hugo Acceptance Speech,” Doctor Who : and Ursula Vernon. The 70th World Science Fiction “The Doctor’s Wife,” Doctor Who : “The Girl Who Convention will be held in Chicago, Ill, August 30- Waited,” and Doctor Who : “A Good Man Goes to War.” September 3, 2012.
    [Show full text]
  • Omni Magazine, Post Otfice Box 3041 , Harlan, IA 51537-3041
    FORGOTTEN SPACE HERO FOUND mmAPRIL1995 mf£^ Si iif'W VJ $3.95 "71486 02484 2 onnrui EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT & C.O.O.: KATHY KEETON VP/EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL EXECUTIVE VP/GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEV1N0 MANAGING EDITOR: CAROLINE DARK ART DIRECTOR: CATHRYN MEZZO 4 34 First Word The New Outer By Daniel Pinkwater Limits 6 By David Bischoff Communications Control over 8 your TV's transmission Mind is about to be By Steve Nadis hijacked. Get set for a new Beyond wave of SF thrillers. central control 45 Omni's Project Sounds Open Book By Ed Juge Implants, forensics, 12 and Part Two Artificial Intelligence of Omni's guide to By J. Blake Lambert investigating UFOs. Managing (k \ the information Max Faget: overflow Master Builder 14 By James Oberg Wheels A rare look at the former By Jeffrey Hsu NASA wiz whose Highway surveillance genius propelled humans 16 into space. Electronic Universe By Gregg Keizer Fiction: 18 Resolve and Resistance Wings ByS. N. Dyer By Peggy Noonan 75 20 Interview: Learning Hazel O'Leary By Mary Ann Tawasha By Linda Turbyviile 21 Powerful talk Style from the Secretary By Fred Hapgood of Energy Underground architecture 96 24 When the inner mind is pushed to its Games Museums outer limits, the resulting harvest can cause both awe and By Scot Morris By Paul Kvinta horror. A peek into the minds behind 103 27 television's strangest new series. Cover art by Tsuneo Sanda. Last Word Continuum (Additional art and photo credits, page 90.) By Daniel Pinkwater OMNI (ISSN 0149-8711) is published monthly in the United States and Canada by Omni Public=:iors mte -national Ltd., 277 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10172.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Sf Short Fiction: 50 Titles
    DEPARTAMENT DE FILOLOGIA READING ANGLESA I DE GERMANÍSTICA SF SHORT FICTION: UNIVERSITAT 50 TITLES AUTONÒMA DE BARCELONA Sara Martín Alegre (ed.) 2016 READING SF SHORT FICTION: 50 TITLES Sara Martín Alegre (ed.) Contents Sara Martín Alegre, “SF Short Fiction: Another Kind of Anthology” ................................ 1 Brian Aldiss, “Super-Toys Last All Summer” (1969).......................................................... 5 Isaac Asimov, “Nightfall” (1941) ....................................................................................... 7 J.G. Ballard, “The Voices of Time” (1960) ......................................................................... 9 Iain M. Banks, “A Gift from the Culture” (1987) ............................................................ 11 Harry Bates, “Farewell to the Master” (1940)................................................................ 13 Elizabeth Bear, “Tideline” (2007) ................................................................................... 15 Bruce Bethke, “Cyberpunk” (1983) ................................................................................ 17 Terry Bisson, “Bears Discover Fire” (1990) ..................................................................... 19 Leigh Brackett, “No Man’s Land in Space” (1941) .......................................................... 21 Ray Bradbury, “A Sound of Thunder” (1952) ................................................................. 23 Pat Cadigan, “Is There Life After Rehab?” (2005) .........................................................
    [Show full text]
  • HTRC ACS Final Report Summary: We Collected a Set of More Than
    HTRC ACS Final Report Summary: We collected a set of more than 3,000 distinct volume-length works of speculative fiction based on title/author queries. This process was largely automated, but required considerable manual oversight. A large number of small and specific issues were not amenable to automation, and we do not expect this situation to improve in the near future. The resulting collection was sufficient to support unsupervised machine learning methods, offering a new approach to a collection that has been difficult to study at scale due to copyright. While we were able to bring automated tools to bear on late 20th century material, we did find that our ability to cover works declined as dates of publication approach the present. We also identified a large number of highly influential works that are not available in HathiTrust. With these caveats, we believe that HathiTrust can be a powerful tool for studying in-copyright genre fiction. Introduction The HathiTrust Digital Library presents an unprecedented opportunity to build and access collections of contemporary literature. But not every published work is currently in the collection. This problem could be even more troubling if works are not "missing at random": are certain genres or subject areas less likely to appear in the collection? The goal of this project is to determine what is and is not in HathiTrust from the perspective of a specific genre, speculative fiction. In this project we addressed two main issues. First, does our target genre exist in HathiTrust? The academic libraries that make up the HathiTrust source libraries collect speculative fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • Douglas Stuart How Good Luck—And Great Talent—Produced His Extraordinary Debut, Shuggie Bain P
    Featuring 404 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 3 | 1 FEBRUARY 2020 REVIEWS Douglas Stuart How good luck—and great talent—produced his extraordinary debut, Shuggie Bain p. 14 Also in the issue: Emily Nemens, Sam Wasson, Tonya Bolden, Fred Aceves from the editor’s desk: Chairman Literary valentines HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher MARC WINKELMAN BY TOM BEER # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] J ohn Paraskevas Sorry, but is there any holiday worse than Valentine’s Day? The saccharine cards, Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER the ridiculous bouquets, the overabundance of candy? (OK, maybe the candy isn’t [email protected] so bad.) If you’re coupled, there’s all that pressure to manufacture a romantic eve- Vice President of Marketing ning. If you’re single, well…you probably don’t feel like leaving the house. SARAH KALINA [email protected] But as I’ve watched the streaming series Modern Love in recent weeks—it’s Managing/Nonfiction Editor based on the long-running series of essays about relationships in the New York ERIC LIEBETRAU [email protected] Times, also collected in book form—I was reminded that love stories, when well Fiction Editor told, offer unique windows on to human behavior and psychology. Of course, LAURIE MUCHNICK there’s the whole genre of romance fiction, and Kirkus romance correspondent [email protected] Jennifer Prokop has already made a host of 2020 recommendations on our website. Children’s Editor VICKY SMITH As for me, here are some of my favorite literary novels, all published in recent years, [email protected] that depict love in all its complicated glory: Young Adult Editor Tom Beer LAURA SIMEON Normal People by Sally Rooney (2019): Rooney’s second novel is the story of Mari- [email protected] Editor at Large anne and Connell, two young people whom she follows from their adolescence in MEGAN LABRISE provincial western Ireland to university in Dublin.
    [Show full text]