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Laughter in Interaction: Semantics, Pragmatics, and Child Development

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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.
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