A multi-layered analysis Laughter (original) (raw)
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Multi-layered analysis of laughter
This paper presents a multi-layered classification of laughter in French and Chinese dialogues (from the DUEL corpus). Analysis related to the form, the semantic meaning and the function of laughter and its context provides a detailed study of the range of uses of laughter and their distributions. A similar distribution was observed in most of the data collected for French and Chinese. We ground our classification in a formal semantic and pragmatic analysis. We propose that most functions of laughter can be analyzed by positing two main meanings, which when aligned with rich contextual reasoning, yields a wide range of functions. However, we also argue that a proper treatment of laughter involves a significant conceptual modification of information state account of dialogue to incorporate emotive aspects of interaction.
2020
That laughter invites laughter is a basic tenet of Conversation Analysis analyses of laughter, whereas emotion psychology analyses describe various emotive and social effects laughter exhibits relative to various phonetic parameters. We provide data concerning laughter responses to laughter which we argue show neither approach can explicate and more generally suggest they cannot offer a general account of laughter and related non-verbal social signals. We sketch how distinct kinds of laughter responses to laughter-along with a host of other kinds of responses-can be systematically analyzed within a dialogical semantics, which integrates illocutionary and emotive effects.
Laughter in French Spontaneous Conversational Dialogs
2016
This paper presents a quantitative description of laughter in height 1-hour French spontaneous conversations. The paper includes the raw figures for laughter as well as more details concerning inter-individual variability. It firstly describes to what extent the amount of laughter and their durations varies from speaker to speaker in all dialogs. In a second suite of analyses, this paper compares our corpus with previous analyzed corpora. In a final set of experiments, it presents some facts about overlapping laughs. This paper have quantified these all effects in free-style conversations, for the first time.
Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 2020
Understanding the import of laughter, has interested philosophers and literary scholars for millennia and, more recently, psychologists, biologists, neuroscientists, and linguists. However, the assumption has been that laughter lacks meaning akin to what words and phrases possess and that it does not contribute to the compositional construction of meaning. In this paper, we argue that, in fact, laughter (and other non-verbal social signals like smiling, sighing, frowning) has propositional content—it involves reference to external real world events, has stand alone meanings, and participates in semantic and pragmatic processes like repair, implicature, and irony. We show how to develop a formal semantic and pragmatic account of laughter embedded in a general theory of conversational interaction and emotional reasoning and show how to explain the wide, indeed in principle unbounded range of uses laughter exhibits. We show how our account can be extended to other non-verbal social sig...
Current Psychology
Although research on laughter is becoming increasingly common, there is no consensus on the description of its variations. Investigating all verbal attributes that relate to the term laughter may lead to a broad set of descriptors deemed important by the speakers of a language. Through a linguistic corpus analysis using the German language, formal attributes of laughter were identified (original pool: 1148 single-word descriptors and 172 multi-word descriptors). A category system was derived in an iterative process, leading to six higher order classes describing formal characteristics of laughter: Basic parameters, intensity, visible aspects, sound, uniqueness, and regulation. Furthermore, 15 raters judged the words for several criteria (appropriateness, positive and negative valence, active and passive use). From these ratings and the prior assignment, a list of attributes suitable for the characterization of laughter in its formal characteristics was derived. By comparing the proposed classification of formal characteristics of laughter with the scientific literature, potential gaps in the current research agenda are pointed out in the final section.
Integrating laughter into spoken dialogue systems: preliminary analysis and suggested programme
FAIM/ISCA Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Multimodal Human Robot Interaction
This paper presents an exploratory scheme, which aims at investigating perceptual features that characterise laughables (the arguments laughter is related to) in dialogue context. We present the results of a preliminary study and sketch an updated questionnaire on laughables types and laughter functions aimed to be used for Amazon Mechanical Turk experiments. Furthermore we present preliminary programme for integrating laughter into spoken dialogue systems.
Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 2023
This paper builds on a novel methodology of lexical semantics exemplified on lexical field theory by using several translations of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The present study, a large-scale collaboration, presents and compares the results for laugh, smile, grin, giggle, and other words for laughter behaviors across 14 languages and in extensive detail. The key results answer the question of what semantic dimensions the vocabularies of the various languages distinguish as marked by lexical contrasts and can inform future research in humor as well as translation studies. Based on our findings, a key marking emerges for audible (e.g., laugh) versus non-audible (e.g., smile) behaviors, as Indo-European vocabularies treat smiling as a less marked variant of laughing, e.g., German lächeln, Italian sorridere, Polish uśmiech, Turkish gülüm, but further orthogonal dimensions are documented as well, for example, aggressive, concealed, loud, or suppressed behavior. An updated hierarchy of these semantic features is proposed, and the results are presented in graphic visualizations, which also help illustrate idiosyncrasies of individual languages that go against the general trends. Exceptions to these general trends include lemmata that can cover both audible and inaudible behavior
THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OF LAUGHTER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN ENGLISH, INDONESIAN AND SUNDANESE
The present thesis investigates the multifaceted nature of laughter and its pragmatic function in English, Indonesian, and Sundanese data. Drawing upon the taxonomy of laughter function by Mazzocconi et al. (2020), the primary objective is to assess the extent to which their classification framework can effectively predict the distribution of laughter functions in Indonesian and Sundanese, given their distinctive linguistic and cultural characteristics that set them apart from Western cultures. An extensive analysis of three distinct corpora reveals noteworthy similarities in the distribution of laughter functions. However, as anticipated, some differences arise regarding the organization of laughter within conversational contexts. Specifically, the British National Corpus (BNC) reveals a general pattern wherein laughter accompanied by self-mockery tends to be followed by an agreement by the interlocutor. Conversely, in the Indonesian and Sundanese corpora, a distinct trend is observed, where laughter accompanied by self-mockery is often accompanied by expressions of disagreement by the interlocutor. This contrast underscores the culture-specific nature of laughter organization and highlights the profound influence of cultural factors on the communicative dynamics surrounding laughter.
HUMOR
This paper builds on a novel methodology of lexical semantics exemplified on lexical field theory by using several translations of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The present study, a large-scale collaboration, presents and compares the results for laugh, smile, grin, giggle, and other words for laughter behaviors across 14 languages and in extensive detail. The key results answer the question of what semantic dimensions the vocabularies of the various languages distinguish as marked by lexical contrasts and can inform future research in humor as well as translation studies. Based on our findings, a key marking emerges for audible (e.g., laugh) versus non-audible (e.g., smile) behaviors, as Indo-European vocabularies treat smiling as a less marked variant of laughing, e.g., German lächeln, Italian sorridere, Polish uśmiech, Turkish gülüm, but further orthogonal dimensions are documented as well, for example, aggressive, concealed, loud, or suppressed behavior. An update...
Identifying action: Laughter in non-humorous reported speech
Journal of Pragmatics, 2012
This paper examines the construction of a single action in interaction by means of one of its characteristic features: laughter. It examines laughter in a particular sequential context: direct reported speech which is itself not humorous. It emerges that the laughter plays a pivotal role in the construction of this particular action; furthermore, there is striking evidence pointing to the fine calibration of the production of laughter. There are clear methodological implications for Pragmatics in this consideration of a non-linguistic but pervasive feature of interaction.