Disrupted vs. sustained humor in colloquial conversations in peninsular Spanish

Abstract

This paper shows the results of an analysis of humor in conversations in Peninsular Spanish, balanced between the short disruption of the progress of conversation and the sustained humor along a sequence. 67 conversations of a total duration of approximately 945 min were compiled, and from these conversations 148 humorous sequences were extracted. The data shows a trend (40%) towards the Least Disruption Principle (Eisterhold et al., 2006; Attardo et al. 2011, 2013), since irony and humor occur in a single turn and responses are limited to a later turn in 14% of instances. However, our corpus supports a wide-ranging trend towards sustained humor (Attardo, 2019) over more than three turns (46%). Additionally, the type of response (Kotthoff, 2003) is analyzed: to the said (11.36%), to the implied (19.32%), laughter (13.64%) and mixed responses (55.68%). Our analysis of humorous sequences indicates that there is a consistent framework in which as mixed responses increase, the humorous mode is fostered in colloquial conversations.