Jocular Mockery as Interactional Practice in Everyday Anglo-Australian Conversation

Abstract

Teasing in everyday interactions, which combines elements of (ostensible) provocation and (ostensible) playfulness in a figurative cutting down or diminishment of a target, has been the subject of a growing body of studies. However, what has arguably not been as well studied to date is the interactional mechanics of the different kinds of social actions through which teasing is accomplished. In this paper, the way in which teasing as mocking/ridiculing can be accomplished within a jocular or non-serious frame, or what is here termed jocular mockery, is examined building on methodological and analytical insights from both interactional pragmatics and corpus-assisted pragmatics. It is argued based on this analysis that jocular mockery constitutes a recognizable and recurrent practice in everyday interactions amongst (Anglo-)Australian speakers of English. A framework for examining the dynamics of jocular mockery within everyday interactions is also proposed.