This study investigates an interactionally delicate social action of teasing in Japanese conversation. While teasing commonly carries combined elements of provocation and playfulness, it also encompasses a diverse range of functions. This research specifically looks into teasing proffered with the utterance-final expression jan, a plain form of the negative interrogative sentence ending ja nai desu ka. By employing conversation analysis, this study argues the following points: 1) prospective tease recipients or participants other than teasers allude to some epistemic transgression prior to jan-marked teases; 2) teasers, in a form of playful provocation, refer to the epistemic transgression inferable from a prior turn(s) or prior conduct of the prospective tease recipients, and present the epistemic transgression as information supposedly shared with the tease recipients and/or tease audience; and 3) jan-marked teasing can become a resource to establish and join the co-construction of the humorous, jocular teasing moment of interaction. Furthermore, this study attempts to capture embodied aspects of teasing activities involving the utterance-final jan.
Read full abstract