Congreso, coloquio o simposio

There is growing consensus that interactional humor is dynamic, cooperative, and co-constructed. Its study has been primarily approached from a linguocentric perspective, starting with an account of the verbal (e.g., the humorous utterance) and then further opening the analysis to a variety of other nonverbal elements, such as the social and physical context of the interaction, interlocutors’ facial expressions, or visual elements surrounding the humorous text. This perspective is in line with recent works that argue for a multimodal language faculty in which verbal and nonverbal resources are part of the same system (e.g., Cohn & Schilperoord, 2024; Hagoort & Özyürek, 2024; Willems, Özyürek, & Hagoort, 2007).

However, in the same way as nonverbal elements have been considered extralinguistic, context has been perceived as external as well, as if it were a mere backdrop for interactional humor. The study of context has been described metaphorically as the study of peripheral vision  (Schegloff 1992, p. 223). It is impossible to “look at” peripheral vision because when one tries to focus it one merely changes one’s focus. Here we propose to turn the metaphor inside out, so to speak, and consider humor in interaction as a complex system, occurring in a situated context, and as an emergent property of said context, in which the interactants soft assemble (Thelen et al., 1984; Larsen-Freeman, 2012) the stimuli (verbal and nonverbal) and their reactions to them. This approach is an integral part of the move away from linguocentric accounts of humor (Gironzetti, 2022) and toward multimodal accounts of it in terms of “complex multimodal gestalts” (Mondada, 2014, p. 139).

As part of this panel, we seek original research papers presenting results of empirical studies (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed) and/or engaging in theoretical discussions about any of the following:

• The characteristics and role of contextualization cues to the play frame of humor (key in Goffman’s terms, 1974, 1981a/b) and/or to the humorous nature of the interaction, particularly focused on the interaction of these clues (e.g., smiling and hand gestures).
• “Difficult” cases in which the interactants do not readily agree to the play frame/key or disagree to its appropriateness, including cases in which they reject it entirely (Priego-Valverde, 2020; Bell, 2015).
• Cases in which the humor key emerges from the interplay of contextual elements and their interpretation by the interactants, especially if they include recontextualizations within joint fictionalization (Kotthoff, 1999).
• Types and functions of markers/contextualization cues beyond laughter, smiling, pauses, and others already discussed in Pickering et al. (2009) and Attardo (2020).
• Embodied theories of cognition applied to the study of humor in signed languages and/or visual communication.

Abstracts should be submitted through the conference website:

https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2025

For inquiries, please contact the panel organizers:

• Dr. Salvatore Attardo (Texas A&M University-Commerce) salvatore.attardo@tamuc.edu
• Dr. Béatrice Priego-Valverde (Aix-Marseille Université) beatrice.priego-valverde@univ-amu.fr 
• Dr. Elisa Gironzetti (University of Maryland) elisag@umd.edu

Panel organizers

Dr. Salvatore Attardo (Texas A&M University-Commerce) salvatore.attardo@tamuc.edu

Dr. Béatrice Priego-Valverde (Aix-Marseille Université) beatrice.priego-valverde@univ-amu.fr 

Dr. Elisa Gironzetti (University of Maryland) elisag@umd.edu