Neal R. Norrick

This book investigates the forms and functions of storytelling in everyday conversation. It develops a rhetoric of everyday storytelling through an integrated approach to both the internal structure and the contextual integration of narrative passages. It aims at a more complete picture of oral narrative through analysis of a wider range of natural data, including personal anecdotes told for humor, put-down stories told for self-aggrandizement, family stories retold to ratify membership and so on, as well as marginal stories and narrative-like passages to delineate the boundaries of conversational storytelling and to test the analytical techniques proposed.Using transcriptions of stories from everyday talk, Norrick explores disfluencies, formulaicity and repetition as teller strategies and listener cues alongside global phenomena such as retelling and narrative macrostructures. He also extends his analysis to narrative jokes from conversation and to narrative passages in drama, namely Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" and Beckett's "Endgame."

Storytelling in Everyday Talk

Conversational Narrative

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.

Semantic Studies in English Proverbs

How Proverbs Mean

Delia Chiaro

The occasioning of self-disclosure humor / Susan M. Ervin-Tripp & Martin Lampert -- Direct address as a resource for humor / Neal R. Norrick & Claudia Bubel -- An interactional approach to irony development / Helga Kotthoff -- Multimodal and intertextual humor in the media reception situation : the case of watching football on TV / Cornelia Gerhardt -- Using humor to do masculinity at work / Stephanie Schnurr & Janet Holmes -- Boundary-marking humor : institutional, gender, and ethnic demarcation in the workplace / Bernadette Vine ... [et al.] Impolite responses to failed humor / Nancy D. Bell -- Failed humor in conversation : a double voicing analysis / Béatrice Priego-Valverde

Humor in Interaction

All of us inject puns, jokes, and wisecracks into our talk. This book investigates these and other forms of humor that enliven everyday conversation, examining the ways humor helps us break the ice, fill awkward silences, smooth the way for requests, and build group solidarity. Norrick demonstrates that an account of joking is a necessary part of any complete description of conversation. At the same time, he shows that conversation is the natural home of many forms of humor. We can understand these only if we can explain why and how they are used in everyday talk. Norrick's close study of joking provides new insights into both verbal humor and the nature of conversation. Conversational Joking builds on recent developments in discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics, and on current work in the study of humor, narrative, and social interaction. It provides a coherent perspective on conversational joking and makes a major contribution to our understanding of humor, conversation, and face-to-face interaction.

Neal R. Norrick

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