2 - Conversation analysis and the study of laughter

Summary

The preceding chapter ends with a call for research devoted to characterizing patterns of actual human laughter occurring in everyday interactions. Such a research focus is consistent with (and motivated by) the phenomenological, descriptive tradition known as conversation analysis (CA). In this chapter I introduce the study of laughter in interaction through two major parts. First, I review the theoretical assumptions, research agendas, and methods that characterize CA. The second major part of this chapter consists of a review of CA research that provides initial findings and a vocabulary for analyzing laughter in interaction. An emphasis on describing the sequential organization of everyday talk at a highly detailed level leads to remarkable insights about the communicative workings of laughter; this chapter is intended to lay the groundwork for summarizing such research.

The theoretical underpinnings and procedures of CA are thoroughly described elsewhere (see, for example, Levinson, 1983; Atkinson and Heritage, 1984, pp. 1–15; Psathas, 1995; ten Have, 1999). Reflecting its ethnomethodological orientation, CA starts from an assumption that people organize their interactions with each other in systematic, describable ways. The overarching purpose of research is to describe peoples' methods (thus the label ethnomethodology) for “doing” everyday life. Conversation analysts study recordings and transcripts of interactions that are (to the extent possible) naturalistic, rather than those contrived by researchers in order to control such features as settings, topics, or relationships.