PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) Speeches /Conference Papers (150)

This study investigated verbal play, including teasing and self-mocking in a naturally occurring conversation, among four Chinese female friends. The study illustrates how these speakers engage in teasing activities and then discusses the implications and significance of verbal play. Examples are taken from a casual, playful conversation participated in and taped in the summer of 1990 during a 2-hour lunch at a restaurant in Tapei, Taiwan. A recurrent topic for teasing is the speech style of two of the participants. Some of the teasing is rude and face-threatening. The four women repeatedly mocked themselves or playfully put others down. The target of teasing tended to agree or even elaborate when being degraded. In an informal conversation, participants who are intimate and share common history with one another tend to share the same "interactive frame. " Speech acts that are intrinsically face-threatening can be offered and received as "play. " Women can be the initiators as well as the receivers of humor. It is concluded that communicative strategies should be interpreted in terms of interactive frame rather than gender or politeness considerations. (Contains 16 references.) (CK) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document