16.509, Qs: Braille & Phonetics/Humor as a Linguistic Strategy

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-509. Sat Feb 19 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.509, Qs: Braille & Phonetics/Humor as a Linguistic Strategy

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1)
Date: 17-Feb-2005
From: Sarah Gray < hca02sg at sheffield.ac.uk >
Subject: Braille and Phonetics

2)
Date: 17-Feb-2005
From: Mary Zdrojkowski < mzdrojkow at emich.edu >
Subject: Humor as a Linguistic Strategy

	
-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:33:12
From: Sarah Gray < hca02sg at sheffield.ac.uk >
Subject: Braille and Phonetics


Dear Linguists,

I am studying B.Sc Human Communication Sciences at Sheffield University,
and am totally blind. I would like to develop my career in phonetic
analysis of typical and impaired speech. The Braille system which I
currently use allows me to transcribe most of the IPA, but does not provide
me with Ext.IPA or VOQs symbols. I aim to develop my current system further
to include these, but would first be interested to make contact with other
Braille IPA users and to discover their transcription methods. I ultimately
hope to create a system which is as standardised as the written one, and
feel that anyone wishing to use it should be involved.

If you or anyone you know can help, please let me know.

Many thanks.

Sarah Gray.
hca02sg at sheffield.ac.uk

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
                     Writing Systems



	
-------------------------Message 2 ----------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:33:15
From: Mary Zdrojkowski < mzdrojkow at emich.edu >
Subject: Humor as a Linguistic Strategy

	

I'm doing research on the uses of humor in conferences/tutorials occurring in a
university writing center. In this institutional setting, which is similar to
academic advising sessions or doctor-patient advising, humor seems to be used to
mitigate bad news, to lessen power differentials, to create divergent thinking,
etc.

However, I'm having trouble defining humor operationally or describing its
linguistic features. Sometimes people laugh when they think they're supposed to,
so just looking for instances of laughter isn't accurate. I have both video and
audio tapes of 36 writing tutorials, and want to do discourse analysis of the
role humor plays.

How can I decided when or when not humor is being used? Has someone else done
research like this, and if so, what discourse features were used to define humor?

Thank you, Mary

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
                     Sociolinguistics






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