36.498, Calls: Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature; Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics / Germany

Thu Feb 6 06:05:05 UTC 2025

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-498. Thu Feb 06 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.498, Calls: Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature; Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics / Germany

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Date: 06-Feb-2025
From: Esme Winter-Froemel [esme.winter-froemel at uni-wuerzburg.de]
Subject: Wordplay and Exclusion

Wordplay and Exclusion

Date: 30-May-2025 - 31-May-2025
Location: Würzburg / online, Germany
Contact: Esme Winter-Froemel
Contact Email: esme.winter-froemel at uni-wuerzburg.de
Meeting URL:
https://www.neuphil.uni-wuerzburg.de/romanistik/team/winter-froemel/wordplay-and-exclusion-30-05-31-05-2025/

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature;
Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics

Call for Papers:
Wordplay typically appears to be funny and innocent, and previous
research on wordplay and verbal humour has often foregrounded this
aspect, which can be seen as being prototypical of wordplay. Among
others, there has been a focus on laughter and amusement as key
effects of wordplay (cf. Winter-Froemel 2009; 2016), or on functions
of bonding and the strengthening of group identities (see also
traditional concepts such as French connivence). However, wordplay can
also be used with underlying strategies and agendas that may involve
manipulation of opinions, aggression or discrimination of target
groups of verbal humour (cf. Attardo 2017, 2018). An interplay of
inclusion and exclusion can be observed in phenomena such as irony
(cf. Giora & Gur 2003, Gibbs & Colston 2007, Athanasiadou & Colston
2017), double entendre (cf. Goth 2015), contrepèteries (Rabatel 2015),
ludic uses of secret languages, argots or cants (e.g., Gibberish, Pig
Latin, French loucherbèm; German B-Sprache, cf. Hardy, Herling &
Siewert 2019, Saugera 2019), or in youth language practices such as
French verlan, Spanish vesre, etc. (cf. Bedijs 2015). In these
practices, the exclusion of part of the addressees is a key element of
the communicative game played between the members of an in-group.
Moreover, it has been shown that literary texts can be based on secret
wordplay that is accessible to only part of the readership (cf. Bauer
2015). In this case, a successful decoding of the additional secret
message is particularly rewarding for initiated readers, whereas
uninitiated readers may simply miss part of the message without
perceiving a feeling of being excluded. Still other scenarios of
exclusion can be observed in language acquisition (including L1 and L2
settings), where participants can be excluded from wordplay due to a
lack of the linguistic knowledge required to decode the relevant
meanings involved. In pragmatic research, different types of
addressees have been distinguished depending on their active or
inactive role in communication, their being known and ratified by the
speaker, the acquaintance or absence of acquaintance between the
speaker and hearer, etc. (cf. Bell 1984, Dynel 2010, 2017), but these
distinctions have not been systematically explored for practices of
verbal humour and wordplay. Moreover, serious aspects of wordplay have
mostly remained backgrounded in previous research, with the focus most
often being on the speakers and hearers (or the producers and
recipients more generally) who participate in the game.
The aim of this workshop is thus to bring together these different
perspectives, and to highlight the social dimension of wordplay
communication involving different groups of participants.
For more information on where to submit abstracts, please visit the
conference website.

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