Jocular Mockery And Jocular Insult In Computer-mediated Communication

Fruitful as domestic research into (im)politeness may be, quite a few-if not all-domestic efforts seem to scratch the surface of the (im)politeness land. What's more regrettable is that many are scratching the surface of the same patch of the land. And this thesis attempts to explore a new area in impoliteness research, i.e. mock impoliteness in computer-mediated context. Specifically speaking, this thesis aims to shed a light upon how two particular practices of mock impoliteness-jocular mockery and jocular insult-are occasioned, produced and responded to in Chinese college students'everyday online talks. By proposing a three-party response model (i.e. mock impoliteness initiator, mock impoliteness target and mock impoliteness witness), the thesis focuses on the responses of jocular mockery and jocular insult in question. An analysis on the data reveals that both jocular mockery and jocular insult characterize certain typical response choices respectively. To be specific, in the case of jocular mockery, participants-both targets and witnesses-present an evident preference for "play along" strategy which can further find exquisite expressions in the overwhelming imitation-directly copying or playful imitation-of others' contributory words in the polylogue. Still, apart from the unmarked use of "play along" strategy, targets in jocular mockery also turn to other frequently used response choices:(1) correct in playful tone; (2) admit; (3) opt out; (4) ignore and (5) seriously correct; in the case of jocular insult, while targets show an apparent tendency towards the offensive "tit for tat" strategy, witnesses tend to withdraw from the polylogue in question. Typicality in response choices aside, this thesis further discovers four different points concerned the interpretation of online mock impoliteness. First, it is discovered in our data that jocular insults are more likely to occur between participants who share close bonds in off-line life which can be justified by a cognitive explanation of the Relevant Theory. Second, interpretation of online jocular polylogue, as with any face-to-face interactions, entails off-line contextual information as well as pretextual support. Third, jocular mockery and jocular insult recently feature vividly animate attributes, as in the form of the non-written rage comic pictures, reflecting the casually humorous attitude towards life among the younger generations today in China. Fourth, it is also found in our data that computer-mediated mock impoliteness interactions feature a striking dynamism:participants compete vigorously for the chance to mock others, contributing to a dynamic role playing throughout the ploylogues. When culturally explored, it is discovered that the typical response choices participants make when faced with mock impoliteness-or rather an overwhelming exploitation of "play along" strategy-as well as the wild preference for rage comic pictures in effect highlight the value or cultural norms intrinsically rooted in the younger generation in China, i.e. the "not taking yourself too seriously" culture. Furthermore, the thesis tries to offer a justifiable explanation to what it has discovered in the process of data analysis by resorting to the restrictive effect of impoliteness as well as concepts of power and Community of Practice (CofP). The concepts of restrictive effect of impoliteness as well as power are used here to explain the typicality in response choices in jocular mockery and jocular insult while the concept of CofP serves to illustrate the popular culture in the young generations in China today. In the lower-risk (or the lower degree of impoliteness) jocular mockery, the restrictive force of power is limited, hence a wider range of the target responses. However, in the higher-risk (or the higher degree of impoliteness) jocular insult, the high-level impoliteness intrinsically rooted in the jocular insult tends to overshadow the limited restrictive force of impoliteness derived from the short power distance, thus intensive convergence in response choices; the chatting group boasts its own community of practice. Among other things, what is highly upheld in the chatting community in our data is a casually humorous yet optimistic communicative norm. It is this specific community of practice that contributes to the cultivation of the "not taking yourself too seriously" culture among the younger generations in China.