Home The variable of gender and its interplay with mother tongue in the humor and laughter of bilingual couples
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

The variable of gender and its interplay with mother tongue in the humor and laughter of bilingual couples

  • Silja Ang-Tschachtli

    Silja Ang-Tschachtli holds a PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Zurich and teaches English at a grammar school (Gymnasium) in Switzerland. The focus of her research lies at the intersection between bilingualism and various areas such as the expression of emotions, attitudes, language mixing, swearing, and humor.

    ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 5, 2021

Abstract

The variables of gender and mother tongue are usually considered independently in humor research. This article aims to explore the role of gender and its interplay with mother tongue in the production, reception, and assessment of humor among 10 bilingual, bicultural couples. It investigates whether the gender patterns commonly observed are also evident in these couples’ conversations, namely that women laugh more than men (Mehu, Marc & Robin I. M. Dunbar. 2008. Naturalistic observations of smiling and laughter in human group interactions. Behaviour 145(12). 1747–1780.), that women laugh more about men than the reverse (Jefferson, Gail. 2004. A note on laughter in ‘male-female’ interaction. Discourse Studies 6. 117–133. DOI:10.1177/1461445604039445.), and that men produce more humorous utterances than women do (Ross, Elaina M. & Jeffrey A. Hall. 2020. The traditional sexual script and humour in courtship. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 33(2). 197–218. DOI:10.1515/humor-2019-0017.). On average, the female bilinguals produced 29.6% more laughter pulses and laughed 7.4% more frequently, and their laughter episodes were consistently longer than their partners’. However, the participants’ mother tongue was found to have a stronger influence on their production and reception of laughables than their gender, and the native speakers produced more successful laughables, despite their partners’ high level of L2 proficiency. Interestingly, the couples’ self-assessments often did not match their actual laughing behavior and appeared to be clearly gendered; no couple considered the female partner to be funnier, and several men even questioned their partner’s sense of humor, while male humor was often praised.


Corresponding author: Silja Ang-Tschachtli, Römerstrasse 229, 8404 Winterthur, Switzerland, E-mail:

About the author

Silja Ang-Tschachtli

Silja Ang-Tschachtli holds a PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Zurich and teaches English at a grammar school (Gymnasium) in Switzerland. The focus of her research lies at the intersection between bilingualism and various areas such as the expression of emotions, attitudes, language mixing, swearing, and humor.

References

Adams, Robert M. & Barbara Kirkevold. 1978. Looking, smiling, laughing, and moving in restaurants: Sex and age differences. Environmental Psychology & Nonverbal Behavior 3. 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01135609.Search in Google Scholar

Adelswärd, Viveka. 1989. Laughter and dialogue: The social significance of laughter in institutional discourse. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 12(2). 107–136. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0332586500002018.Search in Google Scholar

Ang-Tschachtli, Silja. 2021. Bilingual couples in conversation. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 34(4). 589–611.10.1515/humor-2020-0133Search in Google Scholar

Barelds, Dick P. H. & Pieternel Barelds-Dijkstra. 2010. Humor in intimate relationships: Ties among sense of humor, similarity of humor and relationship quality. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 23(4). 447–465. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2010.021.Search in Google Scholar

Cheng, Winnie. 2003. Humor in intercultural conversations. Semiotica 146(1–4). 287–306. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.2003.070.Search in Google Scholar

Chiaro, Delia. 2009. Cultural divide or unifying factor? Humorous talk in the interaction of bilingual, cross-cultural couples. In Neal R. Norrick & Delia Chiaro (eds.), Humor in interaction (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 182), 211–232. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.182.10chi.Search in Google Scholar

Glenn, Philipp. 2003. Laughter in interaction (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Glenn, Philipp, Erica Hoffman & Robert Hopper. 1996. Woman, laughter, man: Gender and the sequential organization of laughter. In Paper presented at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Convention. Chicago.Search in Google Scholar

Hahn, Christian Martin & Lorne John Campbell. 2016. Birds of a feather laugh together: An investigation of humour style similarities in married couples. Europe’s Journal of Psychology 12(3). 406–419. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1115.Search in Google Scholar

Hay, Jennifer. 2000. Functions of humor in the conversations of men and women. Journal of Pragmatics 32(6). 709–742. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(99)00069-7.Search in Google Scholar

Holmes, Janet. 2006. Sharing a laugh: Pragmatic aspects of humor and gender in the workplace. Journal of Pragmatics 38(1). 26–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2005.06.007.Search in Google Scholar

Jefferson, Gail. 2004. A note on laughter in ‘male-female’ interaction. Discourse Studies 6. 117–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445604039445.Search in Google Scholar

Lampert, Martin D. & Susan M. Ervin-Tripp. 2006. Risky laughter: Teasing and self-directed joking among male and female friends. Journal of Pragmatics 38(1). 51–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2005.06.004.Search in Google Scholar

Martin, Rod A. 2014. Humor and gender: An overview of psychological research. In Delia Chiaro & Raffaella Baccolini (eds.), Gender and humor: Interdisciplinary and international perspectives (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies), 123–146. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Mehu, Marc & Robin I. M. Dunbar. 2008. Naturalistic observations of smiling and laughter in human group interactions. Behaviour 145(12). 1747–1780.10.1163/156853908786279619Search in Google Scholar

Ogden, Richard. 2013. Clicks and percussives in English conversation. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43(3). 299–320. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0025100313000224.Search in Google Scholar

Osborne, Kathryn & Anthony J. Chapman. 1977. Suppression of adult laughter: An experimental approach. In Anthony J. Chapman & Hugh C. Foot (eds.), It’s a funny thing, humour, 429–431. Oxford: Pergamon. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-021376-7.50084-x.Search in Google Scholar

Priest, Robert F. & Melinda Taylor Thein. 2003. Humor appreciation in marriage: Spousal similarity, assortative mating, and disaffection. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 16(1). 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2003.005.Search in Google Scholar

Provine, Robert R. 1993. Laughter punctuates speech: Linguistic, social and gender contexts of laughter. Ethology 95(4). 291–298.10.1111/j.1439-0310.1993.tb00478.xSearch in Google Scholar

Provine, Robert R. 1996. Laughter. American Scientist 84(1). 38–48.10.2307/j.ctv2xh53zj.28Search in Google Scholar

Ritchie, Graeme. 2010. Linguistic factors in humour. In Delia Chiaro (ed.), Translation, humour and literature, vol. 1, 33–48. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Robinson, Dawn T. & Lynn Smith-Lovin. 2001. Getting a laugh: Gender, status, and humor in task discussions. Social Forces 80(1). 123–158. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2001.0085.Search in Google Scholar

Ross, Elaina M. & Jeffrey A. Hall. 2020. The traditional sexual script and humour in courtship. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 33(2). 197–218. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2019-0017.Search in Google Scholar

Ruch, Willibald & Paul Ekman. 2001. The expressive pattern of laughter. In Alfred Kaszniak (ed.), Emotions, Qualia, and Consciousness, 426–443. Tokyo: World Scientific Publisher. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812810687_0033.Search in Google Scholar

Ruch, Willibald & Giovannantonio Forabosco. 1996. A cross-cultural study of humor appreciation: Italy and Germany. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 9(1). 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1996.9.1.1.Search in Google Scholar

Winterheld, Heike A., Jeffry A. Simpson & M. Minda Oriña. 2013. It’s in the way that you use it: Attachment and the dyadic nature of humor during conflict negotiation in romantic couples. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 39. 496–508. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213479133.Search in Google Scholar

Yue, Xiao Dong, Feng Jiang, Su Lu & Neelam Hiranandani. 2016. To be or not to be humorous? Cross-cultural perspectives on humor. Frontiers in Psychology 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01495.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2020-07-11
Accepted: 2021-02-18
Published Online: 2021-08-05
Published in Print: 2021-10-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 20.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humor-2020-0133/html
Scroll to top button