In collecting instances of clapping in the TGG data, I came across a few cases in which a single clap is done as part of laughing at somebody or something. The laughter also involves other embodied components, such as jumping, leaning forward, or striking something.
Through quality of the laugh tokens and the embodied conduct which together constitute the laughter, the laughing participant comes off as losing control, flooding out (Goffman, 1981), or simply being overcome. The laughter takes over the body.
The laughing participant comes off as losing control, flooding out (Goffman, 1981), or simply being overcome. The laughter takes over the body.
I will demonstrate this by focusing on how the clap is done. In extract 1, several students have been playing with a portable whiteboard and marker during an activity being led by the agent, Tom. Eventually, this makes it difficult for Tom to continue the activity with other students and he tells them to stop. This results in laughter from the students who have been playing around, with the laughable understandable as both their own conduct and the fact that they have been mildly reprimanded. The extract shows some of the embodied components of the laughter of one female student, Cho.
Extract 1.
Cho brings up both hands to above shoulder-height, with the hands extended out, palm-up (#1). She then brings the hands together in a clap (#2). A result of starting the clap with the hands extended is to increase the distance and speed travelled by the hands relative to the wrists and forearms, so that the clap comes off as exaggerated. The movement of the hands is not halted by the clap itself and, instead, the momentum of the clapping hands results in them sliding past each other (#3). The effect is that the clap comes off not only as exaggerated, but as involving a loss of control over the hands. Finally, Cho leans forward and strikes the table in front of her with first her right hand (#4) and then her left hand.
A second (less clear) case is shown in extract 2. In contrast to extract 1, in which Cho was laughing with other students, this case involves one student laughing at another student (Glenn, 2003; Jefferson, 1972). Prior to this extract, two students (Ryu and Jun) and Tom are engaged in a roleplay activity in which the students order food at Quickbite, a fictional fast food restaurant. Tom asks Ryu what he would like to drink and Ryu answers “melon soda.” Tom initiates repair on this with “hm?” Instead of completing the repair by, for example, repeating “melon soda,” he turns for help to Jun, who smiles and backs away. Tom pursues the repair by leaning in with his hand cupped to his ear and saying “one more time,” strongly indicating that the trouble is a hearing problem that can be solved through repetition of the order. Still, Ryu does not treat the trouble as a hearing problem and, instead of repeating his order, repeats the word “drink” twice, each time with rising intonation. Jun then laughs, with some of the embodied components shown in the extract.
Extract 2
Unfortunately, most of the clap cannot actually be seen as the camera shot is blocked by Ryu. It is possible to see, though, that as he starts laughing, Jun smiles (#1) and drops his head in a head bob (#2). He seems to start moving his hands into the clap at the same time as he bobs his head, as his left hand becomes visible, extended out, palm-up, as he starts moving his head back up (#3). The clearly audible clap comes just after this. Though the clap is not visible, the extension of the left hand just prior to the clap is very similar to how Cho extended her hands prior to her clap. (Compare #1 of extract 1 with #3 of extract 2.) Here, Jun is understandable as responding to Ryu’s inability to solve a hearing problem through repetition by treating this as a laughable. This laughing at Ryu seems to involve an exaggerated clap, at least to the extent that the possibility that it is exaggerated can be inferred from the hand shape in #3.
Genuine laughter (as opposed to, e.g., fake laughter, forced laughter, sarcastic laughter), whether it involves laughing with or at, is normatively spontaneous laughter. Along with such things as the laughter’s timing, part of how this spontaneity is achieved is through how it takes control of the body, with an exaggerated clap being a possible component of this.
References
Glenn, P. (2003). Laughter in interaction. Cambridge University Press.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jefferson, G. (1972). Side sequences. In D. Sudnow (Ed.), Studies in social interaction (pp. 294-338). Free Press.
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