Abstract This study investigates the uses and functions of laughter and humour in a corpus of nine PhD defences/vivas. The data include the PhD defences in their entirety, including monologic and dialogic talk by participants from a variety of research cultures. The defences were video-recorded and transcribed, and laughter episodes analysed according to who laughed, who the source of “the laughable” was, what the reason for laughing was and at what point laughter occurred. The analysis reveals that a majority of laughter was non-humorous, produced by one person, and had the function of mitigating face threats to speakers and others. Humorous laughter was usually produced by more than one person and had the function of relieving tension, creating a non-adversarial atmosphere and building a community. These results are connected to the communicative purposes of the participants; the participants’ mutual aim is to examine an academic work and confirm the candidate’s membership in their chosen specialisation, which requires cooperation from all parties. Furthermore, although the participants come from different research cultures where humour can have a different presence and function, this study shows that laughter and humour are frequent and fill an important function in ELF interactions in high-stakes academic situations.

中文翻译：

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高风险学术ELF互动中的笑声和幽默：博士辩护/生活中的笑声分析

摘要 本研究调查了九个博士辩护/vivas 语料库中笑声和幽默的用途和功能。数据包括整个博士辩护，包括来自各种研究文化的参与者的独白和对话。对辩护进行了录像和转录，根据谁笑了，“可笑”的来源是谁，笑的原因是什么以及笑发生在什么时候来分析笑的情节。分析表明，大多数笑声是非幽默的，由一个人产生，具有减轻对说话者和其他人的面部威胁的功能。幽默的笑声通常由多人共同产生，具有缓解紧张、营造非对抗气氛和建立社区的作用。这些结果与参与者的交流目的有关；参与者的共同目标是检查学术作品并确认候选人在所选专业中的成员资格，这需要各方合作。此外，尽管参与者来自不同的研究文化，幽默可以具有不同的存在和功能，但本研究表明，笑声和幽默很常见，并且在高风险学术环境中的 ELF 互动中发挥了重要作用。