Wordplay and its interpersonal function in marked parodistic mimicking in Kirundi “Ni Nde?” plays
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Abstract
Parodistic mimicking (PAMI), an expression of the speaker’s disgust at the imitated utterance, is an implicit metapragmatic comment (MPC). MPCs are in essence a means of defending norms, particularly communicative norms. Moreover, the norm of parody is that the characteristic style of a speaker is imitated the way it is. However, MPCs realized as PAMI which involves wordplay tend to offend norms, be it the norm concerning parody or the conversational norms like the Cooperative Principle (CP) and the politeness maxims. Such MPCs which violate norms are ‘marked’ from the perspective of norms. One wonders what interpersonal meanings these marked choices in PAMI convey, given that interpersonal relations lie at the heart of metacommunication. This study is within the area of pragmatics, with its concern of social, interpersonal meanings associated with language use. It sought to explore the communicative effect of wordplay in marked MPCs realized as PAMI as far as interpersonal relations are concerned. Data for this qualitative study were collected from Kirundi fictional conversations in Kirundi “Ni nde?” plays. Purposive sampling was used to collect the data which display different types of wordplay in different interactional contexts. To analyze the data, a conceptual framework informed mainly by Myers-Scotton’s (1998) Markedness Model (MM) was used. Findings suggest that various kinds of wordplay, namely phonetic play, the use of onomatopoeia, and word substitution are used by speakers in the verbal act of parodistic mimicking. The marked MPCs imply that the contribution of the imitated participant is evaluated as nonsense talk or inappropriate speech behavior. These MPCs cause a readjustment of interpersonal relations between interactants at the moment of communication. This study contributes to the validation of the MM as a suitable model to analyze deviant, marked uses of language in pragmatics or discourse studies.
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