Code-switching e footing para a construção do humor : estudo de caso da sitcom "Friends"

Abstract

This dissertation is about code-switching and footing in the north-american sitcom Friends. Both the switch of language and the identity positioning are objects of analysis for the Interactional Sociolinguistics area (GOFFMAN, 1981; HUDSON, 1996; DURANTI, 1997), which is the main theory of this investigation. Not only theoretical aspects of this background are used but also studies about humour (RASKIN, 1979; WRIGHT, 1875), sitcom (FURQUIM, 1999; SAVORELLI, 2010; VANDAELE, 1996), multimodalidality (GOODWIN, 2010; KRESS; LEEUWEN, 1996; VIEIRA; SILVESTRE, 2015), estereotypes (LAKOFF, 1987; SCHIAPPA; GREGG; HEWES, 2005), performance (TURNER, 1987), social generalization (BLUM, 2004), among others. In order to solve the problem of this research, which resides in understanding whether both code-switching and footing are strategies of humour in the sitcom Friends, we opted for the case study of this situational comedy and for the investigation of the communicative acts in which the switch of linguistic codes and identity repositiong are found. The general objective of this research is to examine the connection between humour creation and the situations in which there is evidence of code-switching between American English and British English, positioning between American English varieties and the multimodal positioning of communicative interactions in episodes of the sitcom Friends. The specific objectives are (a) to identify the constructs of cultural identity in the sitcom Friends, (b) to identify the situations of code-switching in the humour generation, (c) to analyse the situations of code-switching and the multimodal aspects of the communicative act and (d) to analyse the effects of humour, highlighting the intervenient cultural aspects related to such effects. In order to fulfill these objectives, we, also, based our research on the studies of framing (GOFFMAN, 1974), which are identified in the scenes of code-switching and footing, being transcribed according to the Conversation Analysis symbolic conventions (SACKS; SCHEGLOFF; JEFFERSON, 1974). The results show that, in the episodes of the series Friends analysed, both code-switching and footing are potential strategic mecanisms to create humour formed in several situations through different comical functions, such as: cultural satire, stereotyped caricature, reality representation, among others.