Complaints in English
Break Room Pragmatics
Practical Ideas & Resources
Resources in this section curated by: Maggie Mitteis
Break Room Expectations
This nuance description of items in the break room explains both why those spaces are unique and also why the items found in this space are important. In examining these items, learners can also understand what is both normalized in this space and how one can successfully interact within it.
Micro-Managing
This image introduces the phrase "micro-managing." It also further connects the phrase to the break room context and expectations that can be placed on that space, but not accepted by everyone.
Breaking the Rules
Here we see an individual who has stepped outside of break room norms. The way that he has chosen to utilize the space demonstrates that there is a distinct code of conduct for the space, even if it is unsaid.
A Break Room's Purpose
This image is intended to facilitate a conversation around the expectation in a shared space. Specifically, this image demonstrates that not everyone agrees on those expectations--they are something that are both location and culturally specific and collectively agreed upon.
Food & Stockpiling
In this clip, we see a large overstepping of break room expectations surrounding food. Dwight's stockpile of food clearly makes his officemates uncomfortable. Each person displays their discomfort in an indirect form, each wanting him to cease the stockpiling, but not saying so directly.
Acceptable and Unacceptable Behaviors
Birthday Parties
Attending work-place birthday parties is a necessary part of integrating into office culture. Here, learners can observe a colleague stating clearly why he does not enjoy these events. In this interaction he both chooses not to attend and alters his relationship with his coworker and possibly other further cake-related events.
Severity of Office Interactions
This comic demonstrates the severity of office interactions. It clearly demonstrates that there are occurrences in which coworkers use the break room as a place to "take a break" from their colleagues.
Consequences of Violating Office Norms
Though very heightened in presentation, the saga of Ross' sandwich demonstrates the consequences of violating office norms and accepted rules regarding the community refrigerator.
Possible lesson ideas: Ask students to write a note that will protect Ross' sandwich.
Creating Unity
Just as pragmatic norms can create division, this clip shows how they can create unity. In this show, an office group attempts to renegotiate norms around available snacks and the turn taking/shutting out of another colleague that follows.
Who Stole Joe's Gelato?
Here we see an example of violated norms in utilizing a shared office refrigerator. Though this is a heightened scenario, the clip offers students a glimpse into how relationships can be both created and violated in how the break room space and items stored there are managed.
Signs & Symbols Found in a Break Room
Expectations - Imperatives
This sign conveys the expectations of the space and how to keep order among colleagues. It's very straightforward in its expectations for maintaining the status quo. It can be used as a tool for teaching imperatives.
These "dos" and "don't" clearly assert what is acceptable microwave usage. In order to build and maintain good relationships in the break room space, microwave users can follow these steps.
Refrigerator Usage
This presentation of a break room rule and refrigerator usage is more aggressive than the previous signs. The presented consequences of violating accepted rules are much stronger. If one fails to follow the stated rules, one will quite literally lose one's lunch.
The Dirty Microwave
In this scene of “The Office”, Pam is upset that someone in the office has made a mess in the microwave and will not clean it up. A workplace microwave (or refrigerator, for that matter) doesn’t “belong” to anyone. If you find a microwave in a home is coated inside with food splatters, you’d think, “Ewww! He’s really a slob!” But the work microwave doesn’t reflect on any one person. Some people count on others having a lower tolerance for a mess than they do.
An Individualistic Approach
This sign shows a more aggressive and individualistic approach to break room discourse. Here an individual's actions in a shared space characterize the individual, not the collective. This also creates a space where each person is responsible for themselves, rather than the habits of others.
Expectations & Humor
This sign depicts a more humorous look at expectations. Attributing dirty dishes in the sink to harming kittens appeals to the break room users' empathy, especially those self-identifying as a "nice person."
Double meaning of “Date”
Even though they are necessary, abiding by office norms can feel silly. This note seeks to mock the expectation that all items be "dated”, as “to date” can mean multiple things, such as “to put the date on something” or “to go out with”.
Not to Touch
Here, the collective is pushing back on the expectations of one individual. By adding another sign below the original requesting not sharing one mug, the group might be asserting that the first request is outside the shared norms and expectations, or they might be joking about the literal meaning of the word “touch".
Break Room Small Talk
Small talk often involves many safe, very surface topics. This image provides a humorous representation of which topics are safe and how these topics can be rotated in ordinary conversation.
The Weather
Discussing the weather is both a neutral topic of conversation and an expected form of "safe" conversation that can occur in a shared break room space. Learners can analyze this image and discuss if understanding the weather or filling the silence is more important.
Commuting
"Safe" topics for small talk--especially with people who you do not know well--include commuting. This image demonstrates how to engage with a colleague while waiting and that it is both accepted and expected for the conversation to remain at a surface level.
Can you believe that guy?
"Can you believe that guy" is a phrase that can be utilized in both a positive or a negative connotation to comment on another's behavior.
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ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON HUMOR IN ENGLISH
Resources in this section curated by: Carla Consolini, Tigre Lusardi, Lorelei Pfeffer, Johanna Lyon, Cathy Lee, Tung Tuaynak, Jermayne Tuckta, and Ken Ezaki Ronquillo
Attardo, Salvatore. (2003). Introduction: the pragmatics of humor. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, 1287-1294.
This article provides a foundation for understanding how pragmatics function within humor. It explains how jokes are set-up in terms of phonological, syntactic, and morphological construction and directs readers to other salient literature on the topic. It then goes on to discuss how laughter pragmatically works within humor. Not only is it present in people who experience something humorous or a joke, but it is also present in someone telling a joke often before they complete what they are saying. These non-verbal indicators of humor are key to pragmatically understanding how humor works.
This article is critical for a beginning understanding of the pragmatics of humor. While other articles delve into specific studies or attributes of pragmatics in humor, this article sets a clear foundation and easy entry-point for teachers who are unfamiliar with the topic and are not clear where to start. Therefore, it informs how to begin with pragmatics when it is an unfamiliar topic.
Davies, C. E. (2003). How English-learners joke with native speakers: An interactional sociolinguistic perspective on humor as collaborative discourse across cultures. Journal of pragmatics, 35(9), 1361-1385. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00181-9
In this study the author analyzed data taken from three peer conversation groups in an intensive English language program. Each group included five second language (L2) English learners and one first language (L1) English speaker. Learners were tasked with discussing their progress in learning English, specifically focusing on any humorous or misunderstood moments that occured when they first entered the program. Results showed that humorous utterances are a co-constructed speech act requiring use of learners’ sociolinguistic resources. Learners first rely on nonverbal and lexical resources when constructing humorous utterances, and interaction with L1 speakers can provide learners with support in scaffolding, prompting and helping to encourage or direct the verbal use of humor.
Hidalgo-Downing, L., Hidalgo-Downing, R., & Downing, A. (2014). Strategies of (in)directness in Spanish speakers’ production of complaints and disagreements in English and Spanish, in A. Gomez Gonzalez, F. Mendoza Ibanes, F. Gonzalvez-Garcia, and A. Downing (Eds.), The Functional Perspective on Language and Discourse: Applications and implications.
This was a study into how students from a Spanish university use their strategies on how to be indirect when expressing complaints, disapproval and disagreements, both in English and Spanish, though the use of role play to elicit these use of indirectness. Results show that different strategies were used when speaking Spanish or English, showing that students adapt their strategies depending on their understanding of the culture (English vs Spanish) they were participating in.
Laineste, L., & Voolaid, P. (2016). Laughing across borders: Intertextuality of internet memes. European Journal of Humor Research, 4(4), 26-49. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=972141
In this article the authors reviewed memes from websites that collect popular ones among Estonian users. The goal of this analysis was to investigate the intertextuality of viral and comedic internet content that is flexible enough to be transformed from culture to culture. What the authors highlight is how humor can help create a hybrid intertextuality between the cultural references (in this case of the Estonian-speaking community) and a global community on the internet (mainly English-speaking).
Widiana, Y. (2014). A Pragmatics Study on Jokes and the Implicature in Broadcast Messages. International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 8(9).
The research in this article investigates how implicature functions within humor on social media platforms. It looked at two popular platforms and the type of jokes that contained prior knowledge or implicature that occurred on the platform. The study found that implicature occurred in two forms: conversational and conventional. Conventional implicature makes implications based on common knowledge from a speech community while conversational implicature requires contextual knowledge and may not function in another setting.
This article pertains closely to our project in that jokes depend closely upon co-constructed knowledge within a speech community and therefore upon implicature. Many of the jokes and humor we have curated depend upon implications and shared knowledge. Without the implications, whether generated culturally, pragmatically, or linguistically, the humor would be absent and the jokes would not be able to function. Therefore, implicature is a key pragmatic component to humor.
Yus, F. (2008). A Relevance-Theoretic Classification of Jokes. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 4(1), 131-157.
This has a theoretical basis in relevance theory which hypothesizes that humans are evolutionarily conditioned to pay attention and process information that is potentially relevant and dismiss information that seems irrelevant. Relevance theory suggests that humor is often dependent upon assumed interpretations of content from the listener or anticipations that may or may not come to fruition. Much of humor is derived from moments where the explicit interpretations are questioned and therefore our schemas are questioned. This study goes on to provide innumerous types of jokes dependent on different pragmatic interactions.
This research is pertinent to our project in how it details the different pragmatic forms across types of jokes. While there are similarities across a broad array of humor in English, the specificity offered by this article provides a greater degree of analysis for our curated content. This article will allow us to look in depth at each joke and categorize it to different pragmatic techniques around humor, thus making our analysis deeper and more meaningful.
