What is it about?
This article examines the uses and functions of Alexis Tsipras' laughter during the openings of three out of the four one-on-one interviews he gave during in the 2012 pre-election campaign. At that point in time, Alexis Tsipras was a new player in Greek politics. I argue that his laughter at the very beginning of the interviews examined, assisted him in building a 'cool but aggressive' persona for the ears of the electorate.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Laughter was mostly examined as a means to indicate the laughability of the previous turn and to project a dissafiliative response. In my dataset laughter is also used to counterchallenge (attack). Doing so, from the very beginning of an interview helps politicians build a specific identity, something that has not explicitly discussed so far.
Perspectives
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Laughter and identity construction in political interviews, Journal of Language and Politics, February 2019, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/jlp.17037.kan.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page