6 dissertation also explores the crucial role of culturally-specific knowledge in analyzing
performances-in-interaction. Shared knowledge constitutes, and is constituted by, interaction
in situ
or in a specific context. To analyze this reflexive process, I examine the construction of intertextual knowledge in an explicitly interactional context.
In the remainder of this chapter, I discuss the key components of my dissertation. Section 2 presents research questions. In Section 3, these questions lead to a literature
review of sociolinguistic research on performance and multivocal humor; that is, this section identifies what we know in sociolinguistics about these topics. Section 4
discusses how Hawai‗i complicates our sociolinguistic knowledge, and to aid readers in interpreting the performance data, it presents background information on the history of
Hawai‗i Creole as well as the context of Hawai‗i comedy.
1.2 Research questions
Because studies of code and mockery through language i.e., ethnic labeling and linguistic stereotyping depend on the locatedness of talk, I take an emic approach to the
study of Hawai‗i comedy. At the same time, because the codes employed in stand-up comedy have become meaningful over time in Hawai‗i‘s complex linguistic landscape, it
is important to also pay due attention to linguistic and sociological aspects of code in order to fully understand how mockery operates on multiple levels. I address three main
research questions:
1. How do comedians use codes to build interpersonal relationships with their
audiences in comedy shows? 2.
What other social accomplishments do the participants achieve with semiotic resources in Hawai‗i comedy?
7 3.
What does meta-performance talk tell us about the reception of codes as part of the performance in Hawai‗i comedy? In other words, why is Hawai‗i
comedy ‗funny‘?
With a growing recognition of the centrality of performance in everyday uses of language, studies of performance in popular culture have drawn renewed attention in discourse
analytic studies e.g., Chun, 2004; Furukawa, 2007, 2009, 2010; Jaffe, 2000; Labrador, 2004; Pennycook, 2003; Woolard, 1987, 1999. These studies have shown that highly
performative data can be useful in examining many issues of language practices and identities because comed
ic performances ―depend on the same ideologies of community membership and lan
guage practice that speakers depend on in their everyday contexts‖ Chun, 2004, p. 265.
This is the rationale for conducting research on voicing of ‗Locals‘ through comedic performances in Hawai‗i. I conceptualize linguistic ideology as a link
that connects language, interaction, and society, as shown in the two figures below. In the next section, I discuss the two main strands of the theoretical framework for the
dissertation that deal with multivocal humor in comedic performance. I also discuss a mediating strand that connects the two main strands.
8 Figure 1.1. Language, interaction, and society
Figure 1.2. Language ideology
1.3 Theoretical framework 1.3.1 Performance and performativity
