Abstract

Even though teasing has been extensively examined from an anthropological and sociolinguistic perspective, as a rule, studies on teasing have explored teasing episodes among linguistically, culturally and ethnically homogeneous groups. The present study presents cross-sex teasing episodes between the members of a multilingual/multicultural/multiethnic peer group (comprised of majority Greek children and minority Turkish-speaking children of Roma heritage) during break-time in a primary school in Athens, Greece. Drawing on the micro-analysis of key teasing episodes, it explores the emergence and development of teasing frames in discourse by probing the contextualization cues, participant positions and responses to teasing. To this end, it draws insights from interactional sociolinguistics and Conversation Analysis complemented by ethnographic data on the peer group. It illustrates how peer group members make use of recurring clusters of contextualization cues that draw upon the majority (Greek) and minority (Turkish) languages and cultures to frame their teases. In doing so, they exploit various participant positions and responses to teasing, including silence, which has previously received limited attention in teasing research. The findings of this study are grounded in existing research on Greek and Turkish culture and discourse with special reference to verbal play, verbal duelling and humour.