Laughter [ Communication ]
… was considered fundamental to sociability in eighteenth-century Britain, but it was a complex social signal: as Samuel Johnson observed, ‘you may laugh in as many ways as you talk’. In its various guises, laughing could communicate anything … as a social signal, but its various guises could have different effects and were evaluated accordingly. As Samuel Johnson put it, ‘you may laugh in as many ways as you talk; and surely every way of talking that is practised cannot be esteemed’. 4 4 . James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson (London: Henry Baldwin, 1791), vol. 1, p. 244. For those eager to theorise and encourage polite sociability, …
Humour | Impoliteness | Laughter | Manners | Politeness | Taste | Wit
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