Abstract

This paper explores the use of bilingual punning in multilingual multiparty conversations among speakers with asymmetric language skills. The data of the study is drawn from video-recorded mundane peer conversations among Finns and Estonians. In this data, participants often use their respective mother tongues while talking to each other, even though only some of them have an active command of both cognate languages. The analysis of the data revealed that bilingual punning is used in these conversations among other things for dealing with the speakers’ asymmetric language skills and asymmetric access to the ongoing talk. Punning typically occurs in sequences, in which participants teach each other words and in which problems of understanding are expressed. Puns can be used for both indicating and treating problems in understanding, and they are used for sharing linguistic knowledge. Puns can also help close prolonged and problematic sequences in an affiliative way. Punning provides the participants with a means of sharing positive affects even in interactionally problematic situations.