Playfully negotiated activity in girls’ talk

This paper examines how playful language functions in the friendship talk of preadolescent girls. The corpus on which the investigation is based is audio-taped interactions between peer girlfriends. The analytical focus is on speaker's negotiation of talk in and out of play and non-play. It is argued that these playful forms of speaking are particularly salient at this life stage and that the talk of preadolescent girls mirrors their shifting allegiances. These interactional practices show remnants of earlier childhood discourse whilst also presaging future practices resulting in a marked oscillating key. The methodology is synthesised from interactional sociolinguistics, cultural feminist ethnography and Conversational Analysis approaches. Findings demonstrate that alliance building is accomplished in a diversity of forms that contribute to the overall game-like key of preadolescent girls’ talk. Some of the selected resources foreshadow documented cooperative interactive practices associated with women. However, one of the chief findings is that alliance building is not confined to supportive behaviours. Episodes of playful confrontation, name-calling and insulting sequences are highly prominent in these data and contribute to locating the talk as distinct from that of earlier childhood and adult discourse. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to the literature on older children's language use.