It is a well-known phenomenon that people sometimes quote others’ speech or thoughts in conversation. An example of this can be seen below:

Here, A’s utterances in lines 2 and 3 refer to something the other person in the conversation has said at a previous occasion. This phenomenon is well-described within linguistics and is typically referred to as, among other terms, reported speech.

In our investigations of interaction, we have found that people sometimes do a parody of the person they are reporting. It can be described as the speaker putting on an act or linguistically dressing up and thereby demonstrating a stance towards the utterance. For example, through the use of parody a speaker could express a humorous or ridiculing stance to something a person has said or done. This is demonstrated in the example below:

In lines 5-6, B is reporting her daughter’s speech. This is done with a markedly higher pitch than her normal register. It seems she is imitating the daughter’s voice. At the same time, with the use of gesture she mimics being wrapped in a lamb wool blanket. In this way, she is expressing how the daughter did something cute or adorable at the time. A comments on this in line 8: nå::h↘.

We consider this a resource interesting to investigate as it can serve a specific function in interaction. Namely, parody in reported speech can be used to end a story. We see part of this in the example above where B’s parody of the daughter is followed by an assessment by A in line 8. Typically, story-telling in interaction is followed by assessments as we see in lines 8 and 9 above.

This is shown even more clearly in the next example below. A orients towards B’s story as having reached its end after an instance of parody in reported speech: