38 research outputs found
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Referring to Somebody:Generic Person Reference as an Interactional Resource
Get PDFA growing body of research, examining a wide spectrum of reference forms across diverse languages, cultures, and identities, has shown how references to persons can be selected for context-specific interactional outcomes. This report describes how even such simple forms of person reference as somebody (along with someone and a/the person) can be selected on the basis of their relevance for the specific interactional context in which they are employed. We consider how the particular circumstances of some person reference occasions can make these generic person reference forms specially relevant (even when other, more elaborated forms of reference, either recognitional or non-recognitional, were evidently available to the speaker), and we demonstrate how even these barest forms of person reference can be called on to perform delicate, context-sensitive interactional work. Specifically, we show that speakers can select these generic reference forms for non-recognitional references that a) contribute to the formation of the action of a turn, and, when used in a story, b) contribute to the storyâs telling. Finally, we show how a generic person reference can be selected in place of a recognitional reference, thereby openly concealing a referentâs identity
Practical Asymmetries of Racial Reference
Get PDFWhen Are Persons âWhiteâ?This report contributes to the study of racial discourse by examining some of the practical asymmetries that obtain between different categories of racial membership as they are actually employed in talk-in-interaction. In particular, we identify three interactional environments in which the ordinarily âinvisibleâ racial category âwhiteâ is employed overtly, and we describe the mechanisms through which this can occur. These mechanisms include 1) âwhiteâ surfacing âjust in timeâ as an account for action, 2) the occurrence of referential ambiguities with respect to race occasioning repairs that result in overt references to âwhite,â and 3) the operation of a recipient design consideration that we term âdescriptive adequacy.â These findings demonstrate some ways in which the mundane invisibility of whiteness â or indeed, other locally invisible racial categories â can be both exposed and disturbed as a result of ordinary interactional processes, revealing the importance of the generic machinery of talk-in-interaction for understanding both the reproduction of and resistance to the racial dynamics of everyday life.
KEY WORDS: race, racial categories, whiteness, membership categorization devices, conversation analysi
Reference recalibration repairs: adjusting the precision of formulations for the task at hand
Get PDFThis report examines what is involved when a speaker overtly selects one formulation over
another by employing a repair operation that reformulates a reference in a way that adjusts or
recalibrates it, rather than abandons the original reference altogether. Focusing primarily on
references to persons, we show that beyond the narrowing of a reference â increasing its
precision â that results in an improved fit between a person reference and other components of a
turn-at-talk, these reference recalibration repairs can be used to do such things as meeting the
requirements of a storyâs telling, upgrading the credibility of an information source, and
justifying a rejection. This ties speakersâ overt concern with calibrating a categorical reference to
the formation of action in their turn-at-talk. By contrast, we then show how broadening a
reference â decreasing its precision â can be used as a method for displaying uncertainty and
thereby recalibrating a reference to fit the manifest knowledge state of the speaker (or a
recipient)
On the place of linguistic resources in the organization of talk-in-interaction: A co-investigation of English and Japanese grammatical practices
Full text linkThe Uses of Stance in Media Production: Embodied Sociolinguistics and Beyond
Get PDFWhile many conversation analysts, and scholars in related fields, have used video-recordings to study interaction, this study is one of a small but growing number that investigates video-recordings of the joint activities of media professionals working with, and on, video. It examines practices of media production that are, in their involvement with the visual and verbal qualities of video, both beyond talk and deeply shaped by talk. The article draws upon video recordings of the making of a feature-length documentary. In particular, it analyses a complex course of action where an editing team are reviewing their interview of the subject of the documentary, their footage is being intercut with existing reality TV footage of that same interviewee. The central contributions that the article makes are, firstly, to the sociolinguistics of mediatisation, through the identification of the workplace concerns of the members of the editing team, secondly showing how editing is accomplished, moment-by-moment, through the use of particular forms of embodied action and, finally, how the media themselves feature in the ordering of action. While this is professional work it sheds light on the video-mediated practices in contemporary culture, especially those found in social media where video makers carefully consider their editing of the perspective toward themselves and others
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When simple self-reference is too simple: Managing the categorical relevance of speaker self-presentation
No full textAbstract
Membership categories such as âdoctorâ, âcustomerâ, and âgirlâ can form a set of alternative ways of referring to the same person. Moreover, speakers can select from this array of correct alternatives that term best fitted to what is getting done in their talk. In contrast, self-references alone ordinarily do not convey category membership, unless the speaker specifically employs some sort of category-conveying formulation. This report investigates how speakers manage the categorical relevance of these simplest self-references (e.g. âIâ, âmeâ, âmyâ) as a practical means of self-presentation. We first describe how speakers forestall recipient attribution of membership categories. We then consider cases where simple self-references are subjected to subsequent elaborationâvia self-categorizationâin the face of possible recipient misreading of the speaker's category membership. Thereafter, we introduce the practice of contrastive entanglement, and describe how speakers employ it to fashion tacitly categorized self-references that serve the formation of action. (Person reference, conversation analysis, membership categorization devices, race, gender)
Recommended from our members
When simple self-reference is too simple: Managing the categorical relevance of speaker self-presentation
No full textAbstractMembership categories such as âdoctorâ, âcustomerâ, and âgirlâ can form a set of alternative ways of referring to the same person. Moreover, speakers can select from this array of correct alternatives that term best fitted to what is getting done in their talk. In contrast, self-references alone ordinarily do not convey category membership, unless the speaker specifically employs some sort of category-conveying formulation. This report investigates how speakers manage the categorical relevance of these simplest self-references (e.g. âIâ, âmeâ, âmyâ) as a practical means of self-presentation. We first describe how speakers forestall recipient attribution of membership categories. We then consider cases where simple self-references are subjected to subsequent elaborationâvia self-categorizationâin the face of possible recipient misreading of the speaker's category membership. Thereafter, we introduce the practice of contrastive entanglement, and describe how speakers employ it to fashion tacitly categorized self-references that serve the formation of action. (Person reference, conversation analysis, membership categorization devices, race, gender)
Recommended from our members
Referring to Somebody:Generic Person Reference as an Interactional Resource
No full textA growing body of research, examining a wide spectrum of reference forms across diverse languages, cultures, and identities, has shown how references to persons can be selected for context-specific interactional outcomes. This report describes how even such simple forms of person reference as somebody (along with someone and a/the person) can be selected on the basis of their relevance for the specific interactional context in which they are employed. We consider how the particular circumstances of some person reference occasions can make these generic person reference forms specially relevant (even when other, more elaborated forms of reference, either recognitional or non-recognitional, were evidently available to the speaker), and we demonstrate how even these barest forms of person reference can be called on to perform delicate, context-sensitive interactional work. Specifically, we show that speakers can select these generic reference forms for non-recognitional references that a) contribute to the formation of the action of a turn, and, when used in a story, b) contribute to the storyâs telling. Finally, we show how a generic person reference can be selected in place of a recognitional reference, thereby openly concealing a referentâs identity
Reformulating place
No full textThis report examines what can be accomplished in conversation by reformulating a reference to a place using the practices of repair. It is based on an analysis of a collection of place references situated in second pair parts of adjacency pairs taken from a wide range of field recordings of talk-in-interaction. Not surprisingly, place references are sometimes reformulated so as to indicate a misspeaking or in pursuit of recipient recognition. At other times, however, we show that place references can be reformulated to more adequately implement the action of a turn in prosecuting the course of action of which it is a part. In these cases repairing a place reference can target a source of trouble associated with implementing the action of a turn at talk, and thus reformulating place can serve as a practical resource for accomplishing a range of interactional tasks. We conclude with a more complex case in which two reformulations are deployed in responding to a so-called âdouble-barrelledâ initiating action
When Someone Other than the Addressed Recipient Speaks Next: Three Kinds of Intervening Action After the Selection of Next Speaker
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