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Modified Repeats: One Method for Asserting Primary Rights from Second Position

Modified Repeats: One Method for Asserting Primary Rights from Second Position. Tanya Stivers Language & Cognition Group Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Conversation Analysis.

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Modified Repeats: One Method for Asserting Primary Rights from Second Position

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  1. Modified Repeats: One Method for Asserting Primary Rights from Second Position Tanya Stivers Language & Cognition Group Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

  2. Conversation Analysis • Assumes that social interaction is governed by social norms or rules that can be observed in the ways that people use language in interaction • Mandates work on spontaneous, naturally occurring, recorded social interaction • Mandates that instances of a phenomenon be examined across a corpora of data to ensure that the phenomenon is “real” and generalizable • Mandates that “deviant” cases be accounted for

  3. Today • An example of a CA approach to interaction • Relies on the collection of instances of the phenomenon “modified repeats” as ways of confirming assertions • Describes the function of this practice in ordinary conversation

  4. Assertions Assertions are utterances that: describe, assess, or state something as fact No response is conditionally relevant, but agreements and confirmations are relatively common

  5. HS 4 T2 08: simple agreement 1 JOE: (Two) months, ((age of child)) 2 (0.2) 3 JOE: (Three) months, 4 (.) 5 TIM: Go:d they don't know [(^nothin') 6 JOE: [That's an infant. 7 TIM: Ye^a:h. TC Linda & Joan: simple agreement 1 LIN: Craig’s hair rilly wz startin’ 2 tuh look better. 3 JOA: Ye:a:h.

  6. Confirmations Most confirmations occur in contexts where confirmation is sought: e.g., Requests for confirmation Statements about the interlocutor (B-event statements, Labov & Fanshel, 1977)

  7. Modified Repeats Modified repeats confirm an assertion in an environment where confirmation was not requested. HS 4 7-9-03 T1 59:46 1 Tim: I think it was some black folks cuz you 2 see(n) ‘em on [(thuh TV) 3 Joe: [It was.

  8. Modified repeats: Form 1) Removes any epistemic downgrading from the original claim (e.g., “I think”; “It might be”, etc.) 2) Restates the prior assertion using at least enough of the same language to be heard as a “second” 3) They expand and stress the copula/auxiliary verb in the repetition

  9. Partial repetition Epistemic downgrade is dropped in the modified repeat Copula is stressed Modified Repeats HS 4 7-9-03 T1 59:46 1 Tim: I think it was some black folks cuz you 2 see(n) ‘em on [(thuh TV) 3 Joe: [It was.

  10. Modified Repeats: Function Although positioned to “second” a prior assertion, modified repeats are competitive: • They assert epistemic authority over the matter at hand • From a responsive (second) position, they work to undermine the prior speaker’s epistemic authority to make the claim

  11. Modified repeat claims: The account for the meat smelling good is not Gio’s to make Repetition and stress Downgrade dropped Housemates 2:30 1 Lan: This’ smelling goo:d_ I might start 2 eating raw meat, 3 (0.2) 4 Jud: S::ee:? 5 (1.0) 6 Lan: Yeah but I’m not [that weird.] 7 Gio: [I th(h)ink ] it’s just 8 all the spices. 9 (0.2) 10 Lan: It is.

  12. Housemates 10.27 1 Lan: Great_ 2 (0.2) 3 Lan: .h As long as you don’t have too much.= • “cuz you remember what happen’=las’= • time.” 6 Gio: h[h(h) 7 Lan: [Got (Chel)/(che) [drunk (didn’t sh-) 8 Gio: [An’ it’s uh school 9 night. 10 Jud: °Yeah.° 11 (0.2)/((Lan preparing food)) 11 Lan: It is uh school night. 12 (0.2) 13 Lan: Mister- <two jacks already,>

  13. Full modified repeat Sanction of Gio’s rights to make the claim Housemates 10.27 3 Lan: .h As long as you don’t have too much.= • “cuz you remember what happen’=las’= • time.” 6 Gio: h[h(h) 7 Lan: [Got (Chel)/(che) [drunk (didn’t sh-) 8 Gio: [An’ it’s uh school 9 night. 10 Jud: °Yeah.° 11 (0.2)/((Lan preparing food)) 11 Lan: It is uh school night. 12 (0.2) 13 Lan: Mister- <two jacks already,>

  14. Epistemic Domains • Interactants demonstrate that there is a difference between epistemic independence (knowing something independent of your interlocutor) and epistemic authority/rights (knowing something better than your interlocutor) • They use different communication practices for each: “Oh” prefaced agreements assert independent knowledge (Heritage, 2002) Modified repeats assert better knowledge

  15. Epistemic independence Full modified repeat Epistemic Independence vs Authority 1 ROB: Oh I’m such a ^so: gla:d t’have a chat 2 with you cz I ^do want t’know’n I’m 3 en^joying it ‘n the children’re love[ly 4 LES: [.tch 5 LES: ^Oh yes.=They ^are lovely::I[h if a= 6 ROB: [( ) 7 LES: =little exciteable. 8 ROB: Th[a:t’s w’t I thought. 9 LES: [Hm:.

  16. Modified Repeats: Summary • Modified repeats are one type of response to first position assertions which, although agreeing, compete over the “terms of agreement” (Heritage & Raymond, 2005) • They compete over “territories of knowledge”: who has rights to know what and with what authority • This practice specifically competes over epistemic authority

  17. The contribution of this approach • A CA approach combines a detailed qualitative approach to the study of interaction with the benefits of corpus based research: generalizability and distributional evidence for the pervasiveness of a phenomenon

  18. Thank you!

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