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Rejecting the validity of inferred attributions of incompetence in German talk-in-interaction
(2024)
This paper deals with pragmatic inference from the perspective of Conversation Analysis. In particular, we examine a specific variety of inferences - the attribution of incompetence which Self constructs on the basis of Other's prior action, hearable as positioning Self as incompetent (e.g., instructions, offers of assistance, advice); this attribution of incompetence concerns Self's execution of some practical task. This inference is indexed in Self's response, which highlights Self's expertise, or competence concerning the task at hand. We focus on two recurrent types of such responses in our data: (i) accounting for competence through formulations of prior experience with carrying out a practical action and (ii) explicit claims of competence for accomplishing this action. We analyze the interactional environments in which these responses occur, the ways in which the two practices index Self's understanding of being positioned as incompetent and the interactional work they do. Finally, we discuss how through rejecting and inferred attribution of incompetence, Self implicitly seeks to restore their face and defend their autonomy as an agent, yet, without entering an explicit identity-negotiation. Findings rest on the analysis of 20 cases found in video-recordings of naturally occurring talk-in-interaction in German from the corpus FOLK.
It is a ubiquitous phenomenon of everyday interaction that participants confront their co-participants for behaviour that they assess as undesirable or in some other way untoward. In a set of video data of informal interaction from the PECII corpus (Parallel European Corpus of Informal Interaction), cases of such sanctions have been collected in English, German, Italian and Polish data. This study presents work in progress and focuses on interrogatively formatted sanctions, in particular on non-polar interrogatives. It has already been shown that interrogatives can do much more than ask questions (Huddleston 1994). They can also function as directives (Lindström et al. 2017) or, more specifically, as requests (Curl/Drew 2008), as invitations (Margutti/Galatolo 2018) or reproaches (Klattenberg 2021), among others. What makes them interesting for cross-linguistic comparison is that the four languages that are considered provide different morphological and (morpho-)syntactical ressources for the realization of interrogative phrases. For example, German provides the option of building in the modal particle denn that reveals a previous lack of clarity and obliges the co-participant(s) to deliver the missing information (Deppermann 2009). Of course, the other three languages have modal particles, too (e.g. allora in Italian or though in English), but they do not seem to convey the same semantic and interactional qualities as denn. From an interactional point of view, one could think that interrogatives are a typical and effective way of solliciting accounts, since formally they open up a conditionally relevant space for an answer or a
reaction. But as the data shows, this does not guarantee that they are actually responded to. Another relevant aspect in the context of sanctions is that the interrogative format seems to carry a certain ‚openness‘ that might be seen as a mitigating effect and thus provides an interesting point of comparison with other mitigating devices. This study uses the methods of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics. It is based on a collection of 148 interrogative sanctions (out of which 84 are non-polar interrogatives) covering the four languages. I draw on coded data from roughly 1000 cases to get a first overall idea of how the interrogative format might differ from other formats, and how it might interrelate with specific features – for example, if subsequently an account is delivered. Going more into depth, the interrogative sanctions will then be analyzed with respect to their formal design (e.g. polar questions vs. content questions vs. tag questions, Rossano 2010; Hayano 2013) and to their pragmatic implications. I also analyze reactions to such sanctions – both formally (cf. Enfield et al. 2019, 279) and, again, from an interactional perspective (e.g. acceptance/compliance vs. challenging/defiance; Kent 2012; Cekaite 2020). A more detailed zooming in on the sequential unfolding of some particularly interesting
instances of sanctioning interrogatives will make the picture complete.
Interactants who encounter co-participant conduct which they find to be socio-normatively problematic or troublesome are faced with a range of choices. First and foremost, this includes the issue of whether to directly address it, or to simply ‘let it pass’ (at least for now) (Emerson/Messinger 1977). In the case of the former, the issue then becomes how to address it. Across the various ways in which participants can pragmatically engage with what they perceive to be transgressive or untoward behavior (e.g., Pomerantz 1978; Schegloff 1988b; Dersley/Wootton 2000; Günthner 2000; Bolden/Robinson 2011; Potter/Hepburn 2020; see also Rodriguez 2022), they sometimes meta-pragmatically formulate the co-participant’s doings in terms of specific actions. Such action descriptions are necessarily selective (Sacks 1963; Schegloff 1972, 1988a; Sidnell/Barnes 2013): They foreground certain aspects of the co-participant’s conduct, while backgrounding others, and thus contribute to publically construeing the formulated conduct in particular ways (Jayyusi 1993), viz. as socio-normatively problematic, transgressive or untoward, and interactionally accountable (Robinson 2016; Sidnell 2017).
In this presentation I show first results from an ongoing study about syntactic complexity of sanctioning turns in spoken language. This study is part of a larger project on sanctioning of misconduct in social interaction in different European languages (English, German, Italian and Polish). For the study I use video recordings of different everyday settings (family breakfasts, board game interactions and car rides) with three or four participants. These data come from the Parallel European Corpus of Informal Interaction (Kornfeld/Küttner/Zinken 2023; Küttner et al. submitted). I focus on sanctioning turns with more than one turn-constructional unit (see among others for TCUs: Sacks/Schegloff/Jefferson 1974; Clayman 2013). The study asks how often TCUs are linked to each other in the different languages, for what function, and how language diversity enters into this. Note that complex sanctioning turns do not always come as complex sentences.
From June 26th to July 2nd 2023 the International Conference on Conversation Analysis (ICCA) took place in Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia – after a long pause due to the Covid-pandemic and for the first time in the southern hemisphere. About 350 participants from about 50 different countries attended the conference. This year’s ICCA came up with 36 panels and about 300 papers that were presented. Four plenary speakers have been invited and 24 pre-conference workshops took place. On Wednesday evening Ilana Mushin, in her role as conference chair, officially opened ICCA. The President of the International Society of Conversation Analysis (ISCA), Tanya Stivers, also welcomed all participants. To get acquainted with the indigenous culture of Queensland, the opening ceremony was enriched with a highly impressive dance performance by First Nations people. After the official inauguration the international community met at the Welcome Reception to look forward together to the days ahead with many opportunities for exchange and networking.
As it will become clear throughout this report, the research topics revolved around not only classic CA concepts, but also importantly concerned embodiment, which continued the line of past conferences (Dix 2019). Another aspect that has been highlighted was conflict and social norms. Due to personal capacities, we can only present a selection of presentations within the scope of this conference report. The selection was influenced by the personal interest of the authors and should not be understood as rating in any sense.
This study investigates other-initiated repair and its embodied dimension in casual English as lingua franca (ELF) conversations, thereby contributing to the further understanding of multimodal repair practices in social interaction. Using multimodal conversation analysis, we focus on two types of restricted other-initiation of repair (OIR): partial repeats preceded or followed by the question word what (i.e., what X?/X what?) and copular interrogative clauses (i.e., what is X). Partial repeats with what produced with rising final intonation are consistently accompanied by a head poke and treated as relating to troubles in hearing, with the repair usually consisting of a repeat. In contrast to these partial repeats, copular interrogative clauses are produced with downward final intonation and accompanied by face-related embodied conduct. The what is X OIRs primarily target code-switched lexical items, the understanding of which is critical for maintaining the repair initiator’s involvement in the ongoing sequence. This study also contributes some general reflections on the possible complexity of OIR and repair practices from a multimodal perspective.
This manual introduces a conversation analytically informed coding scheme for episodes involving the direct social sanctioning of problem behavior in informal social interaction which was developed in the project Norms, Rules, and Morality across Languages (NoRM-aL) at the Leibniz-Institute for the German Language. It outlines the background for its development, delimits the phenomena to which the coding scheme can be applied and provides instructions for its use.
The scheme asks for basic information about the recording and the participants involved in the episode, before taking stock of different features of the sanctioning episode as a whole. This is followed by sets of specific coding questions about the sanctioning move itself (such as its timing and composition) and the reaction it engenders. The coding enables researchers to get a bird’s eye view on recurrent features of such episodes in larger quantities of data and allows for comparisons across different languages and informal settings.
This paper examines multi-unit turns that allow speakers to retrospectively close the prior sequence while prospectively launching a new sequence, which Schegloff (1986) referred to as interlocking organization. Using English telephone conversations as data, we focus on how multi-unit turns are used for topic shifts, and show that interlocking organization operates in conjunction with other phonetic and lexical features, such as increased pitch and overt markers of disjunction (e.g., “listen”). In addition, speakers utilize an audible inbreath that is placed between the first and the second units as a central interactional resource to project further talk, thereby suppressing speaker transition and possibly highlighting the action delivered in the second unit as being distinctly new. We propose that interlocking multi-unit turns, when used to make topically disjunctive moves, promote progressivity by avoiding a possible lapse in turn transition
We present a collection of (currently) about 5.500 commands directed to voice-controlled virtual assistants (VAs) by sixteen initial users of a VA system in their homes. The collection comprises recordings captured by the VA itself and with a conditional voice recorder (CVR) selectively capturing recordings including the VA-directed commands plus some surrounding context. Next to a description of the collection, we present initial findings on the patterns of use of the VA systems during the first weeks after installation, including usage timing, the development of usage frequency, distributions of sentence structures across commands, and (the development of) command success rates. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the applied collection-specific recording approach and describe potential research questions that can be investigated in the future, based on the collection, as well as the merit of combining quantitative corpus linguistic approaches with qualitative in-depth analyses of single cases.
This article investigates mundane photo taking practices with personal mobile devices in the co-presence of others, as well as “divergent” self-initiated smartphone use, thereby exploring the impact of everyday technologies on social interaction. Utilizing multimodal conversation analysis, we examined sequences in which young adults take pictures of food and drinks in restaurants and cafés. Although everyday interactions are abundant in opportunities for accomplishing food photography as a side activity, our data show that taking pictures is also often prioritized over other activities. Through a detailed sequential analysis of video recordings and dynamic screen captures of mobile devices, we illustrate how photographers orient to the momentary opportunities for and relevance of photo taking, that is, how they systematically organize their photographing with respect to the ongoing social encounter and the (projected) changes in the material environment. We investigate how the participants multimodally negotiate the “mainness” and “sideness” (Mondada, 2014) of situated food photography and describe some particular features of participants’ conduct in moments of mundane multiactivity.
The Encyclopedia of Terminology for Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics is an online resource for students and scholars of CA/IL, publicly available on the EMCA Wiki page. Encyclopedias and glossaries are widespread across various fields and methods, and serve as immensely valuable resources. Given the extent to which the EMCA/IL community has expanded over the years—both terminologically as well as geographically—we hope that this encyclopedia of terminology will be well received by students and practitioners of CA and IL across the globe.
Tollpatschig interviewen oder interviewt werden – Kurzvideos im ukrainischen und deutschen Fernsehen
(2016)
Kurzinterviews im Fernsehen stellen nicht nur für die kontrastive Medienlinguistik, sondern auch für die Gesprächsanalyse, Textsortenlinguistik und Pragmatik einen aufschlussreichen Gegenstand dar, besonders wenn es sich um kommunikative Abweichungen handelt. Der Beitrag stellt die Klassifizierung der Abweichungen bzw. der Deviationen in den Fernsehinterviews in Bezug auf die Kommunikation und die Sprache vor. Dabei werden die Kommunikationsdeviationen vom Standpunkt des Adressanten, des Kommunikationsprozesses, des gegenseitigen Verständnisses und des Adressaten sowie sprachliche Abweichungen betrachtet. Im Beitrag werden gemeinsame und unterschiedliche Merkmale der Deviationen in ukrainischen und deutschen Kurzinterviews im Fernsehen festgestellt, was zur Erarbeitung eines Modells der Deviationen und zu einer tieferen kontrastiven Untersuchung beider Sprachen verhilft.
Widerstand als psychoanalytisches Konzept beschreibt die Ambivalenz von Psychotherapiepatient*innen gegenüber dem therapeutischen Veränderungsprozess. Während der*die Patient*in sich mit dem Wunsch, bestimmte Veränderungen zu erzielen, auf die Therapie einlässt, stellen sich diesem Wunsch unbewusste Kräfte entgegen, die versuchen, den Status quo aufrechtzuerhalten. Hintergrund ist die Annahme, dass Widerstand eine Schutzfunktion darstellt, um schmerzhafte Affekte abzuwehren, die integraler Bestandteil eines psychotherapeutischen Prozesses sind. Therapeut*innen sehen sich vor der Aufgabe, Widerstandsphänomene als solche zu erkennen, deren Funktion zu verstehen und einen gemeinsamen Verstehensprozess mit dem*der Patient*in zu ermöglichen. Eine gesprächsanalytische Untersuchung von Widerstand und dessen kommunikativer Bearbeitung bietet eine wertvolle Ergänzung zur psychotherapeutischen Betrachtungsweise. Ein bislang in der Literatur wenig beachtetes Widerstandsphänomen ist Verbosität, womit gemeinhin ausufernde, unfokussierte Erzählungen gemeint sind. Aufbauend auf der bisher einzigen gesprächsanalytischen Untersuchung zu Verbosität als Widerstandsphänomen von Fenner, Spranz-Fogasy und Montan (2022) ist das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit, herauszuarbeiten, wie Widerstandsmanagement bei Verbosität verwendet wird. Dafür werden zwei Fallbeispiele gesprächsanalytisch untersucht. Diese stammen aus einem Korpus 34 videographierter ambulanter psychodynamischer Therapiesitzungen. Anhand des ersten Fallbeispiels wird deutlich, dass Verbosität als Widerstandsphänomen nicht nur patient*innenseitig geäußert wird, sondern gemeinsam mit dem*der Therapeut*in interaktiv hergestellt und forciert werden kann. Das zweite Beispiel zeigt, wie Widerstandsmanagement zu einer Auflösung des Widerstands führen kann. Die Analysen verdeutlichen zum einen auch, dass der psychoanalytische Widerstandsbegriff aus gesprächsanalytischer Sicht kritisch zu betrachten ist und zum anderen, dass beide Disziplinen nicht unbedingt zu den gleichen Ergebnissen kommen.
Das Forschungs- und Lehrkorpus für GesprochenesDeutsch (FOLK) ist ein Korpus des gesprochenen Deutsch in natürlichen sozialen Interaktionen, das seit 2008 in der Abteilung Pragmatik am Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim aufgebaut wird. FOLK besteht aus Audio- und Videoaufzeichnungen natürlicher Gespräche aus verschiedensten gesellschaftlichen Bereichen (private, institutionelle und öffentliche Interaktionsdomäne), die durch Transkription, weitere Annotationen und Metadaten-Dokumentation für korpusgestützte Analysen erschlossen und zur wissenschaftlichen Nutzung bereitgestellt werden. FOLK wird auf vielfältige Weise für Untersuchungen zum gesprochenen Deutsch genutzt, insbesondere in der Gesprächsforschung, der Korpuslinguistik und anwendungsorientierten Zweigen der Linguistik.
ZuRecht steht für Zugang zur Recherche in Transkripten. Es handelt sich um eine prototypische Implementierung einer webbasierten grafischen Benutzeroberfläche, welche Zugriff auf Transkripte gesprochener Sprache aus dem Archiv für Gesprochenes Deutsch (AGD) des Leibniz-Instituts für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) bietet. Der Zugriff erfolgt über die neue, im Projekt „ZuMult“ entwickelte Schnittstelle zur Suche in mündlichen Korpora. ZuRecht dient einerseits der Demonstration der Möglichkeiten der neuen Schnittstelle, indem es komplexe Suchanfragen mit der speziell für die Korpusrecherche entwickelten Anfragesprache CQP auf Transkriptionen gesprochener Sprache erlaubt. Andererseits kommt ZuRecht als Erweiterung der Datenbank für Gesprochenes Deutsch (DGD) zum Einsatz und eröffnet den DGD-Nutzer:innen viele neue Forschungsmöglichkeiten, insbesondere auf den Gebieten der Gesprächsanalyse und der DaF/DaZ-bezogenen Forschung. Im Beitrag werden die Funktionalitäten von ZuRecht ausführlich vorgestellt und ihre Einsatzmöglichkeiten in den genannten Disziplinen exemplarisch vorgeführt.
Using multimodal conversation analysis, we investigate how novices learning the “inner body” acting technique in the context of a community theater project share their experiences of the bodily exercises through verbal and embodied conduct. We focus on how verbal description and bodily enactment of the experience mutually elaborate each other, and how the experienced sensorimotor and affective qualities are made to be witnessed and recognized by the others. Participants describe their experiences without naming qualities. Instead, a display of the experienced qualities is made accessible to others through coordinating the unfolding talk and bodily conduct. In particular, we show how grammatical and action projection is fulfilled by interconnected verbal and embodied conduct, with body movement and posture giving off ineffable experiential qualities. The moving body appears both as a source of the experience and as a resource for depicting perceived qualities to others; additional resources (non-specific person reference and gaze aversion) contribute to organizing the subjective and intersubjective layers of the reflection of the experiences. The study contributes to and extends recent research on sensoriality in interaction by focusing on phenomena of proprioception and interoception. The data are two cases drawn from 60 h of video-recordings made in the context of a devised community theater project. The data are in Finnish with English translations.
Manual für die Kodierung von Fragetypen und Fragesequenztypen im Coaching. Version 1.0 (Mai 2023)
(2023)
Das vorliegende Manual dient der Beschreibung und Bewertung einer coachingspezifischen Typologie von Fragen und, darauf aufbauend, der durch diese Fragen kontextualisierten Fragesequenzen. Mittels eines interdisziplinären psychologischen und linguistisch-gesprächsanalytischen Ansatzes wird ein Rating-Instrument zur qualitativen und quantitativen Erfassung von Fragen und Fragesequenzen im Coachingprozess entwickelt. Ziel ist es, weniger gelingende von besser gelingenden Sequenzen zu unterscheiden. Dabei wird davon ausgegangen, dass gelingende Sequenzen zum Gesamterfolg des Gesprächs beitragen.
Das Gelingen der Fragesequenzen wird mit Hilfe der Responsivität von Coach und Coachee bewertet. Responsivität bezieht sich auf die sprachlichen Handlungen beider Gesprächsteilnehmer*innen (Graf & Dionne 2021) und wird in diesem Manual sowohl auf der Ebene einzelner Sequenzpositionen als auch der Gesamtsequenz verstanden. Die Responsivität der Gesprächsteilnehmer*innen sowie das Gelingen der Fragesequenzen wird in Bezug auf die Organisationsstruktur des Coachinggesprächs betrachtet.
Gegenstand des Manuals sind dyadische Coachinggespräche zwischen Coaches und Coachees aus dem Bereich des berufsbezogenen Coachings. Fragen der Coaches dienen als Ausgangspunkt (target action) (Peräkylä 2019) für die Bildung einer Fragesequenz.
Die Rationale der psychodynamischen Psychotherapie (und anderer Therapieformate) besteht darin, belastende und teils der bewussten Reflexion unzugängliche Erfahrungen der PatientInnen aufzuklären, ihre Ursachen zu identifizieren und alternative Wahrnehmungs- und Handlungsweisen zu ermöglichen. Dazu bedient sie sich eines bestimmten Settings: der Therapie über mehrere Sitzungen hinweg, in denen PatientInnen ihre Beschwerden und Erfahrungen berichten und TherapeutInnen mithilfe kommunikativer Praktiken gemeinsam mit den PatientInnen die Beschwerden aufzuklären, die Erfahrungen zu vertiefen und die Probleme zu lösen suchen. In der konversationsanalytischen Psychotherapieforschung (Peräkylä et al. 2008) werden dazu vier Grundtypen verständigungsbegünstigender kommunikativer Praktiken der Psychotherapie identifiziert: äußerungsfortführende Extensionen, Musterhaftigkeit herstellende Interpretationen, reformulierende formulations und Fragen (Weiste & Peräkylä 2015). Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich der Untersuchung von drei Fragetypen: Beispielnachfrage, Kollaborative Erklärungsfindungsfrage und Lösungsorientierte Frage und deren sequenzieller Organisation in psychodiagnostischen Gesprächen. Ziel ist es, deren unterschiedliche produktive Potenziale hinsichtlich der Handlungsrationale diagnostischer und therapeutischer Aufgabenstellungen herauszuarbeiten.
This paper focuses on so called syntactic projection phenomena in the German language. This term from the German Gesprächsforschung is used to define the fact that an utterance or part of it foreshadows another one. This paper aims at pointing out how such projection phenomena are consciously exploited for rhethorical purposes. This will be observed on the basis of excerpts from the Stuttgart 21 mediation talks. The linguistic analysis carried out in this paper will focus on syntactic projection phenomena involving the use of causal adverbial connectives deshalb and deswegen.
Within a rapidly digitalising society, it is important to understand how the learning and teaching of digital skills play out in situ, particularly amongst older adults who acquire these skills later in life. This paper focuses on participants engaged in the process of learning digital skills in adult education courses. Using video recordings from adult education centres in Finland and Germany, we explore how students mobilise their teachers’ assistance when encountering problems with their smartphones, laptops or tablets. Prior research on social interaction has shown that assistance can be recruited through a variety of verbal and embodied formats. In this specific educational setting, participants can use complaints about their digital skills or mobile devices to obtain assistance. Utilising multimodal conversation analysis, we describe two basic sequence types involving students’ complaints, discuss their cross-linguistic characteristics, and reflect on their connection to this educational setting and digital devices.
In theater as a bodily-spatial art form, much emphasis is placed on the way actors perform movements in space as an important multimodal resource for creating meaning. In theater rehearsals, movements are created in series of directors' instructions and actors' implementations. Directors' instructions on how to conduct a movement often draw on embodied demonstrations in contrast to verbal descriptions. For instance, to instruct an actress to act like a school girl a director can use depictive (he demonstrates the expected behavior) instead of descriptive (“can you act like a school girl”) means. Drawing on a corpus of 400 h video recordings of rehearsal interactions in three German professional theater productions, from which we selected 265 cases, we examine ways to instruct movement-based actions in theater rehearsals. Using a multimodally extended ethnomethodological-conversation analytical approach, we focus on the multimodal details that constitute demonstrations as complex action types. For the present article, we have chosen nine instances, through which we aim to illuminate (1) The difference in using embodied demonstrations versus verbal descriptions to instruct; (2) typical ways directors combine verbal descriptions with embodied demonstrations in their instructions. First, we ask what constitutes a demonstration and what it achieves in comparison to verbal descriptions. Using a typical case, we illustrate four characteristics of demonstrations that all of the cases we studied share. Demonstrations (1) are embedded in instructional activities; (2) show and do not tell; (3) are responded to by emulating what was shown; (4) are rhetorically shaped to convey the instruction's focus. However, none of the 265 demonstrations we investigated were produced without verbal descriptions. In a second step we therefore ask in which typical ways verbal descriptions accompany embodied demonstrations when directors instruct actors how to play a scene. We distinguish four basic types. Verbal descriptions can be used (1) to build the demonstration itself; (2) to delineate a demonstration verbally within an instruction; (3) to indicate positive (what should be done) and negative (what should be avoided) versions of demonstrations; (4) as an independent means to describe the instruction's focus in addition to the demonstration. Our study contributes to research on how embodied resources are used to create meaning and how they combine with and depend on verbal resources.
In this article we examine moments in which parents or other caregivers overtly invoke rules during episodes in which they take issue with, intervene against, and try to change a child’s ongoing behavior or action(s). Drawing on interactional data from four different languages (English, Finnish, German, Polish) and using Conversation Analytic methods, we first illustrate the variety of ways in which parents may use such overt rule invocations as part of their behavior modification attempts, showing them to be functionally versatile interactional objects. Their interactional flexibility notwithstanding, we find that parents typically invoke rules when, in the course of the intervention episode, they encounter trouble with achieving an acceptable compliant outcome. To get at the distinct import of rule formulations in this context, we then compare them to two sequential alternatives: parental expressions of an experienced negative affective state, and parental threats. While the former emphasize aspects of social solidarity, the latter seek to enforce compliance by foregrounding a power asymmetry between the parent and the child. Rule formulations, by contrast, are designedly impersonal and appear to be directed at what the parents construe as shortcomings in common-sense practical reasoning on the child’s part. Reflexively, the child is thereby cast as not having properly applied common-sense ‘practical reason’ when engaging in what is treated as the problematic behavior or action. Overt rule invocations can, therefore, be understood as indexical appeals to practical reason.
This contribution investigates the use of the Czech particle jako (“like”/“as”) in naturally occurring conversations. Inspired by interactional research on unfinished or suspended utterances and on turn-final conjunctions and particles, the analysis aims to trace the possible development of jako from conjunction to a tag-like particle that can be exploited for mobilizing affiliative responses. Traditionally, jako has been described as conjunction used for comparing two elements or for providing a specification of a first element [“X (is) like Y”]. In spoken Czech, however, jako can be flexibly positioned within a speaking turn and does not seem to operate as a coordinating or hypotactic conjunction. As a result, prior studies have described jako as a polyfunctional particle. This article will try to shed light on the meaning of jako in spoken discourse by focusing on its apparent fuzzy or “filler” uses, i.e., when it is found in a mid-turn position in multi-unit turns and in the immediate vicinity of hesitations, pauses, and turn suspensions. Based on examples from mundane, video-recorded conversations and on a sequential and multimodal approach to social interaction, the analyses will first show that jako frequently frames discursive objects that co-participants should respond to. By using jako before a pause and concurrently adopting specific embodied displays, participants can more explicitly seek to mobilize responsive action. Moreover, as jako tends to cluster in multi-unit turns involving the formulation of subjective experience or stance, it can be shown to be specifically designed for mobilizing affiliative responses. Finally, it will be argued that the potential of jako to open up interactive turn spaces can be linked to the fundamental comparative semantics of the original conjunction.
Bauchschmerzen bei Kindern sind häufig, aber glücklicherweise meist ohne schwerwiegende Ursache. Sogar starke oder wiederkehrende Bauchschmerzen haben oftmals keinen organischen Ursprung. Dennoch erfolgt bei Kindern mit häufigen Bauchschmerzen in der Regel eine umfangreiche und für alle Beteiligten belastende diagnostische Abklärung – teilweise sogar ohne seriösen, hilfreichen Befund. Idealerweise sollte bereits im Gespräch mit einem fachkundigen Arzt deutlich werden, ob die Schmerzen somatischen oder psychosomatischen Ursprungs sind, um überflüssige und teure Untersuchungsmaßnahmen einzusparen. An dieser Stelle kommt die Gesprächsforschung zum Einsatz: Für die Unterscheidung von organischen und psychisch bedingten Anfallsereignissen konnte gezeigt werden, dass die entscheidenden Hinweise zur Diagnose nicht nur in den geschilderten Fakten liegen, sondern auch in der Art, wie die Betroffenen selbst über ihr Problem reden und mit dem Arzt interagieren. Diese Hinweise lassen sich zielgenau durch gesprächslinguistische Analysen erfassen (vgl. Opp/Frank-Job/Knerich 2015). Für epileptische vs. dissoziative Anfälle konnte dies bereits belegt und in klinischen Studien validiert werden (vgl. Schwabe/Howell/Reuber 2007). In Anknüpfung an das genannte Projekt wird in dieser Dissertation überprüft, ob und inwieweit die Befunde aus der Anfallsforschung auch auf eine andere Erkrankung und Patientinnengruppe übertragen werden können. Für diesen Zweck werden dyadische Interaktionen junger Patientinnen mit Medizinerinnen während einer spezifischen Form und Phase der Anamnese analysiert: Der analytische Kern der Arbeit thematisiert die Interaktion der Beteiligten beim zeichnerischen Umsetzen von Bauchschmerzen. Dabei zeigt sich die interaktiv hervorgebrachte Positionierung der Patientinnen zur Malaufgabe als zentral und entsprechend diagnostisch relevant: Während Patientinnen, deren Schmerzen organischen Ursprungs sind, dazu tendieren, die Malaufgabe mit redundanten Informationen pflichtgemäß zu erfüllen, neigen Patientinnen, die an funktionellen Beschwerden leiden, hingegen dazu, die Malaufgabe als Chance zur Aktualisierung der Beschwerdenschilderung zu sehen. Diese Erkenntnisse lassen sich in Form einer Diagnosetabelle zusammenfassen und konstituieren damit die Basis für einen gesprächsanalytischen Anwendungsbezug, der die medizinische Forschung und Ausbildung um ein innovatives Diagnostikverfahren bereichern kann.
Der Beitrag präsentiert Ergebnisse des Projekts „Deutsch im Beruf: Die sprachlich-kommunikative Integration der Flüchtlinge“, das am Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) durchgeführt wird. Im ersten Teil wird auf die zweistufige Sprachstandserhebung in den allgemeinen Integrationskursen eingegangen, die zusammen mit dem Goethe-Institut umgesetzt wurde. Bei der ersten Erhebung zu Beginn der Kurse wurden mit einer Tabletumfrage die Sozialdaten und Sprachenbiografien der Teilnehmenden erhoben. Bei der zweiten Erhebung am Ende der gleichen Kurse ging es darum, mit Hilfe der Analyse von Sprachaufnahmen das erreichte mündliche Kompetenzniveau der Teilnehmenden zu ermitteln. Im zweiten Teil des Beitrags stellen wir Ergebnisse unserer ethnografisch-gesprächsanalytischen Feldstudien vor, die wir in verschiedenen Arbeitskontexten wie Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen, duale Berufsausbildung und betriebliche Praktika durchgeführt haben. In Bezug auf die zentralen Fragen zu gegenseitiger Verständigung und der Sprachvermittlung am Arbeitsplatz konnten wir im Rahmen unserer Ethnografien drei prototypische Praktiken feststellen, auf die wir näher eingehen: a) „kaum Verständnissicherung und Sprachvermittlung“, b) „ad-hoc Verständnissicherung und Sprachvermittlung“ und c) „systematische Verständnissicherung und Sprachvermittlung“. Des Weiteren fokussieren wir im letzten Teil des Beitrags die Ergebnisse unserer ethnografischen Langzeitstudie zu Betriebspraktika von studierenden Geflüchteten. Anhand der Untersuchung von Reparaturen zeigt sich hier die Entwicklung der interaktionalen Kompetenz eines L2-Sprechers, die mit einer zunehmenden kommunikativen Integration in Teamgesprächen einhergeht.
Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich mit dem computergestützten Transkriptionsverfahren arabisch-deutscher Gesprächsdaten für interaktionsbezogene Untersuchungen auseinander. Zunächst werden wesentliche methodische Herausforderungen der gesprächsanalytischen Arbeit adressiert: Hinsichtlich der derzeitigen Korpustechnologie ermöglicht die Verwendung von arabischen Schriftzeichen in einem mehrsprachigen, bidirektionalen Transkript keine analysegerechte Rekonstruktion von Reziprozität, Linearität und Simultaneität sprachlichen Handelns. Zudem ist die Verschriftung von arabischen Gesprächsdaten aufgrund der unzureichenden (gesprächsanalytischen) Beschäftigung mit den standardfernen Varietäten und gesprochensprachlichen Phänomenen erschwert. Daher widmet sich der zweite Teil des Beitrags den bisher erarbeiteten und erprobten Lösungsansätzen ̶ einem stringenten, gesprächsanalytisch fundierten Transkriptionssystem für gesprochenes Arabisch.
The paper deals with the process of computer-aided transcription regarding Arabic-German data material for interaction-based studies. First of all, it sheds light upon some major methodological challenges posed by the conversation-analytic approaches: due to current corpus technology, the reciprocity, linearity, and simultaneity of linguistic activities cannot be reconstructed in an analytically proper way when using the Arabic characters in multilingual and bidirectional transcripts. The difficulty of transcribing Arabic encounters is also compounded by the fact that Spoken Arabic as well as its varieties and phenomena have not been standardised enough (for conversation-analytic purposes). Therefore, the second part of this paper is dedicated to preliminary, self-developed solutions, namely a systematic method for transcribing Spoken Arabic.
Die Arbeit wurde vom Verein für Gesprächsforschung mit dem Dissertationsförderpreis 2020 ausgezeichnet.
Bis heute gehört die Frage, wie InteraktionsteilnehmerInnen verstehen, welche von mehreren möglichen Lesarten eines sprachlichen Formats im jeweiligen Kontext gilt, zu den größten Herausforderungen der Konversationsanalyse. Aufbauend auf den Erkenntnissen über soziales Handeln in der Interaktion in Sprechakttheorie und Konversationsanalyse beschäftigt sich diese Arbeit mit dem Verhältnis zwischen rekurrenten sprachlichen Formaten und sozialen Handlungen. Im Fokus stehen interrogative und deklarative Modalverbformate: soll ich...?, kannst du...?, willst/magst/möchtest du...?, du kannst... und ich kann...
Eine umfassende, korpusdatengestützte Untersuchung zu diesen Formaten im Deutschen fehlte bisher. In der Forschung zu anderen Sprachen wurden vergleichbare Formate eingehender untersucht, aber fast ausschließlich in Bezug auf direktiv-kommissive Handlungen, wie Bitten, Aufforderungen, Angebote, Vorschläge etc., während das breitere Handlungsspektrum und -potenzial der Formate nicht aufgezeigt wurde.
Die vorliegende Untersuchung zeigt auf,
1. welches Handlungsspektrum die untersuchten Formate aufweisen,
2. wie die Komposition eines Turns, dessen Position (i.e., in der laufenden Sequenz, in der Interaktion, in der Aktivität oder in der Interaktionsgeschichte) sowie weitere kontextuelle Faktoren (wie z.B. die Verteilung von epistemischen und deontischen Rechten) dazu beitragen, wie das Format als diese oder jene Handlung in der Interaktion verstanden wird, und
3. welches Handlungspotenzial bzw. welche globale Handlungsbedeutung das jeweilige Format aufweist.
Die Untersuchung bedient sich der Methodik der Konversationsanalyse und der Interaktionalen Linguistik und beruht auf mehr als 500 Belegen aus Videoaufnahmen natürlicher Interaktion aus dem FOLK-Korpus.
Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, welche Handlungen mit den untersuchten Formaten vollzogen werden und welche Rolle unterschiedliche Faktoren (wie die Position des Turns, die Verteilung von deontischen und epistemischen Rechten, und die Verantwortung für das Projekt, auf das sich die Handlung bezieht, das Agens der künftigen Handlung, das nonverbale Verhalten von Interagierenden während der Realisierung des fokalen Turns etc.) dafür spielen, wie das jeweilige Format verstanden wird. Überdies wird nachgewiesen, welche weiteren linguistischen Merkmale (wie z.B. Vorkommen von Adverbien und Modal- bzw. Abtönungspartikeln, Argumentrealisierung, Wortfolge, Semantik des Vollverbs etc.) zusätzlich zum Modalverbformat für Handlungskonstitution und -zuschreibung relevant sein können und wann. Somit werden Faktoren herausgearbeitet, die für die weitere Entwicklung des Konzeptes ‚Format für soziale Handlungen‘ notwendig sind.
Die Arbeit zeigt, dass eine umfassende Analyse des gesamten Handlungsspektrums der Verwendung sprachlicher Formen auf Basis eines großen Korpus notwendig ist, um die für bestimmte Handlungsfunktionen relevanten Realisierungs- und Kontextbedingungen korrekt identifizieren zu können und vorschnellen Schlüssen über die Assoziation von linguistischen Formaten mit bestimmten Handlungen vorzubeugen. Trotz unterschiedlicher feingranularer Funktionen der Formate ist allerdings stets eine Kernbedeutung feststellbar, die zum Handlungspotenzial des jeweiligen Formats beiträgt.
The Lyon’s team research task consists in the study of the way in which multilingual resources are mobilized in team work within collaborative activities; how they are exploited in a specific way in order both to enhance collaboration and to respect the specificities of the members’ linguistic competences and practices within the team. Central to our analytical work, which is inspired by ethnomethodological conversation analysis, is the relationship between multilingual resources and the situated organization of linguistic uses and of social practices.
Our research task consists in the study of the way in which multilingual resources are mobilized in team work within collaborative activities; how they are exploited in a specific way in order both to enhance collaboration and to respect the specificities of the members’ linguistic competences and practices within the team. Central to our analytical work, which is inspired by ethnomethodological conversation analysis, is the relationship between multilingual resources and the situated organization of linguistic uses and of social practices. These two aspects are reflexively articulated, multilingual resources being shaped by the very contexts of their use and activities being constrained and thus structured by the available resources.
L’équipe de Lyon étudie la façon dont les ressources plurilingues sont mobilisées dans des activités collaboratives au sein du travail d’équipe. La démarche analytique est inspirée de l’Analyse Conversationnelle d’emprunte ethnomethodologique, et considère comme centrale la relation entre ressources plurilingues et organisation située des usages linguistiques et des pratiques sociales. Ces deux aspects sont réflexivement articulés, les ressources plurilingues étant modelées par leur contexte d’utilisation, et les activités étant mutuellement contraintes et structurées par les ressources disponibles.
Dieser Artikel schlägt eine Reflexion vor über die möglichen Konvergenzen zwischen einerseits einer linguistischen Betrachtungsweise der wissenschaftlichen Interaktion, welche empfänglich für die „analytische Mentalität“ der ethnomethodologisch beeinflussten Konversationsanalyse ist, und andererseits einer Betrachtungsweise der wissenschaftlichen Praktiken, wie sie von den social studies of science befürwortet wird, zu denen die ethnomethodologischen Untersuchungen der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit auf zentrale Weise beigetragen haben. Die nun folgende Überlegung wird nicht auf abstrakte Art vollzogen werden, sondern auf der Grundlage von empirischen Daten, bei denen es sich um Tonband- und Videoaufnahmen von Interaktionen zwischen Forschern bei der Ausübung ihrer alltäglichen wissenschaftlichen Arbeit handelt. Die analysierten Transkriptionsauszüge werden es uns ermöglichen, die grundsätzlichen Anfangsüberlegungen, die unserer Analysepraxis zugrunde liegen, konkret aufzuzeigen; wir werden unsere Aufmerksamkeit besonders auf diejenigen Methoden lenken, mittels derer die Interaktionspartner eines ersten Sprechers nach der Äußerung seiner Proposition mit dem Gespräch fortfahren, um diese erste Proposition anzunehmen, zu verändern oder abzulehnen. Eine solche empirische Durchmusterung wird es uns erlauben, die Art zu verdeutlichen, wie die interaktionalen Praktiken der Forscher in den Entstehungsprozess des wissenschaftlichen Wissens, in das Erscheinen von Argumenten, Thesen und Ideen eingreifen, die sich entweder durchsetzen und stabilisieren können oder aber die, im Gegenteil, instabil und kontrovers bleiben, d.h. die es schaffen oder umgekehrt es gerade nicht schaffen, sich in Wissensobjekten herauszukristallisieren.
Erzählen multimodal
(2018)
Special Issue: Mobile Medienpraktiken im Spannungsfeld von Öffentlichkeit, Privatheit und Anonymität
(2019)
In conversation, turn-taking is usually fluid, with next speakers taking their turn right after the end of the previous turn. Most, but not all, previous studies show that next speakers start to plan their turn early, if possible already during the incoming turn. The present study makes use of the list-completion paradigm (Barthel et al., 2016), analyzing speech onset latencies and eye-movements of participants in a task-oriented dialogue with a confederate. The measures are used to disentangle the contributions to the timing of turn-taking of early planning of content on the one hand and initiation of articulation as a reaction to the upcoming turn-end on the other hand. Participants named objects visible on their computer screen in response to utterances that did, or did not, contain lexical and prosodic cues to the end of the incoming turn. In the presence of an early lexical cue, participants showed earlier gaze shifts toward the target objects and responded faster than in its absence, whereas the presence of a late intonational cue only led to faster response times and did not affect the timing of participants' eye movements. The results show that with a combination of eye-movement and turn-transition time measures it is possible to tease apart the effects of early planning and response initiation on turn timing. They are consistent with models of turn-taking that assume that next speakers (a) start planning their response as soon as the incoming turn's message can be understood and (b) monitor the incoming turn for cues to turn-completion so as to initiate their response when turn-transition becomes relevant.
Speech planning is a sophisticated process. In dialog, it regularly starts in overlap with an incoming turn by a conversation partner. We show that planning spoken responses in overlap with incoming turns is associated with higher processing load than planning in silence. In a dialogic experiment, participants took turns with a confederate describing lists of objects. The confederate’s utterances (to which participants responded) were pre-recorded and varied in whether they ended in a verb or an object noun and whether this ending was predictable or not. We found that response planning in overlap with sentence-final verbs evokes larger task-evoked pupillary responses, while end predictability had no effect. This finding indicates that planning in overlap leads to higher processing load for next speakers in dialog and that next speakers do not proactively modulate the time course of their response planning based on their predictions of turn endings. The turn-taking system exerts pressure on the language processing system by pushing speakers to plan in overlap despite the ensuing increase in processing load.
To ensure short gaps between turns in conversation, next speakers regularly start planning their utterance in overlap with the incoming turn. Three experiments investigate which stages of utterance planning are executed in overlap. E1 establishes effects of associative and phonological relatedness of pictures and words in a switch-task from picture naming to lexical decision. E2 focuses on effects of phonological relatedness and investigates potential shifts in the time-course of production planning during background speech. E3 required participants to verbally answer questions as a base task. In critical trials, however, participants switched to visual lexical decision just after they began planning their answer. The task-switch was time-locked to participants' gaze for response planning. Results show that word form encoding is done as early as possible and not postponed until the end of the incoming turn. Hence, planning a response during the incoming turn is executed at least until word form activation.
Lors de la négociation située de l'alternance des tours de parole en interaction (Sacks, Schegloff et Jefferson, 1974), les participants s'orientent vers la complétude possible des unités de construction de tour. Grâce à une complétion différée d'un tour de parole précédent, un locuteur peut revendiquer son droit à la parole au-delà d'un tour intercalaire d'un autre locuteur. Cet article exploite différentes formes de cette "delayed completion" (Lerner, 1989) en français parlé. À l'aide du cadre théorique de l'Analyse conversationnelle (ten Have, 1999), nous démontrerons que ce procédé ne relève pas uniquement d'une alternance de tour de parole problématique, mais aussi de séquences collaboratives, qui sont en lien étroit avec le phénomène des constructions syntaxiques collaboratives. En s'intéressant à ces structures syntaxiques émergentes, il est possible de démontrer la négociation située et locale - tour par tour – du droit à la parole et de la dynamique de l'alternance des tours en conversation ordinaire. A base d'une collection d'extraits issus d'interactions naturelles enregistrées en audio ou en vidéo, différentes manières de revendiquer ou de partager son tour seront illustrées. Lors des analyses, une attention particulière sera dédiée à quelques phénomènes récurrents dans les séquences de complétion différée. Ainsi, l'exploitation de certaines conjonctions en tant que marqueurs discursifs ou la présence d'allongements vocaliques en fin du premier segment semblent indiquer des co-occurrences de ressources audibles spécifiques à différents types de complétion différée en conversation française.
Alors que de nombreuses études en analyse conversationnelle se sont intéressées à la manière dont des locuteurs co-construisent un tour de parole (notamment sur le plan syntaxique et prosodique), la façon dont la co-construction est ensuite évaluée n'a pas encore été étudiée en profondeur au sein de la littérature interactionniste. Ici, nous étudions deux pratiques permettant à un locuteur de valider une co-construction, à savoir l'acquiescement simple et l'hétéro-répétition de la complétion. En menant une analyse séquentielle et multimodale de plusieurs séquences de co-construction en français, nous montrons qu’à travers ces deux procédés – qui semblent au premier abord similaires dans leur fonctionnement – les locuteurs effectuent une évaluation très différente : tandis que l'acquiescement simple valide la complétion proposée uniquement comme une version possible, l'hétéro-répétition la valide comme étant une complétion complètement adéquate. Cette contribution met en évidence que les interactants exploitent des ressources audibles aussi bien que visibles afin de manifester si et dans quel sens ils acceptent la complétion de leur tour de parole de la part d’un coparticipant. Nous soulignons l’importance d’étudier en détail les différents formatages possibles des tours évaluant une complétion afin de pouvoir distinguer différentes formes « d’acceptation » et de révéler la manière dont les locuteurs peuvent finement négocier leur position en tant que (co-)auteur ou destinataire d’un tour de parole.
When humans have a conversation with one-another, they generally take turns speaking one after the other without overlapping each others talk or leaving silence between turns for long stretches of time. Previous research has shown that conversation is a structured practice following rules that help interlocutors to manage the flow of conversation interactively. While at the beginning of a conversation it remains open who will speak when about what and for how long, interlocutors regulate the flow of conversation as it unfolds. One basic set of rules that interlocutors operate with governs the allocation of speaking turns, with the central rule stating that whoever starts speaking first at a point in time when speaker change becomes relevant has the rights and obligations to produce the next turn. The organization of turn allocation, therefore, is one reason for conversational turn taking to be so remarkably fast, with the beginnings of turns most often being quite accurately aligned with the ends of the previous turns. Observations of this outstanding speed of turn taking gave rise to a number of questions concerning language processing in conversational situations. The studies presented in this thesis investigate some of these questions from the perspective of the current listener preparing to be the next speaker who will respond to the current turn.
The study presented in Chapter 2 investigates when next speakers begin to plan their own turn with respect to two points in time, (i) the moment when the incoming turn’s message becomes clear enough to make response planning possible and (ii) the moment when the incoming turn terminates. Results of previous studies were inconclusive about the timing of language planning in conversation, with evidence in favour of both late and early response planning. Furthermore, previous studies presented both evidence as well as counter evidence indicating that response planning depends or does not depend on an accurate prediction of the timing of the incoming turn’s end. The study presented here makes use of a novel experimental paradigm which includes a dialogic task that participants need to fulfil in response to critical utterances by a confederate. These critical utterances were structured, on the one hand, so that their message became clear either only at the end of the turn or before the end of the turn, and, on the other hand, so that it was either predictable or not predictable when exactly the turn would end. Participant’s eye-movements as well as their response latencies indicated that they always planned their next turn as early as possible, irrespective of the predictability of the incoming turn’s end. The presented results provide evidence in favour of models of turn taking that predict speech planning to happen in overlap with the incoming turn.
Having established that next speakers begin to plan their turn in overlap, the study presented in Chapter 3 goes more into detail investigating to which depth language planning progresses while the incoming turn is still unfolding. To this end, a number of psycholinguistic paradigms were combined. In the study’s main experiment, participants had to fulfil a switch-task in which they switched from picture naming in response to an auditorily presented question to making a lexical decision. By manipulating the relatedness of the word for lexical decision with the picture that was prepared to be named before the task-switch it was possible to draw inferences on which processing stages were entered during the speech production process in overlap with the incoming turn. Participants’ behavioural responses in the lexical decision task revealed that they entered the stage of phonological encoding while the incoming turn was still unfolding, showing that planning in overlap is not limited to conceptual preparation but includes all sub-processes of formulation.
Given that speech production regularly enters the stages of formulation in overlap with the incoming turn, as shown in Chapters 2 and 3, the question arises whether planning the next turn in overlap is cognitively more demanding than during the gap between turns. This question is approached in the study presented in Chapter 4 by measuring pupillometric responses of participants in a dialogic task. An increase in pupil diameter during a cognitive task is indicative of increased processing load, and pupillometric responses to planning in overlap with the incoming turn were found to be greater than responses to planning in the gap between turns. These results show that planning in overlap is more demanding than planning during the gap, even though it is highly practiced by speakers.
After Chapters 2 to 4 investigated the timing and mechanisms of speech planning in conversation, Chapter 5 turns towards the timing of articulation of a planned turn, asking the question what sources of information next speakers use to time the articulation of a planned utterance to start closely after the incoming turn comes to an end. In this Chapter’s study, participants taking turns with a confederate responded to utterances containing or not containing different cues to the location of the incoming turn’s end. Participants made use of lexical and turn-final intonational cues, but not of turn-initial intonational cues, responding faster when the relevant cues were present than when they were not present. These results show that the timing of turn initiation in next speakers depends on the recognition of the incoming turn’s point of completion and not merely on the progress in planning the next turn.
All evidence presented in Chapters 2 to 5 is summed up and bundled together in a cognitive model of turn taking, which is being presented in Chapter 6. This model assumes, centrally, that the planning of a turn and the timing of its articulation are separate cognitive processes that run in parallel in any next speaker during conversation. Planning generally starts as early as possible, often in overlap with the incoming turn, while the timing of articulation depends on the next speaker’s level of certainty that speaker change has become relevant at a particular moment, with a number of cues to the end of the incoming turn leading to an increase of certainty. Next turns are assumed to often be planned down to fully formulated utterance plans including their phonological form as early as possible on the basis of anticipations of the incoming turn’s message, which are created with the help of the general and situational knowledge about the world, the current speaker and her intentions, as well as the input that has been received so far. The level of certainty that speaker change becomes relevant rises or decreases as lexico-syntactic, prosodic, and pragmatic projections about the development of the current turn are fulfilled or not fulfilled. As the incoming turn progresses towards its end as was projected by the current listener, he becomes certain that speaker change becomes relevant and will initiate articulation of the prepared next turn. Viewing these two processes, planning a next turn and timing of its articulation, as separate makes it possible to explain the observable fast timing of turn taking while still modelling the allocation of turns as interactionally managed by interlocutors — a considerable advantage of the presented model compared to more traditional perspectives on turn taking and conversation.
In conversation, interlocutors rarely leave long gaps between turns, suggesting that next speakers begin to plan their turns while listening to the previous speaker. The present experiment used analyses of speech onset latencies and eye-movements in a task-oriented dialogue paradigm to investigate when speakers start planning their responses. German speakers heard a confederate describe sets of objects in utterances that either ended in a noun [e.g., Ich habe eine Tür und ein Fahrrad (“I have a door and a bicycle”)] or a verb form [e.g., Ich habe eine Tür und ein Fahrrad besorgt (“I have gotten a door and a bicycle”)], while the presence or absence of the final verb either was or was not predictable from the preceding sentence structure. In response, participants had to name any unnamed objects they could see in their own displays with utterances such as Ich habe ein Ei (“I have an egg”). The results show that speakers begin to plan their turns as soon as sufficient information is available to do so, irrespective of further incoming words.
Le chevauchement, c’est-à-dire la prise de parole simultanée d'au moins deux locuteurs, est un phénomène omniprésent dans la conversation. Inscrit dans le cadre théorique de l'Analyse Conversationnelle et de la linguistique interactionnelle, notre travail se penche sur la parole simultanée considérée comme un phénomène systématique et ordonné qui appartient aux pratiques routinières de l'alternance des tours de parole. Nos analyses se fondent sur des transcriptions d'enregistrements vidéo de données interactionnelles naturelles, des conversations ordinaires en français et en allemand. Nous ne portons pas uniquement un regard sur le chevauchement en tant que phénomène audible, mais le concevons comme une pratique incarnée en interaction, qui est également implémentée par des ressources visibles. À l'analyse séquentielle s'ajoute donc une analyse multimodale, qui nous permet de tenir compte des constellations participatives dynamiques lors du chevauchement. Le travail analytique se focalise sur trois phénomènes spécifiques dans lesquels la parole simultanée intervient de manière significative : d'abord l'auto-répétition faisant suite au chevauchement, ensuite l'abandon de tour de parole d'un locuteur lors de la parole simultanée et enfin la complétion différée, la continuation retardée d'une prise de parole en chevauchement avec l'intervention d'un interlocuteur. Cette thèse contribue à une compréhension approfondie de ces trois phénomènes et démontre que l'organisation de la parole simultanée est étroitement liée à la gestion de trajectoires d'action complexes et de cadres participatifs dynamiques.
Ce chapitre s’intéresse à la façon dont les changements de langue dans des réunions sont gérés par les parties co-présentes qui les traitent comme posant des problèmes de participation, en s’orientant vers le fait que le choix d’une langue particulière peut avoir comme effet d’augmenter ou bien de diminuer la participation de certains ou de tous les membres co-présents. Le choix d’une langue plutôt que d’une autre est étudié comme répondant à un problème des membres et comme une décision prise par eux, exhibant la manière dont ils s’orientent vers ses conséquences et dont ils élaborent sa justification et légitimité. Dans ce sens, le choix de l’anglais ou de plusieurs langues co-existantes voire alternantes n’a pas en soi une valeur positive ou négative en termes de participation, d’adéquation ou d’efficacité, mais a une valeur qui est située et occasionnée, dépendant des formats spécifiques de participation, des compétences reconnues localement et de la manière dont l’interaction est organisée. Afin d’explorer de manière systématique cette articulation entre choix de langue et participation, nous allons nous pencher sur un phénomène particulier et récurrent. Il s’agit de l’annonce qui projette un changement de langue et qui peut prendre une forme telle que “now we will switch into English so that you can participate”. Nous l’analyserons en tenant compte de la position séquentielle où elle est produite, de son format, de la façon dont elle est adressée à une partie ou à la totalité des co-présents, et de l’action spécifique qui y est accomplie. Nous étudierons aussi la manière dont elle est reçue, ses effets sur le cadre de participation, ainsi que les catégorisations qui en découlent. On montrera ainsi la relation de configuration mutuelle qui s’établit entre choix de langue et cadre de participation. Nos analyses seront développées sur la base de plusieurs corpus de rencontres professionnelles internationales enregistrées en audio et en vidéo sur plusieurs terrains. Les données vidéo nous invitent à considérer non seulement la dimension linguistique des cadres participatifs et des changements de langue, mais aussi leur organisation multimodale : l’organisation incarnée (embodied) du code-switching n’a pratiquement pas encore été explorée et la participation incarnée reste sous-étudiée, ainsi que son lien avec des espaces interactionnels spécifiques. Ce chapitre montre que les détails multimodaux sont cruciaux pour la compréhension des liens entre plurilinguisme et participation en tant que dynamiques occasionnées, contingentes et émergentes.
This paper aims at contributing to the analysis of overlaps in turns-at-talk from both a sequential and a multimodal perspective. Overlaps have been studied within Conversation Analysis by focusing mainly on verbal and vocal resources; taking into account multimodal resources such as gesture, bodily posture, and gaze contributes to a better understanding of participants’ orientations to the sequential organization of overlapping talk and their management of speakership. First, we introduce the way in which overlaps have been studied in Conversation Analysis, mainly by Jefferson (1973, 1983, 2004) and Schegloff (2000); then we propose possible implications of their multimodal analysis. In order to demonstrate that speakers systematically orient to the overlap onset and resolution we analyze the multimodal conduct of overlapped speakers. Findings show methodical variations in trajectories of overlap resolution: speakers’ gestures in overlap display themselves as maintaining or withdrawing their turn, thereby exhibiting the speakership achieved and negotiated during overlap.
Cette contribution s’intéresse aux co-constructions d’un tour de parole en interaction, plus spécifiquement, à la manière dont la complétion d’un énoncé de la part d’un co-participant est ensuite réceptionnée par le locuteur dont le tour a été complété. Malgré l’intérêt certain porté par l’analyse conversationnelle et la linguistique interactionnelle à la co-énonciation, l’évaluation de cette pratique par le premier locuteur n’a pas fait l’objet d’analyses approfondies. Dans ce qui suit, nous nous focalisons plus particulièrement sur les pratiques interactionnelles qui permettent aux participants de valider une co-construction. Ce travail est issu du projet ANR SPIM (« L’imitation dans la parole »), dans le cadre duquel nous nous sommes interrogée sur la fonction de l’hétéro-répétition (le fait de répéter un énoncé d’un autre locuteur ou une partie de celui-ci, opposée à l’auto- répétition) dans des séquences de co-construction d’un tour de parole.
Cette contribution s'intéresse aux co-constructions d'un tour de parole en interaction, plus spécifiquement, à la manière dont la complétion d'un énoncé de la part d'un co-participant est ensuite réceptionnée par le locuteur dont le tour a été complété. Malgré l'intérét certain porté par l'analyse conversationnelle et la linguistique interactionnelle à la co-énonciation, l'évaluation de cette pratique par le premier locuteur n’a pas fait l’objet d’analyses approfondies. Dans ce qui suit, nous nous focalisons plus particulièrement sur les pratiques interactionnelles qui permettent aux participants de valider une co-construction. Ce travail est issu du projet ANR SPIM (« L'imitation dans la parole »), dans le cadre duquel nous nous sommes interrogée sur la fonction de l'hétéro-répétition (le fait de répéter un énoncé d'un autre locuteur ou une partie de celui-ci, opposée à l'auto-répétition) dans des séquences de co-construction d'un tour de parole. Dans la partie analytique, nous contrastons deux possibilités de validation d'une complétion collaborative, à savoir l'acquiescement simple (« oui ») et l'hétéro-répétition simple. Sur la base d’enregistrements vidéo de conversations naturelles, nous montrons que ces deux pratiques ne valident pas la complétion collaborative de la même manière, mais qu'elles permettent aux locuteurs d’évaluer finement le caractère plus ou moins adéquat des éléments co-construits.
Dans le cadre de l’ethnométhodologie et de l’analyse conversationnelle, cet article s’intéresse à la production de la parole radiophonique en contexte, telle qu’elle est accomplie en temps réel et de manière située, incarnée et soutenue technologiquement dans le studio. Il vise ainsi à replacer la parole radiophonique dans son écologie matérielle et à l’aborder dans ses processus de production plutôt que comme un produit fini. L’analyse se focalise sur les instants qui précèdent immédiatement la prise de parole des animateurs, sur le moment où ils procèdent aux derniers échanges coordonnant leur parole à l’antenne et où ils mobilisent une série de ressources technologiques juste avant le passage au direct : ils précisent ou confirment les dernières prises de décision concernant ce qu’ils vont dire et la manière de le dire, prennent en main leur casque, le mettent, arrangent le micro, effectuent les derniers réglages de régie. Ce moment révèle les arrangements technologiques – dans la mobilisation de plusieurs artefacts - et interactionnels – dans la mise en œuvre de procédés de coordination et d’ajustement mutuel - complexes qui rendent possible la parole en direct.
Cet article se fonde sur une collection de répétitions suite à un chevauchement, tirée de données vidéo en allemand et en français. La description systématique de cet outil de reprise de tour articule une comparaison entre cas clairs et cas déviants de ce phénomène. Il est démontré que le recyclage est aussi bien une ressource du locuteur suivant que du locuteur en cours.
Comparaison de deux marqueurs d’affirmation dans des séquences de co-construction: voilà et genau
(2016)
This contribution investigates the German response particle genau and the French response particle voilà within collaborative turn sequences in videotaped ordinary conversations. Adopting a conversation analytic approach to cross-linguistic comparison, I will show that the basic epistemic value of both particles allows them to be used in similar sequential environments. When a co-participant formulates a candidate conclusion in environments where it can be easily inferred from previous talk, first speakers may confirm the adequacy of the pre-emptive completion by voilà or genau. These particles may then also be followed by self- or other-repeats. The analyses aim to illustrate that participants rely on a variety of practices in order to positively assess a pre-emptive completion, and to refute a supposed binary opposition of refusal vs. acceptance in the receipt slot.
Cet article se penche sur un épisode radiophonique durant lequel deux animateurs effectuent un coming out hétérosexuel à l’occasion de la journée internationale du coming out (11 octobre). Dans une perspective issue de l’analyse conversationnelle d’inspiration ethnométhodologique, il étudie une collection d’occurrences de coming out, permettant non seulement d’identifier un format séquentiel récurrent et la manière dont il contribue à l’efficacité de la pratique, mais aussi de réfléchir à la façon dont il peut être utilisé dans différents contextes sociaux, notamment médiatisés et médiatiques. En particulier, l’article montre comment la pratique est au service d’une émission radiophonique sur le coming out et prépare la transition vers le traitement de l’homosexualité à la radio. Grâce à un enregistrement vidéo du travail des animateurs dans le studio de radio, l’article décrit la façon dont le thème de la journée internationale du coming out est fabriqué et orchestré dans les coulisses de la radio et sur les ondes. Ce faisant, il montre la contribution d’une analyse conversationnelle à l’approche du coming out dans les études de genre – où la pratique est largement discutée mais sans être analysée sur la base d’occurrences documentées. L’article revient ainsi sur l’épistémologie du closet chère à Eve Sedgwick, en proposant une anatomie du coming out en contexte médiatisé, qui en éclaire les enjeux non seulement épistémiques mais aussi de normativisation, publicisation et spectacularisation.
This paper offers a detailed analysis of the opening of an international meeting. English Lingua Franca as the official language of the meeting is actively discussed and negotiated by the participants. The analysis highlights the issues identified by the participants themselves in choosing a linguistic regime for their professional exchanges. The English Lingua Franca regime is aimed at facilitating the participation of some of the participants, but creates problems for others, too. The chairman deals with this situation in an embodied way (through his gaze, gesture, bodily postures, and by the way in which he walks through the room), displaying that he orients to different member categories (such as 'anglophone', 'anglophone who can understand French', 'francophile', etc.) as benefitting from or resisting against the definitive language choice.
Cette contribution propose une analyse qualitative et quantitative des reformulations sur des données interactionnelles. Pour la constitution du corpus d’étude, nous nous appuyons sur un outil de détection automatique des hétéro-répétitions, considérées comme indices de reformulation. Après avoir illustré les éléments qui ont présidé à la conception de l’outil, nous présentons le paramétrage de cette ressource, que nous avons testée sur quatre enregistrements de la base de données CLAPI. Cette étude souligne la pertinence de l’approche interactionnelle dans l’analyse des hétéro-répétitions, en en montrant les fonctionnalités multiples, notamment dans les pratiques de reformulation dans la conversation.
Bisherige linguistische Studien zum mündlichen Erzählen beziehen sich vornehmlich auf die Beschreibung verbaler und vokaler Verfahren. Erzählen findet jedoch häufig unter den Bedingungen der zeitlich-räumlichen Ko-Präsenz der SprecherInnen statt, die den Gebrauch von körperlichen und materiellen Ressourcen ermöglicht. Der vorliegende einleitende Beitrag des Themenheftes modelliert Erzählen daher als körpergebundene und verkörperlichte Praktik, die es im Rahmen von interaktionalen und sequenzorientierten Analyseansätzen zu beschreiben gilt. Im Anschluss an die Darstellung von Entwicklungslinien der soziolinguistischen und interaktional-gesprächsanalytischen Untersuchung konversationellen Erzählens wird ein Überblick über bisherige Befunde zur multimodalen Ausgestaltung des Erzählens in der face-to-face-Interaktion gegeben. Abschließend werden grundlegende Fragestellungen skizziert, deren Beantwortung im Rahmen einer multimodalen Erzählanalyse die tatsächliche Alltagspraxis des Erzählens umfassender zu erschließen vermag.
In German oral discourse, previous research has shown that okay can be used both as a response token (e.g., for agreeing with the previous turn or for claiming a certain degree of understanding) and as a discourse marker (e.g., for closing conversational topics or sequences and/or indicating transitions). This contribution focuses on the use of okay as a response token and how it is connected with the speakers’ interactional state of knowledge (their understanding, their assumptions etc.). The analysis is based on video recorded everyday conversations in German and a sequential, micro-analytic approach (multimodal conversation analysis). The main function of conversational okay in the selected data set is related to indicating the acceptance of prior information. By okay, speakers however claim acceptance of a piece of information that they can’t verify or check. The analysis contrasts different sequences containing okay only with sequences in which change-of-state tokens such as ah and achso co-occur with okay. This illustrates that okay itself does not index prior information as new, and that it is not used for agreeing with or for confirming prior information. Instead it enables the speaker to adopt a kind of neutral, “non-agreeing” position towards a given piece of information.
Obwohl Smartphones und andere mobile Endgeräte mittlerweile ein fester Bestandteil unseres Alltags sind, betonen öffentliche und wissenschaftliche Diskurse immer noch bevorzugt mögliche negative Auswirkungen ihres Gebrauchs auf Gesundheit und Kommunikationsverhalten. Dieser Beitrag skizziert einen anderen Ansatz zur Analyse alltäglichen Technologiegebrauchs, indem er zunächst auf Studien aus der angewandten Linguistik und insbesondere der interaktionalen Forschung eingeht, die sich auf dessen öffentliche Beobachtbarkeit, Mobilität und Ubiquität konzentrieren. Anhand zweier Auszüge aus videoaufgezeichneten Interaktionen wird dann aufgezeigt, wie eine multimodale und sequentielle Analyse dazu beitragen kann, Technologiegebrauch als eine routinemäßige und geordnete soziale Praktik zu verstehen, die nicht mit sozialem, kooperativem Handeln in Widerspruch steht oder dieses gefährdet. Ein detaillierter Blick auf situierten Smartphonegebrauch in informellen und institutionellen Face-to-Face-Settings lenkt die analytische Aufmerksamkeit weg von einer generisch positiven oder negativen Bewertung der Technologie hin zu verschiedenen interaktionalen Phänomenen, die mit ihrer Handhabung und Erkundung in Zusammenhang stehen. Es wird abschließend argumentiert, dass diese Art von mikroanalytischem Ansatz zu einer facettenreichen und objektiveren Perspektive auf die situierte Nutzung mobiler Geräte beitragen kann.
This paper aims to describe different patterns of syntactic extensions of turns-at-talk in mundane conversations in Czech. Within interactional linguistics, same-speaker continuations of possibly complete syntactic structures have been described for typologically diverse languages, but have not yet been investigated for Slavic languages. Based on previously established descriptions of various types of extensions (Vorreiter 2003; Couper-Kuhlen & Ono 2007), our initial description shall therefore contribute to the cross-linguistic exploration of this phenomenon. While all previously described forms for continuing a turn-constructional unit seem to exist in Czech, some grammatical features of this language (especially free word order and strong case morphology) may lead to problems in distinguishing specific types of syntactic extensions. Consequently, this type of language allows for critically evaluating the cross-linguistic validity of the different categories and underlines the necessity of analysing syntactic phenomena within their specific action contexts.
Hintergrund
Die sprachlichen Äußerungen sind ein zentrales Medium in Psychotherapien, d. h., Psychotherapie wirkt im Wesentlichen über die Sprache, über das Miteinanderreden. Angesichts der Bedeutung des sprachlichen Austauschs ist es relevant, die Mechanismen, über die Sprache in Psychotherapieprozessen wirkt, genauer zu verstehen. Die linguistische Psychotherapieforschung nutzt hierfür vielfältige Methoden.
Ziel der Arbeit
Vorliegender Beitrag demonstriert exemplarisch 2 mikroanalytische Ansätze.
Material und Methoden
Eine transkribierte Psychotherapiesitzungssequenz wurde aus Perspektive der psychodynamischen Theorie inhaltlich interpretiert und bezüglich sprachlicher Merkmale mithilfe von 2 Methoden mikroanalytisch beurteilt: Die verbalen Techniken (Fokus Therapeutenäußerungen) wurden mithilfe der Psychodynamischen Interventionsliste (PIL) geratet und eine detaillierte Konversationsanalyse (Fokus Dialog) erfolgte.
Ergebnisse
Analysen mit der PIL zeigten, dass im Sitzungsausschnitt überwiegend die Techniken „Bedeutung hinzufügen“ und „Wiederholen, Umschreiben, Zusammenfassen“ verwendet wurden. Thematisch wurde besonders auf den „Vater“ Bezug genommen, gefolgt von der „Therapeutin“. Der zeitliche Bezug lag schwerpunktmäßig in der „Vergangenheit“. Die Gesprächsanalyse rekonstruiert, dass der Wechsel auf die Erlebensebene die Therapiesituation selbst in den Fokus rückt. Mithilfe sequenzieller Handlungszwänge werden extratherapeutische Konstellationen in der Vergangenheit und therapeutische Gegenwart kontrastierbar sowie intersubjektiv bearbeitbar gemacht.
Schlussfolgerung
Die eigene Sprache und den Dialog im Therapieprozess zu beobachten, kann für Therapeuten aufschlussreiche Erkenntnisse über Folgen und Voraussetzungen eigener Interventionen liefern. Forschungen an der interdisziplinären Schnittstelle von Psychotherapie und Linguistik sind lohnenswert.
Im Beitrag werden drei sprachwissenschaftliche Zugänge zu Diagnosen vorgestellt: In der Gesprächsanalyse wird die Diagnoseherstellung in der mündlichen Arzt-Patienten-Interaktion beleuchtet. Diagnosen entstehen kollaborativ,indem Gesprächsphasen durchlaufen und charakteristische Handlungen in bestimmten Äußerungsformaten vollzogen werden. Im Blickpunkt der Text- und Kommunikationsgeschichte steht hingegen das schriftsprachliche Handeln. Das Herstellen einer Diagnose erfordert hier die nachträgliche Bearbeitung vorgängiger mündlicher Interaktionen gemäß einer etablierten Textsorte: dem Erhebungsbogen. Von diesen Formen der Diagnoseherstellung unterscheidet sich, wie ein diskurslinguistischer Zugriff zeigt, die massenmediale Faktizitätsherstellung in Diskursen wie dem Impfdiskurs, die auch für ein medizinisches Laienpublikum relevant sind. Mit dem Beitrag soll nicht nur deutlich gemacht werden, in welchengem Zusammenhang mündliche Interaktion und schriftliche Fixierung stehen, sondern auch betont werden, dass das massenmedial vermittelte medizinische Lai*innen in relative Expert*innen verwandeln kann.
The term “pivot” usually refers to two overlapping syntactic units such that the completion of the first unit simultaneously launches the second. In addition, pivots are generally said to be characterized by the smooth prosodic integration of their syntactic parts. This prosodic integration is typically achieved by prosodic-phonetic matching of the pivot components. As research on such turns in a range of languages has illustrated, speakers routinely deploy pivots so as to be able to continue past a point of possible turn completion, in the service of implementing some additional or revised action. This article seeks to build on, and complement, earlier research by exploring two issues in more detail as follows: (1) what exactly do pivotal turn extensions accomplish on the action dimension, and (2) what role does prosodic-phonetic packaging play in this? We will show that pivot constructions not only exhibit various degrees of prosodic-phonetic (non-)integration, i.e., differently strong cesuras, but that they can be ordered on a continuum, and that this cline maps onto the relationship of the actions accomplished by the components of the pivot construction. While tighter prosodic-phonetic integration, i.e., weak(er) cesuring, co-occurs with post-pivot actions whose relationship to that of the pre-pivot tends to be rather retrospective in character, looser prosodic-phonetic integration, i.e., strong(er) cesuring, is associated with a more prospective orientation of the post-pivot’s action. These observations also raise more general questions with regard to the analysis of action.
This paper investigates situations in French videogame interactions where non-players who share the same physical space as players, participate in the gaming activities as spectators. Through a detailed multimodal and sequential analysis, we show that being a spectator is a local achievement of all co-present participants - players and non-players.
This study analyzes how participants playing VR games construct co-presence and shared gameplay. The analysis focuses on instances of play where one person is wearing the VR equipment, and other participants are located nearby without the ability to directly interact with the game. We first show how the active player using the VR equipment draws on talk and embodied activity to signal their presence in the shared physical environment, while simultaneously conducting actions in the virtual space, and thus creates spaces for the other participants to take part in gameplay. Second, we describe how other participants draw on the contextual configurations of the moment in displaying co-presence and position themselves as active and consequential co-players. The analysis demonstrates how gameplay can be communicatively constructed even in situations where the participants have differential rights and possibilities to act and influence the game.
Schegloff (1996) has argued that grammars are “positionally-sensitive”, implying that the situated use and understanding of linguistic formats depends on their sequential position. Analyzing the German format Kannst du X? (corresponding to English Can you X?) based on 82 instances from a large corpus of talk-in-interaction (FOLK), this paper shows how different action-ascriptions to turns using the same format depend on various orders of context. We show that not only sequential position, but also epistemic status, interactional histories, multimodal conduct, and linguistic devices co-occurring in the same turn are decisive for the action implemented by the format. The range of actions performed with Kannst du X? and their close interpretive interrelationship suggest that they should not be viewed as a fixed inventory of context-dependent interpretations of the format. Rather, the format provides for a root-interpretation that can be adapted to local contextual contingencies, yielding situated action-ascriptions that depend on constraints created by contexts of use.
In so-called Let’s Plays, video gaming is presented and verbally commented by Let’s Players on the internet for an audience. When only watched but not played, the most attractive features of video games, immersion and interactivity, get lost – at least for the internet audience. We assume that the accompanying reactions (transmitted via a so-called facecam) and verbal comments of Let’s Players on their game for an audience contribute to an embodiment of their avatars which makes watching a video game more attractive. Following an ethnomethodological conversation analytical (EMCA) approach, our paper focusses on two practices of embodying avatars. A first practice is that Let’s Players verbally formulate their actions in the game. By that, they make their experiences and the 'actions' of avatars more transparent. Secondly, they produce response cries (Goffman) in reaction to game events. By that, they enhance the liveliness of their avatars. Both practices contribute to a co-construction of a specific kind of (tele-)presence.
Playing videogames is a popular social activity; people play videogames in different places, on different media, in different situations, alone or with partners, online or offline. Unsurprisingly, they thereby share space (physically or virtually) with other playing or non-playing people. The special issue investigates through different contexts and settings how non-players become participants of the gaming interaction and how players and non-players co-construct presence. The introduction provides a problem-related context for the individual contributions and then briefly presents them.
This study explores how ‘gatherings’ turn into ‘encounters’ in a virtual world (VW) context. Most communication technologies enable only focused encounters between distributed participants, but in VWs both gatherings and encounters can occur. We present close sequential analysis of moments when after a silent gathering, interaction among participants in a VW is gradually resumed, and also investigate the social actions in the verbal (re-)opening turns. Our findings show that like in face-to-face situations, also in VWs participants often use different types of embodied resources to achieve the transition, rather than rely on verbal means only. However, the transition process in VWs has distinctive characteristics compared to the one in face-to-face situations. We discuss how participants in a VW use virtually embodied pre-beginnings to display what we call encounter-readiness, instead of displaying lack of presence by avatar stillness. The data comprise 40 episodes of video-recorded team interactions in a VW.
The present paper explores how rules are enforced and talked about in everyday life. Drawing on a corpus of board game recordings across European languages, we identify a sequential and praxeological context for rule talk. After a game rule is breached, a participant enforces proper play and then formulates a rule with an impersonal deontic statement (e.g. “It’s not allowed to do this”). Impersonal deontic statements express what may or may not be done without tying the obligation to a particular individual. Our analysis shows that such statements are used as part of multi-unit and multi-modal turns where rule talk is accomplished through both grammatical and embodied means. Impersonal deontic statements serve multiple interactional goals: they account for having changed another’s behavior in the moment and at the same time impart knowledge for the future. We refer to this complex action as an “instruction.” The results of this study advance our understanding of rules and rule-following in everyday life, and of how resources of language and the body are combined to enforce and formulate rules.
This article explores the relation between word order and response latency, focusing on responses to question-word questions. Qualitative (multimodal) and quantitative analyses of naturally occurring conversations in French—where question-words can occur in initial, medial, or final position within the question—show that variation in word order affects the timing of responses. It is argued that this is so because word order provides a differential basis for action ascription, creating different temporal opportunities for projecting the recipient’s next relevant action. The frequent occurrence of early responses to questions with an initial question-word, in particular, stresses the importance of the recognition point of an action under way for response timing and shows respondents’ pervasive orientation to sequential progressivity. Findings highlight how lexico-syntactic trajectories of emergent turns, prior talk and actions, material and bodily features of interaction, and participants’ shared expectations conspire in shaping the time-courses of action ascription and action projection.
This special issue investigates early responses—responsive actions that (start to) unfold while the production of the responded-to turn and action is still under way. Although timing in human conduct has gained intense interest in research, the early production of responsive actions has so far largely remained unexplored. But what makes early responses possible? What do such responses tell us about the complex interplay between syntax, prosody, and embodied conduct? And what sorts of actions do participants accomplish by means of such early responses? By addressing these questions, the special issue seeks to offer new advances in the systematic analysis of temporal organization in interaction, contributing to broader discussions in the language and cognitive sciences as to the social coordination of human conduct.
This study documents change over time and across proficiency levels in French second-language (L2) speakers’ practices for initiating complaints. Prior research has shown that speakers typically initiate complaints in a stepwise manner that indexes the contingent, moral, and delicate nature of the activity. Although elementary speakers in my data often launch complaint sequences in a straightforward way, they sometimes embodiedly foreshadow verbal expressions of negative stance or delay negative talk through brief positively valenced prefaces. More advanced speakers in part rely on the same initiation practices as elementary speakers. In addition, they recurrently use extensive prefatory work that accounts for and legitimizes the upcoming complaint, and they regularly initiate complaints jointly with coparticipants through a progressive escalation of negative stance expressions. I document interactional resources involved in this change and discuss the findings in terms of speakers’ development of L2 interactional competence. Data are in French with English translations.
Based on longitudinal audiovisual data from family interactions, we focus on how young children between 1;08 and 2;10 report trouble they are encountering in their current activity using the response cry oh in combination with other lexical items (e.g., “oh fell off”) and bodily displays. While at a very young age the children remain focused on their activity and try to solve the problem independently, at an older age they start to systematically use gaze directed toward the parent and suspension of the current activity to enlist the adult’s assistance. We argue that these bodily displays are among the resources whose presence or absence constrains whether the report of trouble leads to the recruitment of assistance or not. Regarding the developmental implications, it seems that during their third year of life, young children expand their repertoire for dealing with trouble interactively. Data are in German with English translations.
Research on multimodal interaction has shown that simultaneity of embodied behavior and talk is constitutive for social action. In this study, we demonstrate different temporal relationships between verbal and embodied actions. We focus on uses of German darf/kann ich? (“may/can I?”) in which speakers initiate, or even complete the embodied action that is addressed by the turn before the recipient’s response. We argue that through such embodied conduct, the speaker bodily enacts high agency, which is at odds with the low deontic stance they express through their darf/kann ich?-TCUs. In doing so, speakers presuppose that the intersubjective permissibility of the action is highly probable or even certain. Moreover, we demonstrate how the speaker’s embodied action, joint perceptual salience of referents, and the projectability of the action addressed with darf/kann ich? allow for a lean syntactic design of darf/kann ich?-TCUs (i.e., pronominalization, object omission, and main verb omission). Our findings underscore the reflexive relationship between lean syntax, sequential organization and multimodal conduct.
How do people’s interactional practices change over time? Can conversation analysis identify those changes, and if so, how? In this introductory article, we scrutinize the novel insights that can be gained from examining interactional practices over time and discuss the related methodological challenges for longitudinal CA. We first retrace CA’s interest in the temporality of social interaction and then review three lines of current CA work on change over time: developmental studies, studies of sociohistorical change, and studies of joint interactional histories. Existing work shows how the execution of locally coordinated actions and their meanings change over time; how prior actions inform future actions; and how resources, practices, and structures of joint action emerge over people’s repeated interactional encounters. We conclude by arguing that the empirical analysis of the microlevel organization of social interaction, which is the hallmark of CA, can elucidate the fine-grained situated interactional infrastructure that provides for the larger-scale social dynamics that have been of interest to other lines of research.
Die Studie untersucht therapeutische Strategien für den Umgang mit und das Management von Patientenwiderstand, der auf Lösungsorientierte Fragen in der Psychotherapie folgt. Patienten reagieren auf Lösungsorientierte Fragen regelmäßig dispräferiert. Die Therapeuten wiederum sollen therapeutisch relevantes Material elizitieren.
Mit Hilfe linguistisch-gesprächsanalytischer Methoden wird untersucht, wie Therapeuten im Anschluss an lösungsorientierte Anfragen mit dispräferierten Antworten umgehen. Das Widerstandsmanagement der Therapeuten umfasst dabei sowohl expansions- und reparaturinitiierende Reaktionen als auch Themenwechsel.
Untersucht werden 15 psychodiagnostische Erstgespräche nach der erweiterten Version der Operationalisierten Psychodynamischen Diagnostik (OPD-2), einem standardisierten und manualisierten diagnostischen Inventar, das die psychodynamischen Kräfte hinter den Erkrankungen der Patienten erfassen soll.
This paper investigates self-initiated uses of mobile phones (such as texting or making a call) in everyday video-recorded conversations among Czech speakers. Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis, it illustrates how participants publicly frame their own device use (for example, by announcements), and how co-present interlocutors respond to it. Previous studies have described how participants manage two concurrent communicative involvements, but have not provided detailed sequential descriptions of how device use can be negotiated and accounted for. This study shows that mobile device use in co-presence is not a priori problematic (or vice versa). Instead, participants frame their technology use in different ways according to various features of the social situation they treat as momentarily relevant. These features include the course of the conversation and how the device use relates to it, the overall participation framework and the opacity of the device use for co-present others.
Der Beitrag widmet sich der Ausgestaltung von Instruktionen und Aufforderungen zum rückwärts Einparken im theoretischen und praktischen Fahrschulunterricht in Abhängigkeit von den Eigenschaften der jeweiligen Unterrichtssituation. Verglichen werden dazu Instruktionssequenzen aus drei Vermittlungstypen: 1. die Instruktion anhand einer software-gestützten Einparksimulation im Theorie-Unterricht, 2. die Instruktion anhand einer Modellautodemonstration im Fahrschulauto, und 3. der direkt angeschlossene erste praktische Übungsvorgang. Eine Untersuchung der grammatischen Ausgestaltung der Instruktionen und der verkörperten Handlungen zeigt eine besondere Funktion der Modellautodemonstration: Dieser Vermittlungstyp vereint Aspekte sowohl der Unterrichtssituation im Fahrschulraum als auch im fahrenden Auto. Die Orientierungspunkte am Modell werden mit denen des 'realen' Autos und seiner Umgebung verbunden. Dabei offenbart sich in den Instruktionen und Aufforderungen ein Kontinuum von Theorie und Praxis, dessen Ausprägungen maßgeblich von der (Ent-)Kopplung bezüglich der Anwendungssituation und der (Nicht-)Mobilität des Autos abhängen. Die Untersuchung zeigt, wie grammatische und multimodale Formen an ihren lokalen und situativen Kontext angepasst und interpretiert werden.
Our study deals with early bodily responses to directives (requests and instructions, i.e., second pair parts [SPPs]) produced before the first pair part (FPP) is complete. We show how early bodily SPPs build on the properties of an emerging FPP. Our focus is on the successive incremental coordination of components of the FPP with components of the SPP. We show different kinds of micro-sequential relationships between FPP and SPP: successive specification of the SPP building on the resources that the FPP makes available, the readjustment or repair of the SPP in response to the emerging FPP, and reflexive micro sequential adaptions of the FPP to an early SPP. This article contributes to our understanding of the origins of projection in interaction and of the relationship between sequentially and simultaneity in interaction. Data are video-recordings from interaction in German.
In psychotherapy, therapists often formulate interpretations of clients' prior talk which are ‘unilateral’ in the sense that therapists index that they are themselves the author of an interpretive inference which may not be acceptable to the client. Based on 100 German-language recordings of brief psychodynamic psychotherapy (4 clients with 25 sessions each), we describe a multimodal practice of constructing extended multi-unit turns of delivering therapeutic interpretations. The practice includes gaze aversion until the main point of the interpretation is reached, perceptive and cognitive formulae, epistemic hedges, inserted accounts, parenthesis, self-repair, and self-reformulations. These design-features work together to index that the therapist produces an interpretation that can be heard as being tentative. The design of the therapists' turns reflexively indexes the expectation that the client might resist the interpretation; at the same time they are constructed to avoid resistance and to invite the client's self-exploration into new directions, often with a focus on emotions.
This special issue investigates early responses—responsive actions that (start to) unfold while the production of the responded-to turn and action is still under way. Although timing in human conduct has gained intense interest in research, the early production of responsive actions has so far largely remained unexplored. But what makes early responses possible? What do such responses tell us about the complex interplay between syntax, prosody, and embodied conduct? And what sorts of actions do participants accomplish by means of such early responses? By addressing these questions, the special issue seeks to offer new advances in the systematic analysis of temporal organization in interaction, contributing to broader discussions in the language and cognitive sciences as to the social coordination of human conduct. In this introductory article, we discuss the role of temporality and sequentiality in social interaction, specifically focusing on projective and anticipatory mechanisms and the interplay between multiple semiotic resources, which are crucial for making early responses possible.
This paper offers an exploratory Interactional Linguistic account of the role that inferences play in episodes of ordinary conversational interaction. To this end, it systematically reconsiders the conversational practice of using the lexico-syntactic format oh that’s right to implicitly claim “just-now” recollection of something previously known, but momentarily confused or forgotten. The analyses reveal that this practice typically occurs as part of a larger sequential pattern that the participants orient to and which serves as a procedure for dealing with, and generating an account for, one participant’s production of an inapposite action. As will be shown, the instantiation and progressive realization of this sequential procedure requires local inferential work from the participants. While some facets of this inferential work appear to be shaped by the particular context of the ongoing interaction, others are integral to the workings of the sequence as such. Moreover, the analyses suggest that participants’ understanding of oh that’s right as embodying an implicit memory claim rests on an inference which is based on a kind of semanticpragmatic compositionality. The paper thus illustrates how inferences in conversational interaction can be systematically studied and points to the merits of combining an interactional and a linguistic perspective.
This article explores a sequence organizational phenomenon that results from the use of a loosely specifiable turn format (viz., That’s + wh-clause) for launching (next) sequences while at the same time connecting back to a prior turn. Using this practice creates a sequential juncture, i.e., a pivot-like nexus between one sequence and a next. In third position, such junctures serve to accomplish seamless sequential transitions from one sequence into a next by presenting the latter as locally occasioned. The practice may, however, also be deployed in second position to launch actions that have not been made relevant or provided for by the preceding action and exhibit response relevance themselves. The sequential junctures then become retro-sequential in character: They transform the projected trajectory of the sequence in progress and create interlocking sequential structures. These findings highlight that sequence is practice, while pointing to understudied interconnections between tying and sequentiality. Data are in English.
Using video-recordings from one day of a theater project for young adults, this paper investigates how the meaning of novel verbal expressions is interactionally constituted and elaborated over the interactional history of a series of activities. We examine how the theater director introduces and instructs the group in the Chekhovian technique of acting, which is based on “imagining with the body,” and how the imaginary elements of the technique are “brought into existence” in the language of the instructions. By tracking shifts in the instructor’s use of the key expressions invisible/imaginary/inner body or movement through a series of exercises, we demonstrate how they are increasingly treated as real and perceivable bodily conduct. The analyses focus on the instructor’s attribution of factual and agentive properties to these expressions, and the changes that these properties undergo over the series of instructions. This case demonstrates the significance of longitudinal processes for the establishment of shared meaning in social interaction. The study thereby contributes to the field of interactional semantics and to longitudinal studies of social interaction.
According to Positioning Theory, participants in narrative interaction can position themselves on a representational level concerning the autobiographical, told self, and a performative level concerning the interactive and emotional self of the tellers. The performative self is usually much harder to pin down, because it is a non-propositional, enacted self. In contrast to everyday interaction, psychotherapists regularly topicalize the performative self explicitly. In our paper, we study how therapists respond to clients' narratives by interpretations of the client's conduct, shifting from the autobiographical identity of the told self, which is the focus of the client's story, to the present performative self of the client. Drawing on video recordings from three psychodynamic therapies (tiefenpsychologisch fundierte Psychotherapie) with 25 sessions each, we will analyze in detail five extracts of therapists' shifts from the representational to the performative self. We highlight four findings:
• Whereas, clients' narratives often serve to support identity claims in terms of personal psychological and moral characteristics, therapists rather tend to focus on clients' feelings, motives, current behavior, and ways of interacting.
• In response to clients' stories, therapists first show empathy and confirm clients' accounts, before shifting to clients' performative self.
• Therapists ground the shift to clients' performative self by references to clients' observable behavior.
• Therapists do not simply expect affiliation with their views on clients' performative self. Rather, they use such shifts to promote the clients' self-exploration. Yet, if clients resist to explore their selves in more detail, therapists more explicitly ascribe motives and feelings that clients do not seem to be aware of. The shift in positioning levels thus seems to have a preparatory function for engendering therapeutic insights.
We examine moments in social interaction in which a person formulates what another thinks or believes. Such formulations of belief constitute a practice with specifiable contexts and consequences. Belief formulations treat aspects of the other person's prior conduct as accountable on the basis that it provided a new angle on a topic, or otherwise made a surprising contribution within an ongoing course of actions. The practice of belief formulations subjectivizes the content that the other articulated and thereby topicalizes it, mobilizing commitment to that position, an account, or further elaboration. We describe how the practice can be put to work in different activity contexts: sometimes it is designed to undermine the other's position as a subjective 'mere belief', at other times it serves to mobilize further topic talk. Throughout, belief formulations show themselves to be a method by which we get to know ourselves and each other as mental agents.
This chapter describes the resources that speakers of Polish use when recruiting assistance and collaboration from others in everyday social interaction. The chapter draws on data from video recordings of informal conversation in Polish, and reports language-specific findings generated within a large-scale comparative project involving eight languages from five continents (see other chapters of this volume). The resources for recruitment described in this chapter include linguistic structures from across the levels of grammatical organization, as well as gestural and other visible and contextual resources of relevance to the interpretation of action in interaction. The presentation of categories of recruitment, and elements of recruitment sequences, follows the coding scheme used in the comparative project (see Chapter 2 of the volume). This chapter extends our knowledge of the structure and usage of Polish with detailed attention to the properties of sequential structure in conversational interaction. The chapter is a contribution to an emerging field of pragmatic typology.
Coaching outcome research convincingly argues that coaching is effective and facilitates change in clients. While coaching practice literature depicts questions as key vehicle for such change, empirical findings as regards the local and global change potential of questions are so far largely missing in both (psychological) outcome research and (linguistic and psychological) process research on coaching. The local change potential of questions refers to a turn-by-turn transformation as a result of their sequentiality, the global change potential is related to the power of questions to initiate, process and finalize established phases of change. This programmatic article on questions, or rather questioning sequences, in executive coaching pursues two goals: firstly, it takes stock of available insights into questions in coaching and advocates for Conversation Analysis as a fruitful methodological framework to assess the local change potential of questioning sequences. Secondly, it points to the limitations of a local turn-by-turn approach to unravel the overall change potential of questions and calls for an interdisciplinary approach to bring both local and global effectiveness into relation. Such an approach is premised on conversational sequentiality and psychological theories of change and facilitates research on questioning sequences as both local and global agents of change across the continuum of coaching sessions. We present the TSPP Model as a first result of such an interdisciplinary cooperation.
In Studien zu pädiatrischer Interaktion wird immer wieder die niedrige Redebeteiligung der jungen Patient/innen, deren Leiden in den ärztlichen Gesprächen verhandelt werden, herausgestellt. In einigen triadisch-pädiatrischen Erstkonsultationen, die sich in mehreren Punkten signifikant von dyadischen Erstgesprächen unterscheiden, ist allerdings die Beteiligung der Patient/innen deutlich höher. Eine Kombination aus quantitativer und konversationsanalytischer Untersuchung von Erstkonsultationen in der pädiatrischen Praxis zeigt, dass der Aufforderung zur Beschwerdenschilderung dabei eine entscheidende Bedeutung zukommt, weswegen der Formulierung besondere Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt werden sollte. Doch die herausfordernde Situation birgt nicht nur Stolpersteine, sondern kann auch von allen Interaktionspartner/innen als strategisches Mittel eingesetzt werden. Eine interaktive Relevanz haben überdies elterliche Initiativen. An mehreren Beispielen wird gezeigt, welche erheblichen Konsequenzen eine Nicht-Bearbeitung oder eine nicht ausreichende Bearbeitung für die jeweilige Interaktion hat.
Looking at gestures as a means for communication, they can serve conversational participants at several levels. As co-speech gestures, they can add information to the verbally expressed content and they can serve to manage turn-taking. In order to look closer at the interplay between these resources in face-to face conversation, we annotated hand gestures, syntactic completion points and the related turn-organisation, and measured the timing of gesture strokes and their lexical/phrasal referent. In a case study on German, we observe the trend that speakers vary less in gesturelexis on- and offsets when keeping the turn after syntactic completions than at speaker changes, backchannel or other locations of a conversation. This indicates that timing properties of non-verbal cues interact with verbal cues to manage turn-taking.
Untersuchungsgegenstand dieser Arbeit sind retrospektive Äußerungen, d.h. Nachfragen und fremdinitiierte Erweiterungen, die an den Sprecher der Ausgangsäußerung gerichtet sind. In der Forschung werden Nachfragen und Erweiterungen meist unabhängig voneinander mit unterschiedlichen Funktionen beschrieben. Die vorliegende Untersuchung setzt sich mit den gemeinsamen Eigenschaften beider Äußerungsformate auseinander, unabhängig von ihren deklarativen und interrogativen Merkmalen. Im Rahmen der Triangulation werden die Methode der Konversationsanalyse und die Annahmen der Relevanztheorie verbunden, um zu beschreiben, wie Sprecher in retrospektiven Äußerungen auf inhaltlicher Ebene mit den Informationen aus vorhergehenden Redebeiträgen umgehen. Primäre Datengrundlage sind die narrativen Interviews des Berliner Wendekorpus, ca. 60 Stunden gesprochenes Deutsch. Die Arbeit analysiert die grammatischen und lexikalischen Mittel, mit denen Sprecher bei der Bedeutungskonstruktion epistemische Unterstützung zum Ausdruck bringen. Weitere Analyseebenen sind die grammatische Kohärenz retrospektiver Äußerungen als evidentiale Strategie und die Ähnlichkeitsrelationen zwischen der interpretativen Annahme und den jeweiligen Bezugskomponenten.
Ethnografische Dialoganalyse
(2014)