Bilmes2001

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Bilmes2001
BibType ARTICLE
Key Bilmes2001
Author(s) Jack Bilmes
Title Tactics and styles in the 1992 vice-presidential debate: question placement
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Debates, Questions
Publisher
Year 2001
Language
City
Month
Journal Research on Language and Social Interaction
Volume 34
Number 2
Pages 151–181
URL Link
DOI 10.1207/S15327973RLSI34-2_1
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
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Series
Howpublished
Book title
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Abstract

The placement of questions in verbal interaction is crucial in understanding their tactical potential and partially determinative of the forms they may take. The analysis in this article reveals that, in the 1992 vice presidential debate, Vice President Quayle and Senator Gore placed their questions in distinctively different ways, producing different interactional styles. Gore used his questions to set and hold topics, whereas Quayle used his questions to deflect topics proposed and pursued by Gore. These functions covary with different forms of question placement. The placement of a question also influenced the type of response that it could properly receive. In addition, question placement and other debate tactics were strongly influenced by the formal organization of the debate itself.

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