Fox2015

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Fox2015
BibType ARTICLE
Key Fox2015
Author(s) Barbara A. Fox
Title On the notion of pre-request
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Sequence organization, Requests
Publisher
Year 2015
Language English
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 17
Number 1
Pages 41–63
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445614557762
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

In early work within Conversation Analysis, utterances within a request sequence which inquire regarding some of the preconditions of granting the request (such as having the item or having the ability to perform the action) are analyzed as pre-requests. Levinson, in an extended discussion of the organization of pre-requests and request sequences, treats utterances such as ‘do you have X?’, ‘can I have X?’ or ‘can you X for me?’ as inquiring about preconditions that could prevent the recipient from granting the request. By checking on preconditions, the requester works to avoid producing a request which will be declined, which is a dispreferred action. In other words, pre-requests, like other pre-sequences, function to project that another action will be produced if a favorable response is given; if not, that projected action may not be produced. In this view, then, they work to maintain the preference organization. This study uses requesting in service encounters to re-examine the evidence for an analysis of such utterances as pre-requests and finds that alternative analyses are more suited in these requesting activities.

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