Lynch2016a

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Lynch2016a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Lynch2016a
Author(s) Michael Lynch, Jean Wong
Title Reverting to a hidden interactional order: Epistemics, informationism, and conversation analysis
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, cognitivism, conversation analysis, corresponding author, distribution of knowledge, epistemics, information exchange, propositional content
Publisher
Year 2016
Language English
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 18
Number 5
Pages 526–549
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445616658199
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Although the production and recognition of social actions have been central concerns for conversation analysis (CA) from the outset, it has recently been argued that CA is yet to develop a systematic analysis of ‘action formation'. As a partial remedy to this situation, John Heritage introduces ‘epistemic status', which he claims is an unavoidable component of the production and recognition of social action. His proposal addresses the question how is social action produced and recognized? by reference to another question how is relative knowledge recognized? Despite the importance placed on the latter question, it is not clear how it is to be answered in particular cases. We argue that the introduction of epistemic status builds on a reformulation of the action formation problem that unnecessarily de-emphasizes the importance of the sequential environment. Our re-analyses of key sequences cast doubts on the empirical grounding of the epistemic program, and question whether the fundamental role of epistemic status has been convincingly demonstrated.

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