WeatherallKeevallik2016

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WeatherallKeevallik2016
BibType ARTICLE
Key WeatherallKeevallik2016
Author(s) Ann Weatherall, Leelo Keevallik
Title When claims of understanding are less than affiliative
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Joint understanding, Estonian, Swedish
Publisher
Year 2016
Language English
City
Month
Journal Research on Language and Social Interaction
Volume 49
Number 3
Pages 167–182
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/08351813.2016.1196544
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Conversation analysis has established that the smooth progression of interaction and the accomplishment of action rest on joint understanding, which is implicitly built by a next turn of talk. In this article we examine explicit claims to intersubjective understanding from a range of settings from the institutional to the mundane. Our target expressions have the general form; I + ‘understand’ + YOU + PSYCHOLOGICAL FORMULATION such as I understand your concern and I see that this is frustrating you. We propose these expressions do “pro forma” affiliation—that is, they make a show of affiliating, even if in fact there is no affiliation. By explicitly claiming and demonstrating an understanding of the other speaker’s subjectivity, our target expression orients to misalignment between the parties, makes a show of other-attentiveness and bridges a shift that advances a speaker’s interactional agenda. Our contribution is to show the strategic function of a previously undocumented pro-social grammatical-conversational structure. Data are in English, and in Estonian and Swedish with English translation.

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