Bilmes1996a
Bilmes1996a | |
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BibType | ARTICLE |
Key | Bilmes1996a |
Author(s) | Jack Bilmes |
Title | Problems and resources in analyzing Northern Thai conversation for English language readers |
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Tag(s) | EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Thai, Culture, Context |
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Year | 1996 |
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Journal | Journal of Pragmatics |
Volume | 26 |
Number | 2 |
Pages | 171–188 |
URL | Link |
DOI | 10.1016/0378-2166(96)00011-2 |
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Abstract
Transcript materials from a Northern Thai negotiation are used to illustrate the problems and possibilities involved in doing microanalysis of verbal interaction for readers who are unfamiliar with the language being analyzed. Two central questions are (1) can conversation analytic techniques be usefully applied to exotic languages, and (2) can the results of such analysis be presented in an unbiased and comprehensible manner? It is found that it is possible to do reasonably fine-grained and revealing analyses using conversation analytic techniques. However, the problems of presentation are significant in principle and practice. A further issue: working with exotic materials tends to intensify the analyst's concern with the relation between talk and ethnographic/cultural context. The Northern Thai materials are used to clarify certain issues of context that have arisen in the conversation analytic literature.
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