Couper-Kuhlen2014

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Couper-Kuhlen2014
BibType INCOLLECTION
Key Couper-Kuhlen2014
Author(s) Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, Marja Etelamaki
Title On divisions of labor in request and offer environments
Editor(s) Paul Drew, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
Tag(s) Recruitments, Requests, Finnish
Publisher John Benjamins
Year 2014
Language English
City Amsterdam / Philadelphia
Month
Journal
Volume
Number
Pages 115–144
URL Link
DOI 10.1075/slsi.26.05cou
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series Studies in Language and Social Interaction
Howpublished
Book title Requesting in Social Interaction
Chapter

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Abstract

Dividing the labor for achieving a common goal is a routinized practice that is found in both request and offer environments in English and Finnish everyday conversations. There are specific linguistic resources deployed in the two languages for this practice. Divisions of labor are typically proposed with a bi-partite construction that consists schematically of a Request to Other to carry out some action X, and a Commitment by Self to carry out a complementary action Y. Where there is a possible chronological order for the actions X and Y, the request and commitment are ordered accordingly. Although in both languages there is a common schematic structure underlying the linguistic constructions used in proposing divisions of labor, the attested patterns vary in the degree of certainty that they express concerning the future actions. In addition, the patterns in Finnish vary in the explicitness with which the agents of the future actions are expressed. In neither of the languages are the variant patterns interchangeable. Instead, the patterns have distinct sequential home environments: the more certainty and explicitness the pattern expresses, the later in the sequence it occurs. Division-of labor proposals divide not only the labor, but also deontic primacy (the right to decide) and responsibility. By construing the venture as a joint one, they transform asymmetric actions such as offers and requests into more symmetric ones. This may explain why divisions of labor typically occur in request and offer sequences that are problematic and run the risk of miscarrying.

Notes