Enfield-Sidnell2017

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Enfield-Sidnell2017
BibType BOOK
Key Enfield-Sidnell2017
Author(s) N. J. Enfield, Jack Sidnell
Title The Concept of Action
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Linguistic Anthropology, Action
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Year 2017
Language English
City Cambridge
Month
Journal
Volume
Number
Pages 242
URL Link
DOI
ISBN 9780521895286
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series New Departures in Anthropology
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

When people do things with words, how do we know what they are doing? Many scholars have assumed a category of things called actions: 'requests', 'proposals', 'complaints', 'excuses'. The idea is both convenient and intuitive, but as this book argues, it is a spurious concept of action. In interaction, a person's primary task is to decide how to respond, not to label what someone just did. The labeling of actions is a meta-level process, appropriate only when we wish to draw attention to others' behaviors in order to quiz, sanction, praise, blame, or otherwise hold them to account. This book develops a new account of action grounded in certain fundamental ideas about the nature of human sociality: that social conduct is naturally interpreted as purposeful; that human behavior is shaped under a tyranny of social accountability; and that language is our central resource for social action and reaction.

       Proposes a view of social action with unprecedented commitment to empirical data, allowing readers to evaluate current views of action based on how language is actually used
       Presents a new theory of social action through language, challenging long-held ideas of the nature of speech acts

Notes