Robinson2014

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Robinson2014
BibType ARTICLE
Key Robinson2014
Author(s) Jeffrey D. Robinson
Title What “What?” ‘tells us about how conversationalists manage intersubjectivity
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Intersubjectivity
Publisher
Year 2014
Language English
City
Month
Journal Research on Language and Social Interaction
Volume 47
Number 2
Pages 109–129
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/08351813.2014.900214
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

When studying how conversationalists assess mutual understanding, research has focused on one type of evidence: next-turn talk. This article identifies another, antecedent type of evidence involving how talk is produced by reference to repair-opportunity spaces that are systematically provided for by conversation’s generic organization of repair. As current speakers talk, recipients claim understanding ex silentio on an action-by-action basis as they forgo each next repair-opportunity space—that is, as they ‘withhold’ talk at each next transition-relevance place. This conversation-analytic article supports its argument through an analysis of multi-action/TCU turns generally, and specifically when recipients initiate repair on such turns with: “What?” In these cases, people respond by repairing only the most proximate action in their prior turn, which indexes their understanding that people who initiated repair understood relatively distal actions. Data are drawn from naturally occurring, ordinary, telephone conversations between friends and family members. Data are in American and British English.

Notes