Edwards2005a
| Edwards2005a | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Edwards2005a |
| Author(s) | Derek Edwards |
| Title | Moaning, Whinging and Laughing: The Subjective Side of Complaints |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | Discursive Psychology, announcements, complaints, conversation analysis, discursive psychology, displacement, laughter, subjectivity |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2005 |
| Language | English |
| City | |
| Month | |
| Journal | Discourse Studies |
| Volume | 7 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 5-29 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | |
| ISBN | |
| Organization | |
| Institution | |
| School | |
| Type | |
| Edition | |
| Series | |
| Howpublished | |
| Book title | |
| Chapter | |
Abstract
ndirect complaint sequences are examined in a corpus of everyday domestic telephone conversations. The analysis focuses on how a speaker/complainer displays and manages their subjective investment in the complaint. Four features are picked out: (1) announcements, in which an upcoming complaint is projected in ways that signal the complainer’s stance or attitude; (2) laughter accompanying the complaint announcement, and its delivery and receipt; (3) displacement, where the speaker complains about something incidental to what would be expected to be the main offence; and (4) uses of lexical descriptions such as ‘moan’ and ‘whinge’ that formulate subjectivity, investment, and a disposition to complain, and are generally used to counter a complaint’s evidential basis or objectivity. Laughter and irony provide complaint recipients with response cues, and are used in ways that can strengthen as well as undermine a complaint’s factual basis and seriousness.
Notes
