Action Ascription in Interaction

by Arnulf Deppermann (Editor), Michael Haugh (Editor)

Overview

Bringing together a team of global experts, this is the first volume to focus on the ways in which meanings are ascribed to actions in social interaction. It builds on the research traditions of Conversation Analysis and Pragmatics, and highlights the role of interactional, social, linguistic, multimodal, and epistemic factors in the formation and ascription of action-meanings. It shows how inference and intention ascription are displayed and drawn upon by participants in social interaction. Each chapter reveals practices, processes, and uses of action ascription, based on the analysis of audio and video recordings from nine different languages. Action ascription is conceptualised in this volume as not merely a cognitive process, but a social action in its own right that is used for managing interactional concerns and guiding the subsequent course of social interaction. It will be essential reading for academic researchers and advanced students interested in the relationship between language, behaviour and social interaction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108465076
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2024
Series:	Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics , #35
Pages:	347
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Arnulf Deppermann is Professor of German Linguistics, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, Germany. He studies language use in multimodal interaction, and his research interests focus on grammar, semantics and understanding in interaction, action formation and ascription, interactional histories, and the coordination of language and body. He is founding editor of the open access journal Gesprächsforschung and associate editor of the Journal of Pragmatics.

Michael Haugh is Professor of Linguistics, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests centre on the role of language in social interaction, (im)politeness, teasing, and speaker meaning. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, was co-editor in chief of the Journal of Pragmatics from 2015-2020, and is currently co-editor of the Cambridge Elements in Pragmatics series.

Table of Contents

1. Action ascription in social interaction Arnulf Deppermann and Michael Haugh; Part I. Constituents of Action Ascription: 2. Temporal organization and procedure in ascribing action Robert B. Arundale; 3. The micro-politics of social actions Paul Drew; 4. Action ascription, accountability and inference Michael Haugh; 5. Attributing the decision to buy: action ascription, local ecology, and multimodality in shop encounters Lorenza Mondada; Part II. Practices of Action Ascription: 6. Intention ascriptions as a means to coordinate own actions with others' actions Arnulf Deppermann and Julia Kaiser; 7. Strategy ascriptions in public mediation talks Henrike Helmer; 8. Action ascription and deonticity in everyday advice-giving sequences Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Sandra A. Thompson; 9. 'How about eggs?' Action ascription in the family decision-making process while grocery shopping at a supermarket Takeshi Hiramoto and Makoto Hayashi; 10. Action ascription and action assessment: Ya-suffixed answer to questions in mandarin conversation Yaxin Wu and Guodong Yu; 11. Actions and identities in emergency calls: the case of thanking Tom Koole and Lotte van Burgsteden; Part III. Revisiting Action Ascription: 12. Action and accountability in the study of interaction N. J. Enfield and Jack Sidnell; 13. The multiple accountabilities of action John Heritage; Appendices.