posted on 2014-08-19, 09:21authored byGalina B. Bolden, Jenny Mandelbaum, Sue Wilkinson
Prior conversation analytic research has demonstrated that when, following a sequence-initiating
action, a response is relevantly missing (or is forthcoming but is apparently inadequate), speakers may
use a range of practices for pursuing a response (or a more adequate response). These practices—-
such as response prompts, preference reversals, or turn extensions—treat the missing (or inadequate)
response as indicative of some problem, and they may either expose or mask the response pursuit
and the problem they attempt to remediate. This article extends this prior research by showing that
speakers can also use repair technology—specifically, repair of an indexical reference—as a resource
for pursuing a response. It demonstrates that speakers can use repair of indexicals, particularly when
no uncertainty as to the referent seems possible, in order to pursue a response while obscuring some
other possible source of trouble. Initiating repair on an indexical reference in transition space claims
that a missing response is due to a problem of understanding or of recognizing the reference, and by
repairing it, the speaker makes available another opportunity for a response without exposing recipient
disinclination as the possible source of the trouble. Likewise, repairing an indexical reference in
the third turn can pursue a more adequate response, while avoiding going on record as doing so, by
treating the sequence-initiating turn as the source of the trouble. We show that, by ostensibly dealing
with problems of reference, repairs on indexicals manage (covertly) other more interactionally
charged issues, such as upcoming disagreement or misalignment between interlocutors.
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Published in
RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION
Volume
45
Issue
2
Pages
137 - 155 (19)
Citation
BOLDEN, G.B., MANDELBAUM, J. and WILKINSON, S., 2012. Pursuing a response by repairing an indexical reference. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45 (2), pp.137-155.
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in the journal of Research on Language and Social Interaction on 17/05/2012, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2012.673380