This article describes interactional features of an interrogation method that is used by law enf... more This article describes interactional features of an interrogation method that is used by law enforcement and private security companies in the US known as the ‘soft accusation’ method. We demonstrate how the method, in contrast to the more common ‘story solicitation’ method, makes use of a ‘telling about oneself’ activity to actually suppress a subject’s talk by setting up and maintaining an exceptionally long turn by the interrogator. This turn not only constrains subjects’ speaking contributions to the issuing of continuers and acknowledgments, and, as such, their opportunities to challenge or resist, but, based as it is on ‘telling about oneself’, re-organizes the knowledge differential to one in which it is the interrogator rather than the subject who has primary epistemic rights of disclosure. We provide an overview of interactional problems associated with the story solicitation method and then consider how the soft accusation method is designed to counter them, particularly via practices of informing and describing that are associated with the activity of ‘telling about oneself’. As we show, these practices make use of techniques of elaboration that provide a resource for turn expansion, as well as for seamless topical movement that works to positively align the subject to the interrogator’s talk and, thus, to smooth the interactional pathway to the subject’s admission of guilt.
... Peer Reviewed Title: Demonstrating Recipiency: Knowledge Displays as a Resource for the Unadd... more ... Peer Reviewed Title: Demonstrating Recipiency: Knowledge Displays as a Resource for the Unaddressed Participant Journal Issue: Issues in Applied Linguistics, 8(2) ... Page 2. Demonstrating Recipiency: Knowledge Displays as a Resource for the Unaddressed Participant ...
When police arrive at the scene of a possible crime or accident, they make inquiries of participa... more When police arrive at the scene of a possible crime or accident, they make inquiries of participants to determine what sort of prior events have transpired to lead to the situation. Examination of unedited sections of a reality television show based on police work (among other data) ...
We demonstrate that ''joint attention'', usually conceived of in the psychological sciences as in... more We demonstrate that ''joint attention'', usually conceived of in the psychological sciences as indicative of such minded processes as the capacity for understanding the intentional, goal-directed behavior of others, is fundamentally an interactional process, one that cannot be extricated from the ongoing flow of social activity. We examine very young children's actions of showing objects to others, and explicate the practical procedures by which they draw and sustain another's attention to an object, and convey ''what for''-that is, what another should do in response. At issue is how children in a natural social setting (here, a daycare center) track the activities of others for felicitous moments to present objects, and design and position their actions by reference to the ongoing preoccupations, commitments, and distractions of others. Further, drawing another's attention poses sequential implications for children's actions which structure opportunities for parties (child and other) to display, and modify, their understandings of what sort of social exchange is transpiring between them. #
... At issue is how Ida Mae organizes her actions and carefully so not only with respect to h... more ... At issue is how Ida Mae organizes her actions and carefully so not only with respect to her role as a recipient in the interaction (ie the recipient of talk, the recipient of a directive action), but also with respect to cultural norms pertaining to the containment of strong emotional ...
This article examines how very young children in a day care center make use of their peers&#x... more This article examines how very young children in a day care center make use of their peers' gaze shifts to differentially locate and prepare for the possibility of a caregiver intervention during situations of their biting, hitting, pushing, and the like. At issue is how the visible character of a gaze ...
LSI research recognizes eye gaze as one of the fundamental embodied elements of interaction that,... more LSI research recognizes eye gaze as one of the fundamental embodied elements of interaction that, in conjunction with talk, is essential to participants' understanding and accomplishment of face-to-face social interaction in a wide variety of contexts. This research can, broadly speaking, be divided into two types: ethnographic and conversation analytic. This entry explains each tradition but focuses on the conversation analytic approach. Ethnographic Approach The ethnographic strand of the field, in which the aim is to understand how interaction both shapes and is shaped by culture, includes accounts of the relationship of gazing behaviors to cultural context, conflict, and identity. We learn from this tradition, for example, that African-Americans view the lack of eye contact from Korean shopkeepers as a sign of disrespect (Bailey, 1997); that gay individuals use direct and broken " stares " by others to discern their gay identity (Nicholas, 2004); and that Japanese women avert their gaze as a sign of a highly-valued feminine quality within their culture, namely, modesty. In line with ethnographic research on communication in " high contact " (e.g., Mediterranean and Arabic) and " low contact " (e.g., Navajo and Asian) cultures, we find that gaze at one's conversational partner is more frequent and prolonged in " high contact " cultures. Indeed, gaze aversion is associated in many cultures with respect and deference. For example, in Kenyan culture, men turn their backs on their mothers-in-law when they speak to them, and among the Zulus, women must not look directly at their in-laws. In research on racial differences in communication, it has been reported that whites gaze more at their conversational partners than do African Americans (LeFrance & Mayo, 1976). In research on communication and gender, we find that, in North America, women gaze more at their conversational partners than do men. In short, ethnographers provide us with insights into the differential use and interpretation of gazing behaviors within and across cultures. Conversation analysts, in contrast, focus on the constitutive aspects of gaze in face-to-face interaction.
This chapter examines several forms of embodied behavior in interaction. After discussing the his... more This chapter examines several forms of embodied behavior in interaction. After discussing the historical emergence of an interactionist approach to the topic from early figures in American anthropology, to the Palo Alto group, to present day conversation analysts, the chapter considers research on body posture, gaze, facial expression, and movement in space for their distinct contributions to the moment‐ by‐moment production and management of conversational interaction. Then, the chapter examines the interplay of these particular forms of embodied behavior in recurrent interactional activities, using as examples openings and storytelling. As is demonstrated through these examples, the variety of embodied behaviors that participants make use of in interaction is part of an extraordinarily powerful yet nuanced toolkit for differentiating their work as particular sorts of participants (i.e., as speaker and recipient, storyteller and story recipient, doctor and patient, etc.), and in the particular sorts of interactional, interpersonal, and institutional business that comprises encounters. Current Word Count: 6378 The framing, grounding, and coordination of conversational interaction is a nuanced and complex enterprise, one that is made possible in large part by the relative flexibility of the human body. The head, eyes, mouth, face, torso, legs, arms, hands, fingers, and even the feet comprise moveable elements of the human body that can be arranged and mobilized in conjunction with talk in a potentially limitless
Eds.). Body -Language -Communication; Linguistics and Communication Sciences: An International Ha... more Eds.). Body -Language -Communication; Linguistics and Communication Sciences: An International Handbook. Amsterdam: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
This article describes interactional features of an interrogation method that is used by law enf... more This article describes interactional features of an interrogation method that is used by law enforcement and private security companies in the US known as the ‘soft accusation’ method. We demonstrate how the method, in contrast to the more common ‘story solicitation’ method, makes use of a ‘telling about oneself’ activity to actually suppress a subject’s talk by setting up and maintaining an exceptionally long turn by the interrogator. This turn not only constrains subjects’ speaking contributions to the issuing of continuers and acknowledgments, and, as such, their opportunities to challenge or resist, but, based as it is on ‘telling about oneself’, re-organizes the knowledge differential to one in which it is the interrogator rather than the subject who has primary epistemic rights of disclosure. We provide an overview of interactional problems associated with the story solicitation method and then consider how the soft accusation method is designed to counter them, particularly via practices of informing and describing that are associated with the activity of ‘telling about oneself’. As we show, these practices make use of techniques of elaboration that provide a resource for turn expansion, as well as for seamless topical movement that works to positively align the subject to the interrogator’s talk and, thus, to smooth the interactional pathway to the subject’s admission of guilt.
... Peer Reviewed Title: Demonstrating Recipiency: Knowledge Displays as a Resource for the Unadd... more ... Peer Reviewed Title: Demonstrating Recipiency: Knowledge Displays as a Resource for the Unaddressed Participant Journal Issue: Issues in Applied Linguistics, 8(2) ... Page 2. Demonstrating Recipiency: Knowledge Displays as a Resource for the Unaddressed Participant ...
When police arrive at the scene of a possible crime or accident, they make inquiries of participa... more When police arrive at the scene of a possible crime or accident, they make inquiries of participants to determine what sort of prior events have transpired to lead to the situation. Examination of unedited sections of a reality television show based on police work (among other data) ...
We demonstrate that ''joint attention'', usually conceived of in the psychological sciences as in... more We demonstrate that ''joint attention'', usually conceived of in the psychological sciences as indicative of such minded processes as the capacity for understanding the intentional, goal-directed behavior of others, is fundamentally an interactional process, one that cannot be extricated from the ongoing flow of social activity. We examine very young children's actions of showing objects to others, and explicate the practical procedures by which they draw and sustain another's attention to an object, and convey ''what for''-that is, what another should do in response. At issue is how children in a natural social setting (here, a daycare center) track the activities of others for felicitous moments to present objects, and design and position their actions by reference to the ongoing preoccupations, commitments, and distractions of others. Further, drawing another's attention poses sequential implications for children's actions which structure opportunities for parties (child and other) to display, and modify, their understandings of what sort of social exchange is transpiring between them. #
... At issue is how Ida Mae organizes her actions and carefully so not only with respect to h... more ... At issue is how Ida Mae organizes her actions and carefully so not only with respect to her role as a recipient in the interaction (ie the recipient of talk, the recipient of a directive action), but also with respect to cultural norms pertaining to the containment of strong emotional ...
This article examines how very young children in a day care center make use of their peers&#x... more This article examines how very young children in a day care center make use of their peers' gaze shifts to differentially locate and prepare for the possibility of a caregiver intervention during situations of their biting, hitting, pushing, and the like. At issue is how the visible character of a gaze ...
LSI research recognizes eye gaze as one of the fundamental embodied elements of interaction that,... more LSI research recognizes eye gaze as one of the fundamental embodied elements of interaction that, in conjunction with talk, is essential to participants' understanding and accomplishment of face-to-face social interaction in a wide variety of contexts. This research can, broadly speaking, be divided into two types: ethnographic and conversation analytic. This entry explains each tradition but focuses on the conversation analytic approach. Ethnographic Approach The ethnographic strand of the field, in which the aim is to understand how interaction both shapes and is shaped by culture, includes accounts of the relationship of gazing behaviors to cultural context, conflict, and identity. We learn from this tradition, for example, that African-Americans view the lack of eye contact from Korean shopkeepers as a sign of disrespect (Bailey, 1997); that gay individuals use direct and broken " stares " by others to discern their gay identity (Nicholas, 2004); and that Japanese women avert their gaze as a sign of a highly-valued feminine quality within their culture, namely, modesty. In line with ethnographic research on communication in " high contact " (e.g., Mediterranean and Arabic) and " low contact " (e.g., Navajo and Asian) cultures, we find that gaze at one's conversational partner is more frequent and prolonged in " high contact " cultures. Indeed, gaze aversion is associated in many cultures with respect and deference. For example, in Kenyan culture, men turn their backs on their mothers-in-law when they speak to them, and among the Zulus, women must not look directly at their in-laws. In research on racial differences in communication, it has been reported that whites gaze more at their conversational partners than do African Americans (LeFrance & Mayo, 1976). In research on communication and gender, we find that, in North America, women gaze more at their conversational partners than do men. In short, ethnographers provide us with insights into the differential use and interpretation of gazing behaviors within and across cultures. Conversation analysts, in contrast, focus on the constitutive aspects of gaze in face-to-face interaction.
This chapter examines several forms of embodied behavior in interaction. After discussing the his... more This chapter examines several forms of embodied behavior in interaction. After discussing the historical emergence of an interactionist approach to the topic from early figures in American anthropology, to the Palo Alto group, to present day conversation analysts, the chapter considers research on body posture, gaze, facial expression, and movement in space for their distinct contributions to the moment‐ by‐moment production and management of conversational interaction. Then, the chapter examines the interplay of these particular forms of embodied behavior in recurrent interactional activities, using as examples openings and storytelling. As is demonstrated through these examples, the variety of embodied behaviors that participants make use of in interaction is part of an extraordinarily powerful yet nuanced toolkit for differentiating their work as particular sorts of participants (i.e., as speaker and recipient, storyteller and story recipient, doctor and patient, etc.), and in the particular sorts of interactional, interpersonal, and institutional business that comprises encounters. Current Word Count: 6378 The framing, grounding, and coordination of conversational interaction is a nuanced and complex enterprise, one that is made possible in large part by the relative flexibility of the human body. The head, eyes, mouth, face, torso, legs, arms, hands, fingers, and even the feet comprise moveable elements of the human body that can be arranged and mobilized in conjunction with talk in a potentially limitless
Eds.). Body -Language -Communication; Linguistics and Communication Sciences: An International Ha... more Eds.). Body -Language -Communication; Linguistics and Communication Sciences: An International Handbook. Amsterdam: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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