Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Inferential Practices in Social Interaction: A Conversation-Analytic Account

Inferential Practices in Social Interaction: A Conversation-Analytic Account AbstractThis paper argues that conversation analysis has largely neglected the fact that meaning in interaction relies on inferences to a high degree. Participants treat each other as cognitive agents, who imply and infer meanings, which are often consequential for interactional progression. Based on the study of audio- and video-recordings from German talk-in-interaction, the paper argues that inferences matter to social interaction in at least three ways. They can be explicitly formulated; they can be (conventionally) indexed, but not formulated; or they may be neither indexed nor formulated yet would be needed for the correct understanding of a turn. The last variety of inferences usually remain tacit, but are needed for smooth interactional progression. Inferences in this case become an observable discursive phenomenon if misunderstandings are treated by the explication of correct (accepted) and wrong (unaccepted) inferences. The understanding of referential terms, analepsis, and ellipsis regularly rely on inferences. Formulations, third-position repairs, and fourth-position explications of erroneous inferences are practices of explicating inferences. There are conventional linguistic means like discourse markers, connectives, and response particles that index specific kinds of inferences. These practices belong to a larger class of inferential practices, which play an important role for indexing and accomplishing intersubjectivity in talk in interaction. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Open Linguistics de Gruyter

Inferential Practices in Social Interaction: A Conversation-Analytic Account

Deppermann, Arnulf
Open Linguistics , Volume 4 (1): 21 – Jan 1, 2018
Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/inferential-practices-in-social-interaction-a-conversation-analytic-CpGVDPv4l2
Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2018 Arnulf Deppermann, published by De Gruyter
ISSN
2300-9969
eISSN
2300-9969
DOI
10.1515/opli-2018-0003
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThis paper argues that conversation analysis has largely neglected the fact that meaning in interaction relies on inferences to a high degree. Participants treat each other as cognitive agents, who imply and infer meanings, which are often consequential for interactional progression. Based on the study of audio- and video-recordings from German talk-in-interaction, the paper argues that inferences matter to social interaction in at least three ways. They can be explicitly formulated; they can be (conventionally) indexed, but not formulated; or they may be neither indexed nor formulated yet would be needed for the correct understanding of a turn. The last variety of inferences usually remain tacit, but are needed for smooth interactional progression. Inferences in this case become an observable discursive phenomenon if misunderstandings are treated by the explication of correct (accepted) and wrong (unaccepted) inferences. The understanding of referential terms, analepsis, and ellipsis regularly rely on inferences. Formulations, third-position repairs, and fourth-position explications of erroneous inferences are practices of explicating inferences. There are conventional linguistic means like discourse markers, connectives, and response particles that index specific kinds of inferences. These practices belong to a larger class of inferential practices, which play an important role for indexing and accomplishing intersubjectivity in talk in interaction.

Journal

Open Linguistics – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 2018

References

  • Notionalization : The transformation of descriptions into categorizations Human How does cognition matter to the analysis of talk - in - interaction Language
    Deppermann
  • Reverting to a hidden interactional order : Epistemics informationism and conversation analysis Discourse
    Lynch
  • I thought initiated turns : Addressing discrepancies in first - hand and second - hand knowledge Journal of
    Smith
  • Aspects of the properties of formulations in natural conversations : Some instances analyzed
    Heritage
  • Speaker meaning and accountability in interaction of
    Haugh
  • Diagnostic formulations in psychotherapy Discourse
    Antaki
  • Sequencing in conversational openings American
    Schegloff
  • Conversational Impliciture Mind &
    Bach
  • Dialect and conversational inference in urban communication Language and
    Gumperz
  • The terms of agreement : Indexing epistemic authority and subordination in talk - in - interaction Social
    Heritage
  • Articulating the unsaid via and - prefaced formulations of others talk Discourse
    Bolden
  • Responding indirectly of
    Walker
  • Ethnomethodology culture and implicature : Toward an empirical pragmatics
    Bilmes
  • Prompting action : The stand - alone so in sequences of talk - in - interaction Research on Language and Social
    Raymond
  • Unarticulated constituents Linguistics and
    Récanati
  • Zur Grammatik des Verstehens im Gespräch : Inferenzen anzeigen und Handlungs - konsequenzen ziehen mit also und dann Zeitschrift für
    Deppermann