A Dispreferred Action in a Preferred Turn Shape?

• In Event: Top Four Papers in Language and Social Interaction

Abstract

This paper examines how Japanese speakers use a syntactic device, "toiuka", to conduct various social actions in conversations. It demonstrates that speakers may employ "toiuka" to perform “self-downgrade” by reformulating prior speakers’ complements, which appears as a “dispreferred action”--disagreement or disconfirmation-- in a “preferred turn shape.” The distinction between “self-downgrade” and ordinary disagreement/disconfirmation re-demonstrates the “association between the preference status of an action and the preference status of a turn shape.” (Pomerantz, 1984)

Author

• Yan Wang, Carthage College