Table Of ContentAny Questions?
Trends in Applied Linguistics
14
Editors
Ulrike Jessner
Claire Kramsch
De Gruyter Mouton
Any Questions?
Identity Construction
in Academic Conference Discussions
by
Carmen Konzett
De Gruyter Mouton
ISBN 978-1-61451-022-2
e-ISBN 978-1-61451-024-6
ISSN 1868-6362
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Tomyparents,
toStefan,
andtoMatt
Contents
Chapter1
Introduction 1
Chapter2
Researchingtalk-in-interaction 9
2.1 Lookingthroughtheparticipants’eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 DoingCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 Investigatinginstitutionaltalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter3
Thedynamicdiscursivenatureofidentity 20
3.1 Identityasasocialconstruct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.1 Symbolicinteractionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.2 Impressionmanagementtheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Identityasamembers’category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2.1 Indexicalityandmembers’constructionofreality . . . . . . . 31
3.2.2 Membershipcategorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.3 DoingbeingX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.3 Identity,self,and,face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.1 Goffman’snotionsoffaceandfacework . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.2 FaceinWatts’socialtheoryofpoliteness . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3.3 IntegratingtheconceptoffaceinaCAapproach . . . . . . . . 51
3.4 Identityconstructionasameanstoanend . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.1 Socialpositioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.2 Stylizationofselfandother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
viii Contents
Chapter4
Ethnographicbackground 61
4.1 Structureofconferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.2 Typesofcontributionsinconferencediscussions . . . . . . . . . 65
4.3 Discursiverolesindiscussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.3.1 Whatquestionersdo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.3.2 Whatanswerersdo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.3.3 Whatchairpersonsdo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.4 Askingquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.4.1 Whatisaquestion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.4.2 Yes/Nointerrogatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.4.3 Constructingquestionstoachieveagreement . . . . . . . . . 93
4.4.4 Contrastingacademicquestion-answersessionswith
interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.5 Self-presentation–akeyfeatureofconferenceparticipation . . . 97
4.5.1 Members’reasonsfororganisingandparticipating
inconferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.5.2 Self-presentinginthecommunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Chapter5
Thedata 107
5.1 Datacollection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2 Corpusstructure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.3 Transcriptionconventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter6
Themechanicsofdiscussionsatacademicconferences 115
6.1 TCUcompletionandassessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.2 Speakerselection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Contents ix
6.3 Sequentialorganisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.3.1 Side-sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.3.2 Pre-sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6.4 Formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.5 Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Chapter7
Resultsofthedataanalyses 135
7.1 Doingbeingexpert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.1.1 Havingtheoverview:doingformulations. . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.1.1.1Doingformulationstopreparetheground . . . . . . . . . 140
7.1.1.2Respondingtoformulationsbyreferringtodata . . . . . . 146
7.1.1.3Anambivalentfacestrategy:sij’aibiencompris . . . . . . 155
7.1.1.4Achievingco-agreementinformulations . . . . . . . . . . 158
7.1.1.5SUMMARYof7.1.1.(Doingformulations) . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.2 Displayingalternativeaccesstoanidea . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.1.2.1moi je vois... juxtaposing own research and
presenter’sideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.1.2.2haveyoudoneX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.1.2.3isitnotX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.1.2.4Puttinganadditionalinterpretationupforinspection . . . . 207
7.1.2.5SUMMARY of 7.1.2. (Displaying alternative
accesstoanidea) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
7.1.3 Grantingthepresenteraclaimofexpertise:requesting
information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
7.1.3.1I’mthinkingofothertypesofdata:requestingconfirmation
ofinformedguesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
7.1.3.2c’estjusteunetoutepetitequestion:pureinformation
questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
7.1.3.3haveyouseenthisinlanguageX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
7.1.3.4parcequec’estimportant:informationquestions
withanagenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Description:This book explores how academics at conferences co-construct their own and each other´s professional identities. It is based on the detailed sequential analysis of audio recordings of conference discussions in the field of the humanities, the working languages being French and English. The analyses
