Asking and Telling in Conversation

274 Pages·2021·2.982 MB·English

by  Anita Pomerantz

Asking and Telling in Conversation
FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN INTERACTION
General Editor: N. J. Enfield, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Radboud University,
Nijmegen, and the University of Sydney
This series promotes new interdisciplinary research on the elements of human sociality, in
particular as they relate to the activity and experience of communicative interaction and
human relationships. Books in this series explore the foundations of human interaction from
a wide range of perspectives, using multiple theoretical and methodological tools. A premise
of the series is that a proper understanding of human sociality is only possible if we take a truly
interdisciplinary approach.
Series Editorial Board:
Michael Tomasello (Max Planck Institute Leipzig)
Dan Sperber (Jean Nicod Institute)
Elizabeth Couper-K uhlen (University of Helsinki)
Paul Kockelman (University of Texas, Austin)
Sotaro Kita (University of Warwick)
Tanya Stivers (University of California, Los Angeles)
Jack Sidnell (University of Toronto)
Recently published in the series:
Agent, Person, Subject, Self
Paul Kockelman
Exploring the Interactional Instinct
Edited by Anna Dina L. Joaquin and John H. Schumann
Relationship Thinking
N. J. Enfield
Talking About Troubles in Conversation
Gail Jefferson
Edited by Paul Drew, John Heritage, Gene Lerner, and Anita Pomerantz
The Instruction of Imagination
Daniel Dor
How Traditions Live and Die
Olivier Morin
The Origins of Fairness
Nicolas Baumard
Requesting Responsibility
Jörg Zinken
Accountability in Social Interaction
Jeffrey Robinson
Intercorporeality
Edited by Christian Meyer, Jürgen Streeck, and J. Scott Jordan
Repairing the Broken Surface of Talk
Gail Jefferson
Edited by Jörg Bergmann and Paul Drew
The Normative Animal?
Neil Roughley and Kurt Bayertz
When Conversation Lapses
Elliott M. Hoey
Communicating & Relating
Robert B. Arundale
Face- to- Face Dialogue
Janet Beavin Bavelas
Asking and Telling
in Conversation
ANITA POMERANTZ
1
3
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Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
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and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pomerantz, Anita, author.
Title: Asking and telling in conversation / Anita Pomerantz.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021] |
Series: Foundations of human interaction | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020036195 (print) | LCCN 2020036196 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190927431 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190927448 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780190927462 (epub) | ISBN 9780197522875
Subjects: LCSH: Conversation analysis. | Questioning. | Social interaction. |
Interpersonal communication.
Classification: LCC P95.45 .P66 2021 (print) | LCC P95.45 (ebook) | DDC 302.34/6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036195
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036196
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190927431.001.0001
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Paperback printed by Marquis, Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Glossary of Transcript Symbols xi
Introduction 1
1. Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features
of Preferred/ Dispreferred Turn Shapes 11
Commentary 60
2. Compliment Responses: Notes on the Co-o peration
of Multiple Constraints 65
Commentary 98
3. Offering a Candidate Answer: An Information Seeking
Strategy 103
Commentary 123
4. Telling My Side: “Limited Access” as a “Fishing” Device 127
Commentary 140
5. Attributions of Responsibility: Blamings 143
Commentary 154
6. Investigating Reported Absences: “Neutrally” Catching
the Truants 157
Commentary 179
7. Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claims 183
Commentary 195
8. Giving a Source or Basis: The Practice in Conversation of
Telling “How I Know” 199
Commentary 220
vi Contents
9. Inferring the Purpose of a Prior Query and Responding
Accordingly 223
Commentary 241
10. Concluding Remarks 245
Index 257
Series Editor’s Preface
In December 1975, just two weeks after her doctoral supervisor, Harvey Sacks,
was tragically killed at age forty, freshly minted PhD Anita Pomerantz presented
at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San
Francisco. Her paper was titled “Why Compliments Get Rejected.” The study,
which appears as a chapter in this book under the title “Compliment Responses,”
is the type of work that exemplifies her foundational contributions to research
on human interaction and language-m ediated sociality. Pomerantz’s puzzle
concerning compliments begins with a “Dear Abby” column: Perplexed won-
ders why his wife “can’t accept a compliment without putting herself down.”
Pomerantz’s analysis invokes the idea of preference in interaction, and with this
she explains the awkwardness of accepting compliments. There is a conflict of
incentives: It is socially preferable to agree with what others say, but at the same
time it is socially preferable not to praise oneself. Problems of constraint satis-
faction are usually encountered in theoretical domains of economics or evolu-
tionary psychology. Pomerantz’s pioneering work instead is grounded squarely
in social practice. This collection is a landmark in research on social interac-
tion, bringing together core analysis and findings of studies from throughout
Pomerantz’s long career as a conversation analyst. It is a searching inquiry into
the sociality of information exchange.
N.J.E.
Sydney, June 2020

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the publishers for their agreements to republish the following
papers in this volume:
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some
Features of Preferred/D ispreferred Turn Shapes. In J. M. Atkinson and
J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of Social Action. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 57– 101. Reproduced with permission of Cambridge
University Press.
Pomerantz, A. (1978). Compliment Responses: Notes on the Co- operation
of Multiple Constraints. In J. Schenkein (Ed.), Studies in the Organization
of Conversational Interaction. New  York:  Academic Press, 79–1 12.
Reproduced with permission of Elsevier.
Pomerantz, A. (1988). Offering a Candidate Answer: An Information Seeking
Strategy. Communication Monographs 55: 360– 373. Reproduced with per-
mission of Taylor and Francis.
Pomerantz, A. (1980). Telling My Side: “Limited Access” as a “Fishing”
Device. Sociological Inquiry 50, nos. 3– 4: 186–1 98. Reproduced with per-
mission of Wiley-B lackwell.
Pomerantz, A. (1978). Attributions of Responsibility: Blamings. Sociology
12: 115– 121. Reproduced with permission of Clarendon Press/O xford
University Press.
Pomerantz, A. (2004). Investigating Reported Absences: “Neutrally” Catching
the Truants. In G. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation Analysis: Studies from the
First Generation. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 109–1 29. Reproduced
with permission of John Benjamins.
Pomerantz, A. (1986). Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing
Claims. Human Studies 9, nos. 2–3 : 219– 229. Reproduced with permission
of Springer Nature.
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Giving a Source or Basis: The Practice in Conversation
of Telling “How I Know.” Journal of Pragmatics 8: 607–6 25. Reproduced
with permission of Elsevier.
Pomerantz, A. (2017). Inferring the Purpose of a Prior Query and Responding
Accordingly. In G. Raymond, G. H. Lerner, and J. Heritage (Eds.), Enabling
Human Conduct. Philadelphia:  John Benjamins Publishing, 61–7 7.
Reproduced with permission of John Benjamins.