Cover not available

In:Language and Social Interaction at Home and School:
Edited by Letizia Caronia
[Dialogue Studies 32] 2021
► pp. 87–120

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 2
Making unquestionable worlds

Morality building practices in family dinner dialogues

 | University of Bologna
 | University of Bologna
 | University of Bologna
Published online: 13 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.32.02car
Drawing on extant studies and research on language socialization and dinner talk, this chapter focuses on ordinary family interactions as socializing experiences and – at the same time – as culture-building activities. Adopting a conversation analytic approach, examples of video-recorded family dinner interactions are discussed to illustrate how cultural ideas and moral horizons are presupposed and (re)constructed in the micro-order of everyday family life. Specifically, the analysis shows how parents talk into being the cultural certainty that food is a “good that must be preserved” by treating it as an “ought to be shared” resource or as a valuable good per se. We contend that, by taking part in such ordinary dialogues, children are socialized to these cultural beliefs as if they were taken for granted, obvious and uncontestable facts of life. At the same time, it is through such unplanned dialogues that members enact the silent and almost invisible process through which individuals create – day by day – their cultural world as a quasi-natural one.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Mundane morality and everyday practices
    • 2.1Morality in everyday family life: Children's socialization and culture construction
    • 2.2Mealtime morality
  • 3.Data corpus and procedures
  • 4.The construction of food as a common good
  • 5.Food and water as valuable goods per se
    • 5.1Wasting water as a reprimandable activity: The use of elliptical directives as a resource
    • 5.2Water as a morally laden object: The use of impersonal negative deontic declaratives
    • 5.3“Do we throw everything away every time?”: Rhetorical questions as indirect statements of the rule
    • 5.4Leftover food as a morally loaded object: Asking for an account and “disguised directives” as resources
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Building unquestionable worlds: Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (94)
References
Aronsson, Karin. 2006. “Commentary 1. Doing family: An interactive accomplishment.” Text & Talk 26(4–5): 619–626. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronsson, Karin and Lukas Gottzén. 2011. “Generational Positions at Family Dinner: Food Morality and Social Order.” Language in Society 40: 405–426. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronsson, Karin and Karin Osvaldsson. 2013. “Trust and the Contestation of Blame Narratives: Veiled Stances in an Institutional Assessment Context.” In Dialogical Approaches to Trust in Communication, ed. by Per Linell and Ivana Markova, 29–49. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baxter, Leslie. 2011. Voicing Relationships: a dialogic Approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bergmann, Jorg R. 1998. “Introduction: Morality in Discourse.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 31(3–4): 279–294.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 2007[1997]. Dinner Talk. Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialization in Family Discourse. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brumark, Asa. 2006. “Regulatory Talk and Politeness at the Family Dinner Table.” Pragmatics 16: 171–211.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting. 2017. Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Craven, Alexandra and Jonathan Potter. 2010. “Directives: Entitlement and Contingency in Action.” Discourse Studies 12(4): 419–442.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cromdal, Jacob and Michael Tholander. 2015. Morality in Practice: Exploring Childhood, Parenthood and Schooling in Everyday Family Life. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W. 2007. “The Stance Triangle.” In Stancetaking in Discourse, ed. by Robert Englebretson, 139–182. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessandro. 1993. “Intentions, Self, and Responsibility.” In Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse, ed. by Jane H. Hill and Judith T. Irvine, 24–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessandro, Elinor Ochs, and Bambi B. Schieffelin. 2012. The Handbook of Language Socialization. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eagleton, Terry. 2009. Trouble with Strangers. A Study of Ethics. Chichester, UK: Wiley- Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fasulo, Alessandra and Clotilde Pontecorvo. 1999. Come si Dice? Linguaggio e Apprendimento in Famiglia e a Scuola. Roma: Carocci Editore.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fasulo, Alessandra, Heather Loyd, and Vincenzo Padiglione. 2007. “Children's Socialization into Cleaning Practices: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Discourse and Society 18(1):11–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Galatolo, Renata, Erika Vassallo, and Letizia Caronia. 2015. ""Je m’en mets toute seule". Séquences d’tayage dans des Repas de Famille.” Bulletin suisse de linguistique appliquée 101: 117–135.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Galatolo, Renata and Letizia Caronia. 2018. “Morality at Dinnertime: The sense of the Other as a Practical Accomplishment in Family Interaction.” Discourse and Society, Vol. 29(1): 43–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Galeano, Giorgia and Alessandra Fasulo. 2009. “Sequenze Direttive tra Genitori e Figli.” In Culture Familiari tra Pratiche Quotidiane e Rappresentazioni, ed. by Sabina Giorgi, and Clotilde Pontecorvo, 261–278. Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa 2: 261–278.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold. 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Ethnomethodology's Program: Working Out Durkheim's Aphorism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlfield.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold and Lawrence Wieder. 1992. “Two Incommensurable, Asymmetrically Alternate Technologies of Social Analysis.” In Text in Context: Studies in Ethnomethodology, ed. by Graham Watson, and Robert M. Seiler, 175–206. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gil, David. 1995. “Universal Quantifiers and Distributivity.” In Quantification in Natural Languages, ed. by Emmon Bach, Eloise Jelinek, Angelika Kratzer, and Barbara H. Partee, 321–362. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1955. “On face-work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction.” Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 18: 213–231.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983. “The Interaction Order.” American Sociological Review 48: 1–17.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 2000. “Action and Embodiment within Situated Human Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 32: 1489–1522. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles and Asta Cekaite. 2013. “Calibration in Directive-response Sequences in Family Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 46: 122–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin Marjorie, Harness. 2006. “Participation, Affect, and Trajectory in Family Directive/Response Sequences.” Text & Talk 26(4–5): 513–541.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness and Asta Cekaite. 2018. Embodied Family Choreography. Practices of Control, Care and Mundane Creativity. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosse, Gerlind and Michael Tomasello. 2012. “Two-year-old children differentiate test questions from genuine questions.” Journal of Child Language 39(1):192–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. 1992. “Contextualization and Understanding.” In Rethinking Context: Language as an interactive Phenomenon, ed. by Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin, 229–252. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hepburn, Alexa, and Jonathan Potter. 2011. “Threats: Power, Family Mealtimes, and Social Influence.” British Journal of Social Psychology, 50, 99–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 1984. Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. “Conversation Analysis and Institutional Talk: Analyzing Data.” In Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, ed. by David Silverman, 222–245. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012a. “Epistemics in Action: Action Formation and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45(1): 1–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. “The Epistemic Engine: Sequence Organization and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45(1): 30–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John and Anna Lindström. 1998. “Motherhood, Medicine, and Morality: Scenes from a Medical Encounter.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 31: 397–438.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holliday, Adrian. 1999. “Small Cultures.” Applied Linguistics 20(2): 237–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jedlowski, Paolo. 2018. “Il Mondo Dato per Scontato. Conversazioni Quotidiane e Costruzione Sociale della Realtà.” In Il senso della realtà: L'orizzonte della fenomenologia nello studio del mondo sociale, ed. by Stefano Besoli and Letizia Caronia, 119–129. Macerata: Quodlibet Studio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 2004. “Glossary of Transcript Symbols with an Introduction.” In Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, ed. by Gene Lerner, 13–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kathard, Hasha, Daisy Pillay, and Mershen Pillay. 2015. “A Study of Teacher-Learner Interactions: A Continuum Between Monologic and Dialogic Interactions.” Language, Speech, and Hearing Services 46: 222–224. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kent, Alesandra. 2011. Directing dinnertime: practices and resources used by parents and children to deliver and respond to directive actions. Doctoral Thesis Loughborough University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laidlaw, James. 2014. The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambek, Michael. 2010. Ordinary Ethics: Anthropology, Language, and Action. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “On the Immanence of Ethics." University of Toronto, October 10, 2013. CURA – Luce Short Papers on Key Issues in Religion and World Affairs.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Yo-An. 2007. “Third Turn Position in Teacher Talk: Contingency and the Work of Teaching.” Journal of Pragmatics 39:1204–1230.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Linell, Per and Ragnar Rommetveit. 1998. “The Many Forms and Facets of Morality in Dialogue: Epilogue for the Special Issue.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 3(3–4): 465–473.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Margutti, Piera. 2011. “Teacher's Reproaches and Managing Discipline in the Classroom: When Teachers Tell Students What They Do 'Wrong'.” Linguistics and Education 22:310–329.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert. 1967 [1934]. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehan, Hugh. 1979a. Learning Lessons: Social Organization in the Classroom. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1979b ""What Time Is It, Denise?": Asking Known Information Questions in Classroom Discourse.” Theory into Practice 28(4): 285–294.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgenstern, Aliyah, Camille Debras, et al.. 2015. “L'Art de l’Artichaut et Autres Rituels: Transmission de Pratiques Sociales et Alimentaires dans les Diners Familiaux Parisiens.” Anthropology of Food 9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor. 1988. Culture and Language Development: Language Acquisition and Language Socialization in a Samoan Village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, Ruth Smith, and Carolyn Taylor. 1989. “Detective Stories at Dinnertime: Problem-solving through Co-narration.” Cultural Dynamics 2(2): 238–257. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, Carolyn Taylor, et al.. 1992. “Storytelling as a theory-Building activity.” Discourse Processes 15(1): 37–72.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor and Carolyn Taylor. 1993. “Mothers’ Role in the Everyday Reconstruction of 'Father Knows Best'.” In Locating Power: Women and Language, ed. by Kira Hall, 447–463. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, Clotilde Pontecorvo, and Alessandra Fasulo. 1996. “Socializing Taste.” Ethnos, 61: 7–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor and Merav Shohet. 2006. “The Cultural Structuring of Mealtime Socialization.” New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 11:35–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor and Tamar Kremer-Sadlik. 2007. “Introduction: Morality as a Family Practice.” Discourse and Society 18(1): 5–10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor and Carolina Izquierdo. 2009. “Responsibility in Childhood: Three Developmental Trajectories.” ETHOS 37(4): 391–413. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor and Tamar Kremer-Sadlik. 2013. “Introduction.” In Fast Forward Family. Home, Work, and Relationships in Middle-class America, ed. by Elinor Ochs and Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, 1–12. Berkeley/ Los Angeles/ London: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paugh, Amy and Carolina Izquierdo. 2009. “Why is this a Battle every Night?: Negotiating Food and Eating in American Dinnertime Interaction.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 19(2): 185–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1986. “Extreme Case formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claim.” Human Studies 9: 219–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pontecorvo, Clotilde. 1993. La Condivisione della Conoscenza. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pontecorvo, Clotilde, Anna Maria Ajello, Cristina Zucchermaglio. 1991. Discutendo Si Impara. Roma: La Nuova Italia Scientifica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. I Contesti Sociali dell'Apprendimento. Milano: LED.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pontecorvo, Clotilde and Alessandro Duranti. 1996. “Bambini e Genitori in Famiglia. Conversazione e Socializzazione.” Età Evolutiva 55: 53–119.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pontecorvo, Clotilde, Alessandra Fasulo, Laura Sterponi. 2001. “Mutual Apprentices: The Making of Parenthood and Childhood in Family Dinner Conversations.” Human Development 44: 342–363.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pontecorvo, Clotilde and Francesco Arcidiacono. 2007. Famiglie all'Italiana: Parlare a Tavola. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robles, Jessica S. 2015. “Morality in Discourse.” In International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, ed. by Karen Tracy, Cornelia Ilie, and Todd Sandel, 132–137. Boston, MA: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rossi, Giovanni and Jorg Zinken. 2016. “Grammar and Social Agency: The Pragmatics of Impersonal Deontic Statements.” Language 92(4): e296–e325.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1984. “Notes on Methodology.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadock, Jerrold. 1971. “Queclaratives.” Papers from the Seventh Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, ed. by Douglas Adams, Ann Campbell, Mary, Cohen, Victor, Lovins, Julie, Maxwell, Edward, Nygren, Carolyn, Reighard, John, 223–232. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1974. Towards a Linguistic theory of Speech Acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1979. Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel, Gail Jefferson, and Harvey Sacks. 1977. “The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation.” Language 53: 361–382.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheler, Max. 2013 [1926]. Il Formalismo Nell'etica e L'etica Materiale Dei Valori. Milano: Bompiani.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schieffelin, Bambi B. and Elinor Ochs. 1986. Language Socialization across Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1987. Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sterponi, Laura. 2003. “Account Episodes in Family Discourse: The making of morality in everyday interaction.” Discourse Studies 5(1): 79–100.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “Accountability in Family Discourse: Socialization into Norms and Standards and Negotiation of Responsibility in Italian Dinner Conversation.” Childhood 16(4): 441–459.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Caught red-handed: How Italian Parents Engage Children in Moral Discourse and Action.” In Talking about Right and Wrong: Parent-Child Conversations as Contexts for Moral Development, ed. by Cecilia Wainryb and Holly E. Recchia, 122–143. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stets, Jan E. and Michael J. Carter. 2012. “A Theory of the Self for the Sociology of Morality.” American Sociological Review 77(1): 120–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig. 2011. The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth and Derek Edwards. 2015. “Mundane Morality: Gender, Categories and Complaints in Familial Neighbour Disputes.” Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 9(2): 165–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tracy, Karen. 2008. “'Reasonable Hostility': Situation-appropriate Face-attack.” Journal of Politeness Research 4: 169–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tramma, Sergio. 2009. Che cos'è l’educazione informale? Roma: Carocci Editore.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vassallo, Erika. 2016. Culture Familiari e Pratiche di Vita quotidiana: Modelli Educativi e Culturali nelle Conversazioni a Tavola tra Genitori e Figli. PhD Dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotskij, Lev S. 1962 [1934]. Thought and Language. Cambridge, MASS: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wainryb, Cecilia and Holly E. Recchia. 2014. Talking about Right and Wrong: Parent-Child Conversations as Contexts for Moral Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Nasi, Nicola & Vittoria Colla
2025. Children’s invoking of school rules in directive sequences with adults at home and school: mobilizing the teacher and school artefacts as authoritative sources. Text & Talk 45:3 ► pp. 341 ff. DOI logo
Nasi, Nicola
2023. Morality and polyphony in peer dialogues. Language and Dialogue 13:3 ► pp. 453 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2024. Children’s Peer Cultures in Dialogue [Dialogue Studies, 34], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue