Edited by Galina B. Bolden, John Heritage and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
This book is about one of the most fundamental action sequences found across human societies and socio-cultural contexts: polar questions and their responses. Question–answer sequences are among the most basic building blocks for sequences of action in interaction and are ubiquitous among the… read more
The last two decades have witnessed a remarkable growth of interest in what are variously termed discourse markers or discourse particles. The greatest area of growth has centered on particles that occur in sentence-initial or turn-initial position, and this interest intersects with a long-standing… read more
Edited by Geoffrey Raymond, Gene H. Lerner and John Heritage
This collection offers a multifaceted view of the life, research and impact of Emanuel A. Schegloff, the co-originator, with Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson, of Conversation Analysis (or CA), and its leading contemporary authority. The first section introduces Schegloff’s life and work, and, using… read more
Question–answer sequences are arguably among the most basic building blocks for sequences of action in interaction and are ubiquitous among the languages of the world. This chapter reviews and synthesizes current interactional research on polar questions and answers across languages in order to… read more
We consider a specific polar-interrogative offer by physicians (e.g., Is there something/anything else you’d like to address in the visit today?). We show that in one sequential context this interrogative obligates the production of a yes-/no-type answer, receiving one over 80% of the time.… read more
This paper traces the increasing prominence of women in the White House press corps over the latter half of the 20th century, and considers how this trend toward greater gender balance has impacted the questioning of presidents. Modest gender differences are documented in the topical content of… read more
This chapter examines the English turn-initial particles oh and well. It begins with a consideration of their distinctive usages and functions in three basic sequential positions (first, second and third), arguing that both exhibit what Schegloff (1996) terms ‘positional sensitivity’. The chapter… read more
This chapter examines three particles that have epistemic functions in English and Mandarin: turn-initial‘oh’in English, turn-initial‘ou’in Mandarin, and turn-final‘a’in Mandarin. It is argued that whileouandohconverge in registering a ‘change of state’ of information, orientation or awareness,… read more
The implementation and ascription of ‘first actions’ has until recently been an understudied area within conversation analysis. Recently, exploratory studies in the domains of epistemics and deontics have led to a revival of interest in this problem. This paper addresses the same issue through the… read more
Advice giving is a central feature of many forms of professional-client interaction. This paper looks at advice giving on medical and related matters by British community nurses to first-time mothers of new-borns, in the context of visits to the new mothers’ homes. Current evidence from survey… read more
