Article published In: (Co-)Constructing Interpersonally Sensitive Activities Across Institutional Settings
Edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Rosina Márquez Reiter
[Pragmatics and Society 7:4] 2016
► pp. 618–637
When questioners count on recipients’ lack of knowledge
A recurring ‘question-answer’ format in guided tours
Published online: 20 December 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.7.4.05tic
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.7.4.05tic
This paper studies a type of question-answer sequences which accomplish what can be considered as a delicate activity due to its projected
sequential development. In contrast with other formats of question-answer sequences with different functions (i.e. eliciting information,
checking the questionee’s knowledge, etc.), here the studied format seems to count on the questionee’s lack of knowledge, consequently
projecting the questioner’s own answer. This hypothesis is examined through a detailed analysis of video-recorded guided tours in French and
Italian. The paper describes the different sequence trajectories occurring after the guide’s question, and the difficulties both
participants may find in dealing with the procedure.
References (26)
Auer, Peter. 2002. “Projection in Conversation and Projection in Grammar.” InLiSt 331, [URL].
Clayman, Steven E. 1993. “Reformulating the Question: A Device for Answering/Not Answering Questions in News Interviews and Press Conferences.” Text 131: 159–188.
De Stefani, Elwys. 2010. “Reference as an Interactively and Multimodally Accomplished Practice: Organizing Spatial Reorientation in Guided Tours.” In Spoken Communication, ed. by Massimo Pettorino, Antonella Giannini, Isabella Chiari, and Francesca Dovetto, 137–170. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
De Stefani, Elwys, and Lorenza Mondada. 2007. “L’organizzazione multimodale e interazionale dell’orientamento spaziale in movimento.” Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée 851: 131–159.
Gardner, Rod. 2004. “On Delaying the Answer: Question Sequences Extended after the Question.” In Second Language Conversations, ed. by Rod Gardner and Johannes Wagner, 246–267. London: Continuum.
Glenn, Phillip, and Elizabeth Holt. 2014. “Introduction.” In Studies of Laughter in Interaction, ed. by Phillip Glenn and Elizabeth Holt, 1–22. London: Continuum.
Haakana, Markku. 2001. “Laughter as a Patient’s Resource: Dealing with Delicate Aspects of Medical Interaction.” Text 211: 187–219.
Heritage, John. 2002. “The Limits of Questioning: Negative Interrogatives and Hostile Question Content.” Journal of Pragmatics 341: 1427–1446.
Heritage, John, and David Greatbatch. 1991. “On the Institutional Character of Institutional Talk: The Case of News Interview Interaction.” In Talk and Social Structure, ed. by Deirdre Boden and Don H. Zimmerman, 93–137. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Houtkoop-Steenstra, Hanneke. 1995. “Meeting Both Ends: Between Standardization and Recipient Design in Telephone Survey Interviews.” In Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organization of Talk and Embodied Activities, ed. by Paul ten Have and George Psathas, 91–106. Washington, D.C.: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, and University Press of America.
Koshik, Irene. 2005. Beyond Rhetorical Questions: Assertive Questions in Everyday Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mehan, Hugh. 1979. Learning Lessons: Social Organization in the Classroom. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Mondada, Lorenza. 2005. “La constitution de l’origo déictique comme travail interactionnel des participants: une approche praxéologique de la spatialité.” Intellectica 41–421 : 75–100.
Peräkylä, Anssi. 2007. “Conversation Analysis. ” In Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, ed. by George Ritzer, 791–794. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 501: 696–735.
Schegloff, Emanuel. 2007. Sequence Organization. A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Seedhouse, Paul. 2004. The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Sidnell, Jack, and Tanya Stivers (eds). 2012. Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Streeck, Jürgen. 1995. “On Projection.” In Interaction and Social Intelligence, ed. by Esther Goody, 84–110. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Traverso, Véronique. 2008. “Cadres, espaces, objets et multimodalité dans l’interaction en site commercial.” In Les interactions en site commercial: Invariants et variations, ed. by Cathérine Kerbrat-Orecchioni and Véronique Traverso, 45–77. Lyon: ENS Editions.
. 2012. “’Le salon bibliothèque’: délimitation et partage des espaces. Usage des annonces dénominatives désignatives dans la visite guidée.” In Les visites guidées. Discours, interaction, multimodalité, ed. by Jean-Paul Dufiet, 56–84. Trento: Collezione Labirinti.
. 2014a. “Compétences montrées, compétences partagées, compétences situées: nomination et définition des objets dans les visites guidées.” In De compétences en performances, ed. by Sandra Bornand and Cécile Leguy, 137–163. Paris: Karthala.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 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.
