Cover not available

In:Imperative Turns at Talk: The design of directives in action
Edited by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 30] 2017
► pp. 325–355

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

Chapter 11
Assigning roles and responsibilities

Finnish imperatively formatted directive actions in a mobile instructional setting

 | University of Helsinki
Published online: 18 August 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.30.11rau
Abstract
The study examines turns-at-talk with which a participant directs another in a mobile instructional setting, i.e., directive actions produced by an instructor to a student during a driving session. The data comprise video recordings from voluntary training for car drivers who have a valid license but little practical experience. The study focuses on the instructor’s directive actions that are formatted as second-person imperatives. In contrast with other turn formats that promote an activity as a joint one, second-person imperatives define what the recipient is individually responsible for. Such directive actions either reinstate and make explicit roles and responsibilities that have not yet been followed through to an adequate degree, or set up certain roles and responsibilities for the participants based on their positions in space and their access to instrumentation relevant for the activity. In this way, imperatively formatted directives address the participants’ expectations about how the activity should appropriately unfold – expectations that are constantly being constructed through and reflected in the formatting of single actions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and setting
  • 3.Overview of directive turn formats in the data
  • 4.From hortatives to imperatives: Reissuing directives and reinforcing the instructional situation
  • 5.Imperatives and (implied) division of labor: Taking care of immediate practicalities and moving away from the instructional situation
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
References
Barske, Tobias. 2009. “Same Token, Different Actions: A Conversation Analytic Study of Social Roles, Embodied Actions, and ok in German Business Meetings.” Journal of Business Communication 46: 120–149. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broth, Mathias, and Leelo Keevallik. 2014. “Getting Ready to Move as a Couple: Accomplishing Mobile Formations in a Dance Class.” Space and Culture 17: 107–121. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Marja Etelämäki. 2014. “On Divisions of Labor in Request and Offer Environments.” In Requesting in Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 115–144. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Marja Etelämäki. 2015. “Nominated Actions and Their Targeted Agents in Finnish Conversational Directives.” Journal of Pragmatics 78: 7–24. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidson, Judy. 1984. “Subsequent Versions of Invitations, Offers, Requests, and Proposals Dealing with Potential or Actual Rejection.” In Structures of Social Action, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson, and John Heritage, 102–128. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidson, Judy. 1990. “Modifications of Invitations, Offers and Rejections.” In Interaction Competence, ed. by George Psathas, 149–180. Washington, DC: International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis and University Press of America.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Stefani, Elwys, and Anne-Danièle Gazin. 2014. “Instructional Sequences in Driving Lessons: Mobile Participants and the Temporal and Sequential Organization of Actions.” Journal of Pragmatics 65: 63–79. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2015. “When Recipient Design Fails: Egocentric Turn-Design of Instructions in Driving School Lessons Leading to Breakdowns of Intersubjectivity.” Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift Zur Verbalen Interaktion 16: 63–101. Available at [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul, and John Heritage. 1992. “Analyzing Talk at Work: An Introduction.” In Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew, and John Heritage, 3–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1971. Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, and Asta Cekaite. 2013. “Calibration in Directive/Response Sequences in Family Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 46: 122–138. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, and Charles Goodwin. 2012. “Car Talk: Integrating Texts, Bodies, and Changing Landscapes.” Semiotica 191: 257–286.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haddington, Pentti. 2010. “Turn-Taking for Turntaking: Mobility, Time, and Action in the Sequential Organization of Junction Negotiations in Cars.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 43: 372–400. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haddington, Pentti. 2012. “Movement in Action: Initiating Social Navigation in Cars.” Semiotica 191: 147–170.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haddington, Pentti. 2013. “Directing the Driver: Passenger-Initiated Junction-Negotiations in a Car.” In Interaction and Mobility: Language and the Body in Motion, ed. by Pentti Haddington, Lorenza Mondada, and Maurice Nevile, 179–209. Berlin: de Gruyter. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haddington, Pentti, and Tiina Keisanen. 2009. “Location, Mobility and the Body as Resources in Selecting a Route.” Journal of Pragmatics 41: 1938–1961. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Sue Sefi. 1992. “Dilemmas of Advice: Aspects of the Delivery and Reception of Advice in Interactions between Health Visitors and First-Time Mothers.” In Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew, and John Heritage, 359–417. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keisanen, Tiina. 2012. ““Uh-Oh, We Were Going There”: Environmentally Occasioned Noticings of Trouble in In-Car Interaction.” Semiotica 191: 197–222.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keisanen, Tiina, and Mirka Rauniomaa. 2012. “The Organization of Participation and Contingency in Prebeginnings of Request Sequences.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45: 323–351. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kent, Alexandra. 2012. “Compliance, Resistance and Incipient Compliance When Responding to Directives.” Discourse Studies 14: 711–730. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino. 2015. “Dealing with Ambiguities in Informings: Finnish Aijaa as a “Neutral” News Receipt.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48: 365–387. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laurier, Eric, Hayden Lorimer, Barry Brown, Owain Jones, Oskar Juhlin, Allyson Noble, Mark Perry, Daniele Pica, Philippe Sormani, Ignaz Strebel, Laurel Swan, Alex S. Taylor, Laura Watts, and Alexandra Weilenmann. 2008. “Driving and Passengering: Notes on the Natural Organization of Ordinary Car Travel.” Mobilities 3: 1–23. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, Lena, Jakob Cromdal, Mathias Broth, Anne-Danièle Gazin, Pentti Haddington, Paul McIlvenny, Helen Melander, and Mirka Rauniomaa. 2017. “Unpacking Corrections in Mobile Instruction: Error-occasioned Learning Opportunities in Driving, Cycling and Aviation Training.” Linguistics and Education 38: 11–23. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2012. “Talking and Driving: Multiactivity in the Car.” Semiotica 191: 223–256.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2013. “Coordinating Mobile Action in Real Time: The Timely Organization of Directives in Video Games.” In Interaction and Mobility. Language and the Body in Motion, ed. by Pentti Haddington, Lorenza Mondada, and Maurice Nevile, 300–341. Berlin: De Gruyter. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza 2014a. Conventions for Multimodal Transcription. Basel: Romanisches Seminar der Universität Basel. ([URL])
Mondada, Lorenza. 2014b. “Requesting Immediate Action in the Surgical Operating Room: Time, Embodied Resources and Praxeological Embeddedness.” In Requesting in Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 269–302. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nevile, Maurice. 2007. “Action in Time: Ensuring Timeliness for Collaborative Work in the Airline Cockpit.” Language in Society 36: 233–257. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nevile, Maurice. 2012. “Interaction as Distraction in Driving: A Body of Evidence.” Semiotica 191: 169–196.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oshima, Sae. 2014. “Balancing Multiple Roles through Consensus: Making Revisions in Haircutting Sessions.” Text & Talk 34: 713–736. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parry, Ruth. 2013. “Giving Reasons for Doing Something Now or at Some Other Time.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 46: 105–124. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa. 2004. ““Mitäs me sovittais”. S-partikkelin sisältävien hakukysymysten tehtävistä [On the use of the particle ‑s in open ended questions].” Virittäjä 108: 531–558.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rauniomaa, Mirka, and Tiina Keisanen. 2012. “Two Multimodal Formats for Responding to Requests.” Journal of Pragmatics 44: 829–842. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rossi, Giovanni. 2012. “Bilateral and Unilateral Requests: The use of Imperatives and Mi X? Interrogatives in Italian.” Discourse Processes 49: 426–458. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John. 1976. “A Classification of Illocutionary Acts.” Language in Society 5: 1–23. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena, and Liisa Raevaara. 2014. “On the Grammatical Form of Requests at the Convenience Store: Requesting as Embodied Action.” In Requesting in Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 243–268. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevanovic, Melisa, and Jan Svennevig. 2015. “Introduction: Epistemics and Deontics in Conversational Directives.” Journal of Pragmatics 78: 1–6. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Summala, Heikki, Esko Lehtonen, Isa Dahlström, Harri Hiltunen, Jarkko Hietamäki, and Jami Pekkanen. 2011. ”Ajamaan uudelleen pitkän tauon jälkeen? Ikäkuljettajien koulutuskokeilu automaatti‑ ja käsivälitteisellä autolla [Driving again after a long pause? An experiment in training elderly drivers with automatic and manual car].” Trafis Publications 13/2011.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, Maria Vilkuna, Riitta Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen, and Irja AlhoVISK = Hakulinen, Auli, Maria Vilkuna, Riitta Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen, and Irja Alho. 2004. Iso suomen kielioppi [A Comprehensive Grammar of Finnish]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. Online. Available at [URL].
Zinken, Jörg. 2015. “Contingent Control over Shared Goods. ‘Can I have X’ Requests in British English Informal Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 82: 23–38. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (9)

Cited by nine other publications

Horlacher, Anne-Sylvie
2022. Negative Requests Within Hair Salons: Grammar and Embodiment in Action Formation. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Nasi, Nicola
2022. Practices of inclusion/exclusion in and through classroom dialogue. Language and Dialogue 12:2 ► pp. 306 ff. DOI logo
Ehmer, Oliver & Geert Brône
2021. Instructing embodied knowledge: multimodal approaches to interactive practices for knowledge constitution. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s4 DOI logo
Rauniomaa, Mirka, Tiina Keisanen & Pauliina Siitonen
2021. Shared understandings of the human–nature relationship in encounters with small wildlife. In Intersubjectivity in Action [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 326], ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Betz, Emma, Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm & Peter Golato
2020. Mobilizing others. In Mobilizing others [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 33], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Taleghani-Nikazm, Carmen, Veronika Drake, Andrea Golato & Emma Betz
2020. Mobilizing for the next relevant action. In Mobilizing others [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 33], ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Stevanovic, Melisa & Arniika Kuusisto
2019. Teacher Directives in Children’s Musical Instrument Instruction: Activity Context, Student Cooperation, and Institutional Priority. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 63:7 ► pp. 1022 ff. DOI logo
Rauniomaa, Mirka, Esko Lehtonen & Heikki Summala
2018. Noticings with instructional implications in post‐licence driver training. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 28:2 ► pp. 326 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 4 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