Ressources linguistiques pour la gestion de l'intersubjectivité dans la parole en interaction : : Analyses conversationnelles et phonétiques

Sammanfattning: This dissertation deals with conversational practices through which interactants manage issues of intersubjectivity, i.e. mutual understanding for all practical purposes. Intersubjectivity is understood in a procedural sense, and as built into the infrastructure of interaction, where each next action embodies aspects of how the previous action was understood. This understanding can be inspected by others, and amended where deemed appropriate. Largely, mutual understanding is thus taken for granted and tacitly assumed. However, at times interactants do pay overt attention to managing understandings, and this thesis focuses on three such cases. The analyses are couched in the framework of conversation analysis (CA), which aims to uncover how participants produce recognizable social actions by means of generic but flexible conversational practices. These practices draw on linguistic resources and other conduct, as well as the sequential position in which the practice is located. The approach taken in this thesis is also characterized by its attention to phonetic detail (including prosodic, articulatory and phonatory aspects of talk) as a resource for action. Each of the three empirical chapters deals with a particular phenomenon involved in managing intersubjectivity in French talk-in-interaction. The first is concerned with formulations, a way of drawing out the gist of what the interlocutor has just said. These may be used to solicit either mere or elaborate confirmations. The second investigates "ah"-prefaced other-repeats, which acknowledge receipt and claim a renewed understanding, while indexing a previous action as inadequate. The third concentrates on mere other-repeats, and demonstrates that they may either indicate a breakdown in intersubjectivity, or display uptake and thus maintained intersubjectivity. One of the main findings is that phonetic design is pivotal in specifying the action conveyed by the practices examined, and thus constitutes an integral part of the practices. The results show that the phonetic design of a turn at talk does not straightforwardly map to intersubjective meaning, but is inextricably linked to action and sequential organization.