Affectivity in Interaction

Sound objects in English

Elisabeth Reber
University of Würzburg
How do participants display affectivity in social interaction? Based on recordings of authentic everyday conversations and radio phone-ins, this study offers a fine-grained analysis of how recipients of affect-laden informings deploy sound objects, i.e. interjections (oh, ooh and ah) and paralinguistic signals (whistle and clicks), for responsive displays of affectivity. Examining the use of such sound objects across a number of interactional activities including news telling, troubles talk, complaining, assessments and repair, the study provides evidence that the sound pattern and sequential placement of sound objects systematically contribute to their specific meaning-making in interaction, i.e. the management of sequence organisation and interactional relevancies (e.g. affiliation). Presenting an in-depth analysis of a little researched area of language use from an interactional linguistic perspective, the book will be of theoretical and methodological interest to an audience with a background in linguistics, sociology and conversational studies.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 215]  2012.  ix, 281 pp.
Publishing status: Available
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027256201 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00
 
e-BookSold by e-book platforms
ISBN 9789027281654 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00
 
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
ix
I. Introduction
Introduction
3–8
II. Background
1. Preliminaries: Affectivity and sound objects in an interactional linguistic perspective
11–24
2. Approaching sound objects: Previous research on interjections, discourse markers and vocalisations
25–40
3. Approaching affectivity in talk-in-interaction I: Previous research on prosody
41–52
4. Approaching affectivity in talk-in-interaction II: Previous research on conversational activities
53–72
III. An analysis of responsive affect-laden sound objects in talk-in-interaction
5. Affectivity and sound objects: An interactional linguistic perspective
75–82
6. Affect-laden oh in repair sequences and news tellings
83–130
7. Affect-laden oohs in radio phone-ins and in mundane complaint sequences/troubles talk
131–170
8. Types of affect-laden ahs in troubles talk and deliveries of bad news
171–222
9. More affect-laden sound objects
223–242
IV. Summary and conclusions
Summary
245–256
References
257–272
Appendix
273–278
Subject index
279–280
Name index
281

Quotes

“We are witnessing here a study which forms clearly a distinct addition to existing knowledge. […] It begins where many of the prior studies have stopped: it shows that there is variation in meaning associated with prosodic-phonetic variation at levels that much of the prior research has been unable to reach.”
Marja-Leena Sorjonen, University of Helsinki
“What is often described in lay terms as 'oh-ing', 'ah-ing' and 'ooh-ing' is shown here to be a systematic social practice for displaying different sorts of affective stance in response to conversational news reports and other kinds of informings. This book is highly recommended for all those who take the emotive dimensions of social interaction seriously.”
Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, University of Helsinki

Subjects

Benjamins Subject classification

BIC Subject

CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis

BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2011039790
This page is part of John Benjamins Publishing Company website. Click 'embed' to view its contents in the fully-featured web application. Embed