Talk and Practical Epistemology

The social life of knowledge in a Caribbean community

Jack Sidnell | University of Toronto

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027253859 | EUR 115.00 | USD 173.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027294098 | EUR 115.00 | USD 173.00

Drawing on the methods of conversation analysis and ethnography, this book sets out to examine the epistemological practices of Indo-Guyanese villagers as these are revealed in their talk and daily conduct. Based on over eighty-five hours of conversation recorded during twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork, the book describes both the social distribution of knowledge and the villagers' methods for distinguishing between fact and fancy, knowledge and belief through close analyses of particular encounters. The various chapters consider uncertainty and expertise in advice-giving, the cultivation of ignorance in an attempt to avoid scandal, and the organization of peer groups through the display of knowledge in the activity of reminiscing local history. An orienting chapter on questions and an appendix provide an introduction to conversation analysis. The book makes a contribution to linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis and cross-cultural pragmatics. The conclusion discusses the implications of the analysis for current understanding of practice, knowledge and social organization in anthropology and neighboring disciplines.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 142] 2005. xvi, 255 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 July 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.142

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements | pp. vii–ix

What is a transcript? | pp. xi–xv

1. Malinowski’s complaint | pp. 1–18

2. Knowledge and talk-in-interaction | pp. 19–51

3. The village | pp. 53–74

4. The vernacular | pp. 75–82

5. Answering questions: A genealogy | pp. 83–106

6. Uncertainty and expertise in advice | pp. 107–129

7. Cultivated ignorance | pp. 131–150

8. Reminiscing local history | pp. 151–170

9. Policing knowledge | pp. 171–186

10. Conclusion: Knowledge, belief and action | pp. 187–206

Appendix

Conversation analysis: A glossary and guide to the literature | pp. 207–221

Notes | pp. 223–238

Index | pp. 253–255

“This book demonstrates conclusively and richly the importance of studying language in particular situations in order to understand the production of meaning. It makes conversation analysis central to any account of practice, and I find this a very bold but well-supported view. An adequate account of human practice is an important goal and one that language scholars and scholars of pragmatics have a lot to contribute to. It's very well written and very erudite. This is an excellent book, which will be of great interest to many anthropologists, linguists, sociologists, communication and language scholars, as well as students of language use.”

Elizabeth Keating, The University of Texas at Austin

“There is much impressive and to be appreciated about this book. Three of its strengths strike this reviewer as especially noteworthy. First, by the last chapter Sidnell has clearly accomplished each of the objectives he set out to achieve. Perhaps most striking among these is the author's utilization of CA and his keen ability to link the insights it offers to topics which are not typically discussed by its practitoiners. Second, the volume includes a generous amount of empirical data: substantial excerpts of spoken discourse and ethnographic information. These come together in a relatively seamless manner, consistently reminding the reader that talk is embedded in and intertwined with its own epistemologies of practice. Third, the book successfully straddles various analytical perspectives. This study establishes its topic by tracking traditional inquiries. It can be said to link, and also to frequently transcend, established perspectives in the study of conversation, narrative, language and gender, sociohistory, identity and performance.”

Don E. Walicek, University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, on Linguist List, Vol. 18.3233 (2007)

“The data Sidnell presents, which come from Sidnell's extensive fieldwork in a Guyanese village, are rich and vivid, and Sidnell's analyses of the interaction are elegant and illuminating. In fact, it is worth reading the book just for these analyses.”

Scott F. Kiesling, University of Pittsburgh, in Language in Society 38 (2009)

“An excellent book that makes a real contribution to a range of fields (linguistic anthropology, ethnography, conversation analysis, the sociology of knowledge, etc.). Among the book's real strengths is its integration of detailed analysis of language structure and the organization of talk with crucial issues in philosophy and ethnography. The detailed analysis is both insightful and substantive, and moreover the issues it raises and demonstrates about the organization of knowledge as practice are very important and original. This is an important, very original book that makes genuine substantive contributions and opens up important topics for discussion in a range of fields.”

Charles Goodwin, UCLA

Cited by (39)

Cited by 39 other publications

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2024. What Does That Mean? Complementizers and Epistemic Authority. Open Mind 8 ► pp. 366 ff.

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Wirtz, Kristina

2022. Voices in a Sea of History: Why Study Language in the Caribbean. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 27:3 ► pp. 255 ff.

Fasulo, Alessandra

2021. Chapter 3. Talking to children with atypical development. In Language and Social Interaction at Home and School [Dialogue Studies, 32], ► pp. 121 ff.

Floyd, Simeon

2021. Conversation and Culture. Annual Review of Anthropology 50:1 ► pp. 219 ff.

Marques, Joana B. V., Andrew P. Carlin, Miguel Gomes & Ricardo Moutinho

2021. Periodicity and change: Talking about time inside the planetarium dome. Science Education 105:6 ► pp. 1252 ff.

Garrett, Paul B.

2020. Creole and Creolization. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff.

Johnstone, Barbara

2020. Sociolinguistics. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff.

Pan, Yun

2019. Meaning construction in interactive academic talk. Pragmatics & Cognition 26:2-3 ► pp. 414 ff.

San Roque, Lila

2019. Evidentiality. Annual Review of Anthropology 48:1 ► pp. 353 ff.

Raymond, Geoffrey

2018. Which epistemics? Whose conversation analysis?. Discourse Studies 20:1 ► pp. 57 ff.

Schützeichel, Rainer

2018. Professionswissen. In Handbuch Professionssoziologie [Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften, ], ► pp. 1 ff.

Tanner, Andrew & Lesley Stirling

2017. The past is a foreign country: disputed memories and telling rights in co-narrated refugee stories. Text & Talk 37:6 ► pp. 759 ff.

Mihas, Elena

2016. Language-specific resources in talk: A study of epistemic stance coding in Alto Perené (Arawak) agreements. Discourse Studies 18:2 ► pp. 165 ff.

Rusk, Fredrik, Michaela Pörn & Fritjof Sahlström

2016. Whose Question? Whose Knowledge?. In Open Spaces for Interactions and Learning Diversities, ► pp. 151 ff.

Strahan, Tania & Lesley Stirling

2016. “What the hell was in that wine?”. Narrative Inquiry 26:2 ► pp. 430 ff.

Vincze, Laura, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni & Andrzej Zuczkowski

2016. Ignorance-unmasking questions in the Royal–Sarkozy presidential debate: A resource to claim epistemic authority. Discourse Studies 18:4 ► pp. 430 ff.

Raclaw, Joshua & Cecilia E. Ford

2015. Meetings as Interactional Achievements. In The Cambridge Handbook of Meeting Science, ► pp. 247 ff.

Dingemanse, Mark & Simeon Floyd

2014. Conversation across cultures. In The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 447 ff.

Enfield, N. J., Paul Kockelman & Jack Sidnell

2014. Introduction. In The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 1 ff.

Sidnell, Jack, N. J. Enfield & Paul Kockelman

2014. Interaction and intersubjectivity. In The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology, ► pp. 343 ff.

Dingemanse, Mark, Francisco Torreira, N. J. Enfield & Johan J. Bolhuis

2013. Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items. PLoS ONE 8:11 ► pp. e78273 ff.

Kockelman, Paul

2013. The anthropology of an equation. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3:3 ► pp. 33 ff.

Kockelman, Paul

2019. Being multiversed in the multiverse. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 9:1 ► pp. 200 ff.

Hayashi, Makoto

2012. Claiming Uncertainty in Recollection: A Study ofKke-Marked Utterances in Japanese Conversation. Discourse Processes 49:5 ► pp. 391 ff.

Sidnell, Jack & N. J. Enfield

2012. Language Diversity and Social Action. Current Anthropology 53:3 ► pp. 302 ff.

Muntigl, Peter & Kwok Tim Choi

2010. Not remembering as a practical epistemic resource in couples therapy. Discourse Studies 12:3 ► pp. 331 ff.

Bucholtz, Mary & Kira Hall

2008. All of the above: New coalitions in sociocultural linguistics1. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12:4 ► pp. 401 ff.

LEMPERT, MICHAEL

2008. The poetics of stance: Text-metricality, epistemicity, interaction. Language in Society 37:4 ► pp. 569 ff.

MAHEUX-PELLETIER, GENEVIÈVE & ANDREA GOLATO

2008. Repair in membership categorization in French. Language in Society 37:5 ► pp. 689 ff.

Sidnell, Jack

2008. Alternate and complementary perspectives on language and social life: The organization of repair in two Caribbean communities1. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12:4 ► pp. 477 ff.

Sidnell, Jack

2012. Language and gender in the Caribbean. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 27:1 ► pp. 141 ff.

Razfar, Aria

2005. Language ideologies in practice: Repair and classroom discourse. Linguistics and Education 16:4 ► pp. 404 ff.

[no author supplied]

2012. References. In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ► pp. 741 ff.

[no author supplied]

2015. References. In Uncertain Futures, ► pp. 197 ff.

[no author supplied]

2017. Conversational structures of Alto Perené (Arawak) of Peru [Studies in Language Companion Series, 181],

[no author supplied]

2021. Language, Multimodal Interaction and Transaction [Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, 14],

[no author supplied]

2022. Genre in World Englishes [Varieties of English Around the World, G67],

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 october 2024. 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.

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