Cover not available
Part of
How Emotions Are Made in Talk
Edited by Jessica S. Robles and Ann Weatherall
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 321] 2021
► pp. 51–76

Chapter 1.2
Affect in interaction

Working out expectancies and responsibility in a phone call

ORCID logo | University at Albany, SUNY
ORCID logo | University at Albany, SUNY

Affect refers to the public display of emotions and feelings. Affect displays occur in various ways, including response cries (Goffman 1978, 1981), laughter/crying, lexical choice, vocal intonation and prosody, timing and embodied actions performed in the production of utterances and other actions (cf. Hepburn 2004; Hepburn and Potter 2007; Potter and Hepburn 2010; Ruusuvuori 2007). Using CA, close examination of a telephone call reveals that affect marks differences in expectancies between interlocutors as problematic. When expectancies arise as problematic, participants work to (a) identify what misalignments may exist between participants’ expectancies, (b) assess the severity of the misalignment(s), (c) assign accountability and responsibility for the “consequent event” (Pomerantz 1978: 119) that serves as evidence of the misalignment, and (d) work to establish an alternative set of aligned expectancies. We suggest that affect displays are one way of explicitly foregrounding misalignments regarding the moral organization of participation in social interaction.

Keywords: ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, affect, emotion, accountability, responsibility, morality
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Analysis of a telephone call
    • 2.1Marking the breach
    • 2.2Exposing the breach
    • 2.3Escalation
    • 2.4De-escalation
  • 3.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.321.02heb
References
Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar, Elisabeth Reber, and Margret Selting
(eds) 2010 Prosody in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Betz, Emma
2015 “Recipient Design in Reference Choice: Negotiating Knowledge, Access and Sequential Trajectories.” Gesprächsforschung 16: 137–173.Google Scholar
Buck, Ross
1994 “Social and Emotional Functions in Facial Expression and Communication: The Readout Hypothesis.” Biological Psychology 38, no. 2–3: 95–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, Carly W., Susan Danby, and Michael Emmison
2011 “Address Terms in Turn Beginnings: Managing Disalignment and Disaffiliation in Telephone Counseling.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 44 (4): 338–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buttny, Richard
1993 Social Accountability in Communication. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Coulmas, Florian
1980 “Poison to Your Poul” Thanks and Apologies Contrastively Viewed. Linguistic Agency, University of Trier.Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven E.
2010 “Address Terms in the Service of Other Actions: The Case of News Interview Talk.” Discourse and Communication 4 (2): 161–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Agency in Response: The Role of Prefatory Address terms.” Journal of Pragmatics 57: 290–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth
2009 “A Sequential Approach to Affect: The Case of ‘Disappointment.’” In Talk in Interaction: Comparative Dimensions, ed. by Markku Haakana, Minna Laakso, and Jan Lindström, 94–123. Helsinki, Finland: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar
2012 “On Affectivity and Preference in Responses to Rejection.” Text & Talk 32 (4): 453–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 “Prosody as dialogic interaction.” In Prosody and Phonetics in Interaction, ed. by D. Barth-Weingarten and B. Szczepek Reed, 221–251. Mannheim: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.Google Scholar
Dersley, Ian, and Anthony Wootton
2000 “Complaint Sequences within Antagonistic Argument.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 33 (4): 375–406. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul
1998 “Complaints about Transgressions and Misconduct.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 31(3–4): 295–325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul, and Alexa Hepburn
2016 “Absent Apologies.” Discourse Processes 53 (1–2): 114–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul, and Elizabeth Holt
1988 “Complainable Matters: The Use of Idiomatic Expressions in Making Complaints.” Social Problems 35(4): 398–417. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul, and Traci Walker
2009 “Going Too Far: Complaining, Escalating and Disaffiliation.” Journal of Pragmatics, Complaining in Interaction, 41 (12): 2400–2414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Derek
1994 “Script Formulations: An Analysis of Event Descriptions in Conversation.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 13 (3): 211–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995 “Two to Tango: Script Formulations, Dispositions, and Rhetorical Symmetry in Relationship Troubles Talk.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 28 (4): 319–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 “Moaning, Whinging and Laughing: The Subjective Side of Complaints.” Discourse Studies 7 (1): 5–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 “Facts, Norms and Dispositions: Practical Uses of the Modal Verb Would in Police Interrogations.” Discourse Studies 8 (4): 475–501. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ekman, Paul
1993 “Facial Expression and Emotion.” American Psychologist 48(4): 384. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ekman, Paul, and Wallace V. Friesen
1971 “Constants Across Cultures in the Face and Emotion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 17(2): 124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evaldsson, Ann-Carita
2007 “Accounting for Friendship: Moral Ordering and Category Membership in Preadolescent Girls’ Relational Talk.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 40(4): 377–404. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evaldsson, Ann-Carita, and Johanna Svahn
2017 “Staging Social Aggression.” Research on Children and Social Interaction 1 (1): 77–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, Susan
1976 “Is Sybil There? The Structure of Some American English Directives.” Language in Society 5 (1): 25–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fraser, Bruce
1981 “On Apologizing.” Conversational Routine: 259–271. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold
1964 “Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities.” Social problems 11(3): 225–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1967 Studies in Ethnomethodology. Wiley.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving
1978 “Response cries.” Language: 787–815. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1981 Forms of Talk. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, Asta Cekaite, and Charles Goodwin
2012 “Emotion as stance.” In Emotion in Interaction, ed. by Anssi Peräkylä, and Marja-Leena Sorjonen: 16–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greatbatch, David, and Robert Dingwall
1997 “Argumentative Talk in Divorce Mediation Sessions.” American Sociological Review 62 (1): 151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heath, Christian, Paul Luff, Jason Cleverly, and Dirk vom Lehn
2012 Revealing Surprise: The Local Ecology and the Transposition of Action. In Emotion in Interaction. Ed. by Anssi Peräkylä and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 212–234. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heinemann, Trine, and Véronique Traverso
2009 “Complaining in Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics, Complaining in Interaction, 41 (12): 2381–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hepburn, Alexa
2004 “Crying: Notes on Description, Transcription, and Interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 37 (3): 251–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hepburn, Alexa, and Galina B. Bolden
2017 Transcribing for Social Research. London:Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hepburn, Alexa, and Jonathan Potter
2007 “Crying Receipts: Time, Empathy, and Institutional Practice.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 40 (1): 89–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John
1998 “Oh-Prefaced Responses to Inquiry.” Language in Society 27 (3): 291–334. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 “Well-Prefaced Turns in English Conversation: A Conversation Analytic Perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 88: 88–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Robert
1992 Telephone Conversation. Bloomington:Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hutchby, Ian
1992 “The Pursuit of Controversy: Routine Skepticism in Talk on ‘Talk Radio’.” Sociology 26 (4): 673–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Izard, Carroll E.
1971 The Face of Emotion. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, Gail
1985 “On the Interactional Unpackaging of a ‘Gloss.’” Language in Society 14 (4): 435–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, Gail, Harvey Sacks, and Emanuel Schegloff
1987 “Notes on Laughter in the Pursuit of intimacy”. In Talk and Social Organisation. Ed. by Graham Button and John R. E. Lee, 152–205. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Kaukomaa, Timo, Anssi Peräkylä, and Johanna Ruusuvuori
2015 “How Listeners Use Facial Expression to Shift the Emotional Stance of the Speaker’s Utterance.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (3): 319–341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keisanen, T.
2007 Stancetaking as an Interactional Activity: Challenging the Prior Speaker. In Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction, ed. R. Englebretson, 253–282. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kumatoridani, T.
1999 “Alternation and Co-occurrence in Japanese Thanks”. Journal of Pragmatics 31(5): 623–642. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laforest, Marty
2009 “Complaining in Front of a Witness: Aspects of Blaming Others for Their Behaviour in Multi-Party Family Interactions.” Journal of Pragmatics 41(12): 452–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Gene H.
2003 “Selecting Next Speaker: The Context-Sensitive Operation of a Context-Free Organization.” Language in Society 32 (2): 177–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maynard, Douglas W.
2003 Bad News, Good News: Conversational Order in Everyday Talk and Clinical Settings. Chicago, IL:University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Monzoni, Chiara M.
2009 “Direct Complaints in (Italian) Calls to the Ambulance: The Use of Negatively Framed Questions.” Journal of Pragmatics, 41 (12): 2465–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nishizaka, Aug
2017 “The Moral Construction of Worry about Radiation Exposure: Emotion, Knowledge, and Tests.” Discourse and Society 28 (6): 635–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita
1978 “Attributions of Responsibilty: Blamings.” Sociology 12 (1): 115–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1986 “Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claims.” Human Studies 9 (2–3): 219–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Potter, Jonathan, and Alexa Hepburn
2010 “Putting Aspiration into Words: ‘Laugh Particles’, Managing Descriptive Trouble and Modulating Action.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (6): 1543–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rendle-Short, Johanna
2010 “ ‘Mate’ as a Term of Address in Ordinary Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (5): 1201–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey D.
2004 “The Sequential Organization of ‘Explicit’ Apologies in Naturally Occurring English.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 37 (3): 291–330. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey D., and Galina B. Bolden
2010 “Preference Organization of Sequence-Initiating Actions: The Case of Explicit Account Solicitations.” Discourse Studies 12 (4): 501–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruusuvuori, Johanna
2007 “Managing Affect: Integration of Empathy and Problem-Solving in Health Care Encounters.” Discourse Studies 9 (5): 597–622. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
1992a Lectures on Conversation, Volumes I and II. ed. By G. Jefferson. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
1992b “Lecture April 12th.” In Lectures on Conversation, Volume 2, ed. by Gail Jefferson, 354–359. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
1992c “Lecture 6.” In Lectures on Conversation, Volume 2, edited by Gail Jefferson, 570–575. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
1992d “On Doing Being Ordinary.” In Lectures on Conversation, Volume 2, edited by Gail Jefferson, 215–221. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, and Emmanuel Schegloff
1979 “Two Preferences in the Organization of Reference to Persons in Conversation and Their Interaction”. In Everyday Language, ed. by George Psathas, 15–21. New York: Irvington Publishers.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson
1974 “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 50 (4): 696–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Samra-Fredericks, Dalvir
2010 “Ethnomethodology and the Moral Accountability of Interaction: Navigating the Conceptual Terrain of ‘Face’and Face-Work.” Journal of Pragmatics 42(8): 2147–2157. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
1986 “The Routine as Achievement.” Human Studies 9 (2/3): 111–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1987 “Analyzing Single Episodes of Interaction: An Exercise in Conversation Analysis.” Social Psychology Quarterly 50 (2): 101–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 “On Complainability.” Social Problems 52 (4): 449–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selting, Margret
1996 “Prosody as an Activity-Type Distinctive Cue in Conversation: The Case of so-Called ‘Astonished.’” In Prosody in Conversation: Interactional Studies, ed. by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Margret Selting, 231–70. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 “Complaint Stories and Subsequent Complaint Stories with Affect Displays.” Journal of Pragmatics 44(4): 387–415. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya
2008 “Stance, Alignment, and Affiliation During Storytelling: When Nodding Is a Token of Affiliation.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (1): 31–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig
(eds) 2011 The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth
2010 “ ‘I’m Not Gonna Hit a Lady’: Conversation Analysis, Membership Categorization and Men’s Denials of Violence towards Women.” Discourse & Society 21 (1): 59–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Verhulst, A., and Heyvaert, L.
2015 “Root Modal Uses of Should, Ought to and Be Supposed to in Present-Day English: From Patterns and Profiles to Proficiency Guidelines.” English Studies, 96(5), 562–595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walker, Traci
2014a “Form ≠ Function: The Independence of Prosody and Action.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 47 (1): 1–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014b “The Independence of Phonetic Form and Interactional Accomplishments.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 47 (1): 23–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, Sue, and Celia Kitzinger
2006 “Surprise as an Interactional Achievement: Reaction Tokens in Conversation.” Social Psychology Quarterly 69 (2): 150–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar