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Part of
How Emotions Are Made in Talk
Edited by Jessica S. Robles and Ann Weatherall
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 321] 2021
► pp. 101–128

Chapter 2.1
Using objects and technologies in the immediate environment as resources for managing affect displays in troubles talk

ORCID logo | Loughborough University
ORCID logo | West Chester University
ORCID logo | West Chester University
This chapter shows how the communicative affordances of material objects in the local environments, including mobile phones and laptops, provide resources for participants to manage displays of affect during troubles talk, including potentially enacting or resisting affiliative recipiency. Specifically, we highlight embodied practices through which speakers employ such devices as an interactional resource to keep emotional displays off-record in order to preserve the ongoing action trajectory while participants negotiate affiliative work.
Keywords: multitasking, multiactivity, mobile technology, new communication technology, embodiment, affect, storytelling, troubles talk, affiliation, alignment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Troubles talk, affiliation, and emotion
    • 2.1Multiactivity, embodiment, and objects in interaction
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Providing for affect in recipiency
    • 4.2Managing disagreement
    • 4.3Pursuing more affiliation
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 12 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.321.04rob
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