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In:Informality in Japanese: Getting close in a formal context
Edited by Haruko Minegishi Cook and Momoko Nakamura
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 357] 2027
► pp. 50–70

Chapter 3
Making connections

Reported speech, repetition, eccentric metaphor, and other resources in research interview discourse

 | Macalester College
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates that even in institutional and formal contexts, participants can and do make emotional connections with each other. In my data of two-party research interviews, I observed some recurrent linguistic elements in moments of such connection: (1) reported speech, (2) repetition, and (3) eccentric metaphors. However, these linguistic strategies did not create emotional connections in isolation. Rather, extralinguistic factors such as the interlocutors’ mutual familiarity as members of the same professional networks and camaraderie based on similar professional and personal experiences, and accompanying semiotic features such as empathetic facial expressions, smiles, and laughter helped the interview participants make stories come alive and engage the other participant more fully. In other words, the participants successfully achieved emotional connection because they employed multilevel and multimodal (extralinguistic, visual, paralinguistic, and linguistic) resources in a concerted manner.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research interviews: Collaboration, institutionality, formality, and connection
  • 3.Data
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Emotional connections
    • 4.2External factors and non-linguistic semiotic resources
    • 4.3Linguistic resources
      • 4.3.1Reported speech (or constructed dialogue)
      • 4.3.2Repetition
      • 4.3.3Eccentric metaphor
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (28)
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