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Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 29:3 (2019) ► pp.384–409

Modulating troubles affiliating in initial interactions

The role of remedial accounts

ORCID logo | Ulster University
| The University of Queensland
| York St John University

Much of the research on affiliation to date has focused on how people do (dis)affiliation. This paper explores the remedial work that follows instances of disaffiliation between interactants who are getting acquainted. Building on an interactional pragmatics analytical approach informed by methods and research in conversation analysis, findings indicate that extended remedial accounts recurrently follow moments of disaffiliation in initial interactions. These remedial accounts enable participants to reposition a prior disaffiliative stance as (ostensibly) affiliative. It appears in initial interactions, then, that remedial accounts play an important role in modulating troubles in affiliating. We propose that the considerable interactional work undertaken by these participants to modulate such troubles reflects a general preference for agreeability in initial interactions, at least amongst (Australian and British) speakers of English.

Keywords: getting acquainted, disaffiliation, accounts, facework, conversation analysis, interactional pragmatics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Initial interactions
    • 2.2(Dis)Affiliation
      • 2.2.1Affiliation, agreement and alignment
      • 2.2.2Disaffiliation and nonaffiliation
    • 2.3Accounts and remedial work
    • 2.4Accounts and dispreferred responses
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2Analytical framework
  • 4.Remedial accounts in initial interactions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 26 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.17010.fli
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