Imperative Turns at Talk

The design of directives in action

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ISBN 9789027226402 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
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ISBN 9789027265524 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
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In middle-class Anglo-speaking circles imperatives are considered impolite forms that command another to do something; etiquette manuals recommend avoiding them. The papers in this collection de-construct such lay beliefs. Through the empirical examination of everyday and institutional interaction across a range of languages, they show that imperatives are routinely used for constructing turns that further sociality in interactional situations. Moreover, they show that for understanding the use of an imperatively formatted turn, its specific design (whether it contains, e.g., an overt subject, object, modal particles, or diminutives), and its sequential and temporal positioning in verbal and embodied activities are crucial. The fact that the same type of imperative turn is appropriate under the same circumstances across linguistically diverse cultures suggests that there are common aspects of imperative turn design and common pragmatic dimensions of situations warranting their use. The volume provides new insights into the resources and processes involved when social actors try to get another to do something.
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 30] 2017.  vi, 435 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 4 August 2017
Table of Contents
“Imperatives are one of the three major sentence types, together with interrogatives and declaratives. In this collection of articles, scholars in Interactional Linguistics and Conversation Analysis examine the use of imperative forms as turns-at-talk and social actions in naturally occurring interaction. The studies not only demonstrate an acute attention to linguistic form across a range of languages; they also reveal the subtle structures of social interaction in which imperative turns naturally find their home. This volume is essential reading for all scholars of interaction and grammar and the complex relationship between linguistic form and social action.”
“This volume powerfully demonstrates how analyzing language in its primary habitat – social interaction – entails a fundamental reconsideration of even the most established categories of grammar. Deconstructing the notion according to which the use of imperatives is basically related to ‘commanding’ and ‘impoliteness’, the studies collected here document the wide range of actions that speakers accomplish by means of imperative constructions in real-life situations. Both original in its approach and profound in its implications, the volume as a whole advances our understanding of the workings of grammar in light of the temporal and multisemiotic unfolding of social interaction.”
“This enjoyable book fully succeeds in its aim of explaining the emergence of grammar from the patterns and regularities within social interaction.”
Cited by (29)

Cited by 29 other publications

Bolden, Galina B., John Heritage & Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2023. Chapter 1. Introduction. In Responding to Polar Questions across Languages and Contexts [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 35],  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Ekström, Mats & Melisa Stevanovic
2023. Conversation analysis and power: examining the descendants and antecedents of social action. Frontiers in Sociology 8 DOI logo
Kim, Mary Shin
2023. Korean imperatives at two different speech levels. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 33:4  pp. 559 ff. DOI logo
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth & Sandra A. Thompson
2022. Action Ascription and Deonticity in Everyday Advice-Giving Sequences. In Action Ascription in Interaction,  pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Deppermann, Arnulf & Michael Haugh
2022. Action Ascription in Social Interaction. In Action Ascription in Interaction,  pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Heritage, John
2022. The Multiple Accountabilities of Action. In Action Ascription in Interaction,  pp. 297 ff. DOI logo
Hoey, Elliott M.
2022. Self-authorizing action: Onlet me Xin English social interaction. Language in Society 51:1  pp. 95 ff. DOI logo
Montiegel, Kristella
2022. Teachers’ gestures for building listening and spoken language skills. Discourse Processes 59:10  pp. 771 ff. DOI logo
PEKAREK DOEHLER, SIMONA & SØREN W. ESKILDSEN
2022. Emergent L2 Grammars in and for Social Interaction: Introduction to the Special Issue. The Modern Language Journal 106:S1  pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Raymond, Chase Wesley
2022. Suffixation and sequentiality. Interactional Linguistics 2:1  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Baldauf-Quilliatre, Heike & Isabel Colón De Carvajal
2021. Séquences de guidage dans des sessions de jeux vidéo : comment co-construire la programmation d’une action dans l’interaction ?. Langages N° 221:1  pp. 107 ff. DOI logo
Deppermann, Arnulf
2021. Social Actions. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics,  pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Deppermann, Arnulf & Alexandra Gubina
2021. Positionally-sensitive action-ascription. Interactional Linguistics 1:2  pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Laakso, Minna
2021. Learning to request in interaction. In Intersubjectivity in Action [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 326],  pp. 349 ff. DOI logo
Mushin, Ilana & Simona Pekarek Doehler
2021. Linguistic structures in social interaction. Interactional Linguistics 1:1  pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Routarinne, Sara & Maria Ahlholm
2021. Developing Requests in Multilingual Classroom Interaction: A Case of Second Language Development in Middle Childhood. Applied Linguistics 42:4  pp. 765 ff. DOI logo
Siitonen, Pauliina, Mirka Rauniomaa & Tiina Keisanen
2021. Language and the Moving Body: Directive Actions With the Finnish kato “look” in Nature-Related Activities. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Betz, Emma, Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm & Peter Golato
2020. Chapter 1. Mobilizing others. In Mobilizing Others [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 33],  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Bolaños-Carpio, Alexa
2020. Chapter 9. When emergencies are not urgent. In Mobilizing Others [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 33],  pp. 229 ff. DOI logo
Kim, Stephanie Hyeri & Mary Shin Kim
Lindström, Jan, Camilla Lindholm, Inga-Lill Grahn & Martina Huhtamäki
2020. Chapter 9. Consecutive clause combinations in instructing activities. In Emergent Syntax for Conversation [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 32],  pp. 245 ff. DOI logo
Urbanik, Paweł
2020. Getting others to share goods in Polish and Norwegian: Material and moral anchors for request conventions. Intercultural Pragmatics 17:2  pp. 177 ff. DOI logo
White, Anne Elizabeth Clark
2020. Authority and camaraderie: The delivery of directives amongst the ice floes. Language in Society 49:2  pp. 207 ff. DOI logo
Wiercinska, Katarzyna
2019. Op zoek naar perceptieverschillen bij directief taalgebruik in het Pools en het Nederlands: een onderzoeksvoorstel. AUC PHILOLOGICA 2018:4  pp. 169 ff. DOI logo
Okada, Misao
2018. Imperative Actions in Boxing Sparring Sessions. Research on Language and Social Interaction 51:1  pp. 67 ff. DOI logo
De Stefani, Elwys & Anne-Sylvie Horlacher
2017. Une étude interactionnelle de la grammaire : la dislocation à droite évaluative dans la parole-en-interaction. Revue française de linguistique appliquée Vol. XXII:2  pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2018. Publications Received. Language in Society 47:1  pp. 169 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Fundamentals of Sociopragmatics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics,  pp. 13 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 september 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.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009030: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2017014781 | Marc record