Publications

Publication details [#62497]

Speer, Susan A. 2017. Flirting: A Designedly Ambiguous Action? Research on Language and Social Interaction 51 (2) : 128–150.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
Routledge

Annotation

Flirting is typically considered as an equivocal social action, which, in the absence of members’ orientations, is subject to multiple explanations and hard to fix analytically. This paper shows a methodological technique for distinguishing the interactional practices that form vehicles for “possible flirting” by exploring instances that include (a) “endogenous” orientations to flirting, (b) “exogenous” and post hoc orientations to flirting, and (c) no orientations. Assays propose that flirting practices are frequently not equivocal to members and imply the flirting party asking epistemic rights to bigger familiarity or intimacy with the flirt recipient than the interactional context, or the status of the speakers, might otherwise make procedurally pertinent. Data are in British English.