Conditionals, or how a construction format is used for doing actions
| Author: | Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth |
| Author 2: | Harrie Mazeland |
| Abstract: | |
| We would like to organize a focused data session on conditionals, particularly regarding the issue of how a specific linguistic format is used in specifiable contexts for doing actions. The basic idea is that a linguistic format for constructing turn-constructional units may be shaped in a contextualized way for implementing a specific type of action (compare, for example, CA research on yes/no-interrogatives, formats for doing requests, reported speech, open-class repair initiators, increments and response tokens). We would like to explore this idea for conditionals, particularly because the dual composition of the semantics of conditionals -- establishing a relationship between two events or states by making one a condition for the occurrence of the other -- provides a cultural model that enables speakers to incorporate complex cognitive structures into the design of a turn at talk. We would like to discuss this in a guided data session occupying a two-hour time slot (120 minutes). "Guided" because contrary to the type of data session in which the focus of the discussion is only restricted by what the data offer, we want to steer the discussion by each presenting a small collection of fragments in which conditionals are used for doing specific types of actions (e.g., complaining, offering, questioning, or concluding) as the basis for a discussion with the participants. The following three colleagues who are currently working on conditionals will serve as primary discussants: Peter Auer, Cecilia Ford, Traci Walker. Schedule of the data session: - Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, introduction, presentation data, discussion: 30 minutes - Harrie Mazeland, presentation data, discussion: 30 minutes - Discussants round: 30 minutes - General discussion: 30 minutes |
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