Intensity of Evaluation and Epistemic Stance in Japanese Interaction
| Panel: | P38 - Knowledge in Social Interaction: Rights and Responsibilities |
| Author: | Hayano, Kaoru |
| Abstract: | |
| How one describes an object is not simply determined by individual perception but is largely affected by interactional contingencies. For instance, it is reported by Pomerantz (1984) that the intensity of evaluation (e.g., whether someone is “cute” or “adorable”) of a second assessment is indicative of its status as agreement or disagreement with the initial assessment; upgraded evaluation conveys unqualified agreement, same evaluation tends to be followed by disagreement and downgraded evaluation is heard as disagreement. However, this analysis does not fully account for how the intensity of evaluation is manifested in Japanese interaction. In this paper, using the methodology of Conversation Analysis, I investigate another factor that is consequential to the intensity of evaluation in Japanese conversation, namely, speakers’ orientation to epistemic stances. The data for the study consists of 14 hours of video-recorded face-to-face conversations between Japanese native speakers. It is observed that the intensity of evaluation is upgraded when the speaker is claiming epistemic primacy with a final particle 'yo'. I argue that the intensity of evaluation is upgraded in such a context in order for the speaker to provide evaluation that is more specific than the first speaker’s, and thereby to give a support to the claim of epistemic primacy. It is also shown that when a speaker takes an epistemic stance that is incompatible with his/her interlocutor's, the sequence tends to be expanded in a similar way to disagreement sequences. The finding suggests that an epistemic stance that is congruent with the first speaker’s is preferred to a stance that is not. |
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