Abstract for Presequences & Indirection - Applying Speech Act Theory to Ordinary Conversation

Emanuel A. Schegloff: "Presequences and 
Indirection: Applying Speech Act Theory 
to Ordinary Conversation,"  Journal of 
Pragmatics, 12 (1988), 55-62.

This paper contrasts the analysis provided by 
speech act theory for utterances of the form "Do 
you know + [embedded WH-question]" with the 
analysis demonstrably arrived at by participants 
in actual ordinary conversations. The analyses are
found to diverge with respect both to the sets of
alternative interpretations accorded the 
utterances and the priorities attributed to them. 
This result is related to the disattention in 
speech act theory to the temporal and sequential 
properties of talk-in-interaction.




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