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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