1.1.3 Actions not content
We have been concerned to identify actions in the extracts presented. This can be quite challenging. Sometimes, it’s hard to see beyond the content of the extract. This is not surprising since we are usually trained to read for gist or to pick out the most important points in what we read. Analysing language for action therefore take some practice.
Read the following extract through quickly.
We have been concerned to identify actions in the extracts presented. This can be quite challenging. Sometimes, it’s hard to see beyond the content of the extract. This is not surprising since we are usually trained to read for gist or to pick out the most important points in what we read. Analysing language for action therefore take some practice.
Read the following extract through quickly.
Text 4
[RT513: PND3:18 (from Maynard 1997)] [also in Wilkinson & Kitzinger, 2006:157]
01 Andi: .hhh well: (.) speaking of bottoms are you sitting dow:n.
02 Betty: Ye:ah.
03 Andi: Well (.) we have some news for you:
04 Betty: What.
05 Andi: .hhh th’t (.) may come as a bit of a surpri:se. ehhh!
06 Betty: I see- what are you telling me.=
07 Andi: =hhhh! Bob and I are gunna have a baby.
08 Betty: <°O:h my: go:od↑ness°> hho- (0.5) did you have a
09 reverse- he have a reversal?
10 Andi: Yeah.
[RT513: PND3:18 (from Maynard 1997)] [also in Wilkinson & Kitzinger, 2006:157]
01 Andi: .hhh well: (.) speaking of bottoms are you sitting dow:n.
02 Betty: Ye:ah.
03 Andi: Well (.) we have some news for you:
04 Betty: What.
05 Andi: .hhh th’t (.) may come as a bit of a surpri:se. ehhh!
06 Betty: I see- what are you telling me.=
07 Andi: =hhhh! Bob and I are gunna have a baby.
08 Betty: <°O:h my: go:od↑ness°> hho- (0.5) did you have a
09 reverse- he have a reversal?
10 Andi: Yeah.
Write down your first thoughts are on reading this.
Q: Were these related to the content of what you read, or what the participants are doing?
Q: Were these related to the content of what you read, or what the participants are doing?
Hint
If you wrote something along the lines of ‘Andi tells Betty that she and Bob are going to have a baby and Betty asks if Bob has had a reversal (of a vasectomy), you would have summarised the content.
If you wrote something along the lines of Andi announces or delivers some news and Betty expresses surprise, you would be identifying actions. This is what we’re concerned with analytically.
If you wrote something along the lines of Andi announces or delivers some news and Betty expresses surprise, you would be identifying actions. This is what we’re concerned with analytically.
In fact, as we pointed out in the last section, actions come in sequences. So, we can identify a sequence of actions here. We can ask ‘what is being done here’ at each turn.
Line 1 Andi ‘preannounces’ news, that is, she announces (implicitly) that she is about to announe some news (of the kind that might make the recipient weak at the knees)
There are other ways of ‘occasioning news’, for example, asking ‘what’s new?’
Line 2 Betty invites the telling of the news (‘ye:ah’)
Lines 3 & 5 Andi continues the preannouncement
Lines 4 & 6 Betty also gives the go ahead and invites the telling of the news.
What does Andi do at line 7?
At line 8, Betty produces a response, ‘o:h my: go:od↑ness’. This reaction expresses surprise.
However, both parties in this interaction collaborate to bring off surprise (Wilkinson & Kitzinger, 2006) . Betty produces the surprise reaction, but Andi’s talk is designed to elicit surprise.
Write down how Andi makes the news to be delivered surprising news in her pre-announcement (look at line 5).