1.1.4 Actions and intentions


When characterising actions, it is tempting to go beyond the data and ascribe underlying thoughts, intentions or desires to speakers in order to understand what they say. However, talk is often so elaborate, so finely coordinated, and so quick that
(...) you figure that they couldn’t have thought that fast. I want to suggest that you have to forget that completely. Don’t worry about how fast they’re thinking. First of all, don’t worry about whether they’re ‘thinking’. Just try to come to terms with how it is that the thing comes off. Because you’ll find that they can do these things. (...) So just let the materials fall as they may. Look to see how it is that persons go about producing what they produce.
(Sacks, 1992, Lectures on Conversation, Lecture 1, Fall 1964, p.11?)
For example, let’s go back to the second extract. Remember, we noticed that the interviewer asked two questions about there being more emphasis on Maori culture:
1 Do you think in general that’s been (0.4) uh constructive or (1.4) uh constructive or
2 what do you feel about the way things are going (0.2) on that front?
It might be tempting to understand this shift in terms of what the interviewer must have been thinking, and how she might have cognitively worked out that the second was preferable in the circumstances. But it is unlikely that she would have had time for reflection and strategic thinking. It is more likely that she was just saying what seemed right at the time. So, let’s follow Sacks’ advice and simply examine the actions and how they are brought off.