Conversation Analysis
Comparative Perspectives
Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics Series

'Conversation analysis' is an approach to the study of social interaction that focuses on practices of speaking that recur across a range of contexts and settings. The early studies in this tradition were based on the analysis of English conversation. More recently, however, conversation analysts have begun to study talk in a broader range of communities around the world. Through detailed analyses of recorded conversations, this book examines differences and similarities across a wide range of languages including Finnish, Japanese, Tzeltal Mayan, Russian and Mandarin. Bringing together interrelated methodological and analytic contributions, it explores topics such as the role of gaze in question-and-answer sequences, the organization of repair, and the design of responses to assessments. The emerging comparative perspective demonstrates how the structure of talk is inflected by the local circumstances within which it operates.

Introduction; 1. Comparative perspectives in conversation analysis Jack Sidnell; Part I. Repair and Beyond: 2. Repetition in the initiation of repair Ruey-Jiuan Regina Wu; 3. The site of initiation in same turn self repair Barbara Fox, Fay Wouk, Makoto Hayashi, Steven Fincke, Liang Tao, Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Minna Laakso and Wilfrido Flores Hernandez; 4. Repairing reference Maria Egbert, Andrea Golato and Jeffrey D. Robinson; Part II. Aspects of Response: 5. Projecting non-alignment in conversation Anna Lindström; 6. Answers to inapposite inquiries Trine Heinemann; 7. Gaze, questioning and culture Federico Rossano, Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson; 8. Negotiating boundaries in talk Makoto Hayashi and Kyung-eun Yoon; Part III. Action Formation and Sequencing: 9. Alternative responses to assessments Marja-Leena Sorjonen and Auli Hakulinen; 10. Language-specific resources in repair and asessments Jack Sidnell; 11. Implementing delayed actions Galina B. Bolden; Conclusion: 12. Commentary Emanuel Schegloff.