Why conversation analysis needs sociolinguistics and vice versa

Theoretical Linguistics, vol. 52, pp. 129–138

Abstract

Abstract The context-change theory of speech acts does not work but for different reasons than those identified by Levinson. The two main reasons for this have to do with the multimodal nature of the common ground, which includes information that cannot be propositionally represented, and with the fact that the low-level negotiation of speech acts through turns at talk makes it hard to pinpoint when an update to the common ground should occur. An empirically-grounded theory of speech acts should also take into account the social categories projected by material aspects of the interaction, which provide cues to the organization of action and the range of possible speech acts from above.

Authors 1

1. Marina Terkourafi corresponding Aachen Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Humanities , Leiden University Centre for Linguistics , Reuvensplaats 3-4, 2311 BE , Leiden , The Netherlands