Displaying, contesting and negotiating epistemic authority in social interaction: Descriptions and questions in guided visits
Displaying, contesting and negotiating epistemic authority in social interaction: Descriptions and questions in guided visits
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在社交互动中展示、争论和协商认知权威:引导参观中的描述和问题
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发表时间:
2013
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通讯作者:
L. Mondada
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
L. Mondada
This article contributes to ongoing studies in conversation analysis dealing with the way in which epistemic authority is displayed, claimed, contested and negotiated in social interaction. More particularly, it focuses on the articulation between action format, sequential organization, membership categorization and epistemic authority. The article offers an empirical analysis of the way in which knowledge is distributed and recognized in social gatherings, with a special focus on guided visits. Guided visits are a perspicuous setting for this analysis, since it is an activity in which the guide displays knowledge in comments and explanations and the guided seeks for knowledge in questions. However, this distribution of knowledge is regularly challenged. The article offers a systematic study of a collection of sequences initiated by turns beginning with ‘et là’ and locating a new referent in the environment, either in informings or in questions. While the former are frequently produced by the guide, assuming a knowing (K+) status, and the latter by the guided, assuming a not knowing (K−), it is possible to observe informings initiated by the guided, who, by so doing, claims a revision of his or her epistemic authority. Likewise, in second position, questions are generally answered by the guide, but can also be answered by another person, claiming alternative epistemic rights. By examining the details of turn and action design in these environments, the article shows how they either reproduce and confirm the current epistemic status of the participants or challenge, negotiate and transform them. The latter case is particularly revealing of the fact that epistemic status and stance are constantly reflexively (re)elaborated by the participants in social interaction.