Chapter 8. Treating something as self-evident
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Matylda Weidner
Abstract
This chapter offers a detailed sequential examination of the usage of the turn-initial Polish particle no in responsive actions. It demonstrates that no represents a particular kind of epistemic stance, where it contributes a “my side” positioning of the no speaker, and in this way participates in the local management of epistemic relations between speakers of Polish. Drawing on the analysis of data from both institutional and ordinary interactions, I demonstrate that stand-alone no and no-prefaces index the stance of the current speaker towards the prior speaker’s turn or action. No operates on three layers, which are invoked by the particular sequential and activity contexts in which the particle occurs. The primary function of no is to treat the content of the prior speaker’s turn as already known or self-evident. Second, associated with that treatment, no invokes its speaker’s “my-side” perspective and alerts the recipient to a possible incongruity between the no speaker’s epistemic status vis-à-vis the recipient’s perspective. The third layer is sequential in character and drawing on the affordances created by the two other epistemic and stance-related layers, exploits these basic interactional capacities of no in a further direction. When this happens, a no-prefaced action can set a given piece of knowledge aside and hence contribute to sequence closure and coincide with a topic and/or an activity shift. Based on the analysis of both the preceding and subsequent talk surrounding no, this chapter illustrates some systematic regularities related to the usage of no, which offer empirical evidence that no is implicated in foreshadowing epistemic stance in contexts of epistemic incongruence.
Abstract
This chapter offers a detailed sequential examination of the usage of the turn-initial Polish particle no in responsive actions. It demonstrates that no represents a particular kind of epistemic stance, where it contributes a “my side” positioning of the no speaker, and in this way participates in the local management of epistemic relations between speakers of Polish. Drawing on the analysis of data from both institutional and ordinary interactions, I demonstrate that stand-alone no and no-prefaces index the stance of the current speaker towards the prior speaker’s turn or action. No operates on three layers, which are invoked by the particular sequential and activity contexts in which the particle occurs. The primary function of no is to treat the content of the prior speaker’s turn as already known or self-evident. Second, associated with that treatment, no invokes its speaker’s “my-side” perspective and alerts the recipient to a possible incongruity between the no speaker’s epistemic status vis-à-vis the recipient’s perspective. The third layer is sequential in character and drawing on the affordances created by the two other epistemic and stance-related layers, exploits these basic interactional capacities of no in a further direction. When this happens, a no-prefaced action can set a given piece of knowledge aside and hence contribute to sequence closure and coincide with a topic and/or an activity shift. Based on the analysis of both the preceding and subsequent talk surrounding no, this chapter illustrates some systematic regularities related to the usage of no, which offer empirical evidence that no is implicated in foreshadowing epistemic stance in contexts of epistemic incongruence.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Sequential departures
- Chapter 2. Nu -prefaced responses in Russian conversation 25
- Chapter 3. Bueno -, pues -, and bueno-pues -prefacing in Spanish conversation 59
- Chapter 4. Two types of trouble with questions 97
- Chapter 5. Diverging from ‘business as usual’ 119
- Chapter 6. Turn-initial particles in English 155
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Epistemic and Related Issues
- Chapter 7. A -prefaced responses to inquiry in Japanese 193
- Chapter 8. Treating something as self-evident 225
- Chapter 9. Reformulating prior speaker’s turn in Finnish 251
- Chapter 10. Turn design and progression 287
- Chapter 11. Making up one’s mind in second position 315
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Sequence Management
- Chapter 12. Calibrating an agnostic epistemic stance in Swedish conversation 341
- Chapter 13. Turn-initial voilà in closings in French 371
- Chapter 14. Turn-initial naja in German 413
- Chapter 15. Justifying departures from progressivity 445
- Appendix 477
- Author Index 481
- Subject index 485
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Sequential departures
- Chapter 2. Nu -prefaced responses in Russian conversation 25
- Chapter 3. Bueno -, pues -, and bueno-pues -prefacing in Spanish conversation 59
- Chapter 4. Two types of trouble with questions 97
- Chapter 5. Diverging from ‘business as usual’ 119
- Chapter 6. Turn-initial particles in English 155
-
Epistemic and Related Issues
- Chapter 7. A -prefaced responses to inquiry in Japanese 193
- Chapter 8. Treating something as self-evident 225
- Chapter 9. Reformulating prior speaker’s turn in Finnish 251
- Chapter 10. Turn design and progression 287
- Chapter 11. Making up one’s mind in second position 315
-
Sequence Management
- Chapter 12. Calibrating an agnostic epistemic stance in Swedish conversation 341
- Chapter 13. Turn-initial voilà in closings in French 371
- Chapter 14. Turn-initial naja in German 413
- Chapter 15. Justifying departures from progressivity 445
- Appendix 477
- Author Index 481
- Subject index 485
