Abstract
This study describes how confirmation requests can be regarded as implying disagreement in Japanese decision-making meetings. By using the methodology of Conversation Analysis, I examined two specific sequential environments where participants in meetings are more likely to imply their disagreements through confirmation requests: (i) after a participant reports on his or her proposal and (ii) after a silence caused by a stalled discussion. The detailed analysis of the composition and sequential location of confirmation requests in these contexts revealed that linguistic items, vocal stress, or even conversational contexts can make a confirmation request heard as implying disagreement. In addition, choosing a confirmation request to imply disagreement is not a random decision but a thoughtful selection depending on the asymmetrical epistemic status or related to the management of topic progression in meetings.
Transcript symbols used in the interlinear glosses
- [
-
a point of overlap onset
- (number)
-
length of silence
- (.)
-
less than a 0.2 s micro-pause
- Word
-
relatively high pitch
- ::
-
prolongation or stretching of the sound
- -
-
cut-off or self-interruption
- =
-
continuous utterance with no break or pause
- ? /¿/. /,
-
rising/slight rising/falling/continuing intonation
- (word)
-
transcriber’s uncertain hearings
- ((word))
-
transcriber’s descriptions of event
- >word<
-
talk is rushed
- °word°
-
talk between two degree signs is quieter than the surrounding talk
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Notes
- Editors’ notes
- Articles
- How is laughter used to create and reinforce food attitudes in Japanese Dairy Taster Brunch conversations
- Hard-to-learn conjunctive expressions for advanced learners: a survey on storytelling in I-JAS
- Japanese L2 learners’ subjective construal: an analysis of expressions of emotion and evaluation in written storytelling found in I-JAS data
- Filler words in Japanese textbooks and Japanese classes
- How an utterance is regarded as implying disagreement: an analysis of confirmation requests in Japanese decision-making meetings
- Reexamining Japanese youth language
- Book Reviews
- Yuta Sakamoto: Silently Structured Silent Argument
- Ken-Ichi Kadooka: Japanese Mood and Modality in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Theory and Application
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Notes
- Editors’ notes
- Articles
- How is laughter used to create and reinforce food attitudes in Japanese Dairy Taster Brunch conversations
- Hard-to-learn conjunctive expressions for advanced learners: a survey on storytelling in I-JAS
- Japanese L2 learners’ subjective construal: an analysis of expressions of emotion and evaluation in written storytelling found in I-JAS data
- Filler words in Japanese textbooks and Japanese classes
- How an utterance is regarded as implying disagreement: an analysis of confirmation requests in Japanese decision-making meetings
- Reexamining Japanese youth language
- Book Reviews
- Yuta Sakamoto: Silently Structured Silent Argument
- Ken-Ichi Kadooka: Japanese Mood and Modality in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Theory and Application