Startseite How an utterance is regarded as implying disagreement: an analysis of confirmation requests in Japanese decision-making meetings
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How an utterance is regarded as implying disagreement: an analysis of confirmation requests in Japanese decision-making meetings

  • Jiayu Feng EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 1. April 2022
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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.


Corresponding author: Jiayu Feng, Graduate School of Language, Communication, and Culture, Kwansei Gakuin University, 1-155 Uegahara Ichiban-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan, E-mail:

Appendix

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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Received: 2021-05-30
Accepted: 2021-11-01
Published Online: 2022-04-01
Published in Print: 2022-05-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 28.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jjl-2022-2052/pdf?lang=de
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