Agency in response: The role of prefatory address terms

Abstract

Although sequence-initiating or first actions normatively constrain what is done in response, there are various methods through which interactants manage to exert agency from within the sequence-responsive position. One such method operates at the level of action selection, as when interactants produce disaligning or dispreferred responses that were not solicited by the prior action. Another method operates at the level of the framing of action, as when the response (whether aligning or disaligning, preferred or dispreferred) is portrayed as motivated independently of the prior action. This paper examines prefatory address terms as a resource by which responses can be cast as independently motivated rather than sequentially occasioned, acquiescent, or coerced. It also explores how the generic sense of “independence” achievable through this practice is particularized in specific cases, how it inflects the character of the action in progress, and bears on self-presentational and relational concerns. Particular attention is devoted to request sequences and the portrayal of services as offered rather than granted, and question–answer sequences and the portrayal of claims as volitional rather than acquiescent.