Analysing multiple addressivity in research interviews: A methodological suggestion from argumentation theory

Abstract

Abstract In the literature on dialogism, a need has emerged for analytical tools enabling researchers to retrace dialogism in human interaction. These instruments necessarily encompass some kind of approach to text analysis, as the data that researchers are confronted with when studying interaction are either transcriptions of oral interactions or written texts. This paper proposes to integrate a tool from argumentation theory (the Argumentum Model of Topics) in order to contribute to the analysis of addressivity in the context of a dialogical analysis. The specific context taken into account is that of research interviews to migrant women with children. The claim is that the Argumentum Model of Topics allows reconstructing implicit premises which are taken for granted during the interaction. Understanding implicit premises means eliciting multiple levels of addressivity that can be present in one and the same discourse. It emerges that, very often, the interviewer is addressed both as a researcher and as a mother sharing some common trait (e.g. raising children in the UK) with the participants.