Approximation elicitors and accomplishing response-ability in amount questions

Abstract

In this paper we analyze how amount answers are elicited when initial efforts to elicit them fail. When a response is not forthcoming, ‘approximation elicitors’ can be used to elicit a response. The work of this device is threefold.It reissues the question (in modified form) thereby sustaining the question as something that must reasonably be answerable and answered.It accounts for the ‘persistence’ in pursuit of an amount answer, i.e., the questioner is less likely to be seeable as ‘badgering’ the respondent with the same question, because the question's parameters have been adjusted and loosened.It implies an account for the initial failure to provide a reasonable answer and maintains the social expectation that the respondent ought to be able and willing to answer this question.Approximation elicitors work to preserve and maintain the accountability of both the questioner and respondent, as well as to provide for the progression of the question-answer sequence. By analyzing this device's work to manage the production of ‘reasonable’ questions, as well as the ability and requirement to respond to a reasonable question, this paper makes evident an interactional basis of epistemic ‘responsibility.’