Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics

Abstract

Interactional linguistics is grounded on the premise that language should not be analyzed in terms of context‐free linguistic structures but as a resource for the accomplishment of actions in social interaction. With this in mind, interactional linguistics takes an interdisciplinary approach to a linguistic analysis that aims at an understanding of how language is both shaped by and itself shapes the actions it is used for. Interactional linguistics combines an interest in linguistic phenomena and structures with the theory and methodology of conversation analysis (CA). It is conceptualized as an interface between linguistic analysis and the analysis of social interaction. Interactional linguistic studies should be compatible with and link up to studies of the multimodality of social interaction. Research in interactional linguistics is strictly empirical and grounded in databases of naturally occurring talk‐in‐interaction; methods of analysis and validation in interactional linguistics draw mainly on principles of sequential analysis. Objects of research include, for instance, the role of syntax, phonetics‐prosody, and, more recently, gesture and body for the conduct of turn construction and turn taking, formation of action and practices, and constitution of conversational genres and styles.