Hypothetical enactment as a resource for elaborating agreement in Japanese talk-in-interaction

Abstract

This study explores hypothetical enactments appearing subsequent to agreement sequences in Japanese non-institutional interactions. Employing Conversation Analysis, this study reveals that interactants, after they reach an agreement on a proffered opinion, may collaboratively enact a particular character in a hypothetical scenario to substantiate an agreed matter and elaborate their agreement. Such hypothetical enactments are categorised into two distinct types. In the first type, interactants enact a collective figure of a certain social category that the interactants belong to. In this case, enactments are provided as something that can happen in the future or could have happened in the past. In the second type, interactants enact an imaginary character in a completely fictitious scenario as a collaborative joke-telling. This study argues that Japanese hypothetical enactment is a resource with which interactants demonstrate and enhance a level of mutual agreement on a particular subject matter in their ongoing interaction.