“I thought” initiated turns: Addressing discrepancies in first-hand and second-hand knowledge

Abstract

The current article reports on the interactional work performed by turns-at-talk initiated with “I thought.” In the context of interpersonal talk within ongoing relationships, the practice of following some prior talk with an “I thought”-initiated turn is shown to routinely mark the prior turn as being in some way discrepant and select the prior speaker to account for that discrepancy. Participants are shown to routinely orient toward these discrepancies as belonging to epistemic domains that are simultaneously second-hand and first-hand knowledge for the “I thought” speakers and recipients, respectively. Finally, this paper argues that due to asymmetries in the participants’ respective authority over the relevant domains of knowledge, the practice overwhelmingly attributes responsibility for the discrepancy onto the “I thought” recipient. In the conclusion, “I thought”-turns are shown to serve an important function in the epistemic and affective maintenance of social relationships.