On the Sequential Organization of Troubles-Talk in Ordinary Conversation

Abstract

This paper is an investigation of conversations in which people talk about their troubles. I describe a series of recurrent, positioned elements as comprising a “candidate” troubles telling sequence. That is, the collection of troubles tellings showed a shape and a trajectory that was well-formed in some conversations and distorted in others. Thus, the array of elements in the sequence could be characterized as “vaguely orderly.” I consider whether this is due to a “rough” ordering of “big packages” in conversation (i.e., relatively long sequences of talk), or due to problematic local and general contingencies that disrupt an otherwise tight overall design.