The practice of establishing common ground for backward- and forward-oriented management of interaction

Abstract

This conversation analytic study investigates the Japanese utterance-final expression jan, a plain variant of the negative interrogative sentence ending ja nai desu ka. This research argues that jan involves a practice of managing interactants' shared knowledge and establishing their common ground. With the practice, speakers accomplish various interactional tasks in backward- or forward-oriented manners. When placed in a responsive position, a jan-marked turn deals with a problem of a prior turn (backward-oriented). In contrast, when placed in a non-responsive position, a jan-marked utterance works to move an ongoing activity forward (forward-oriented). This study documents such interactional properties of jan by examining turn designs and sequential positions of jan as well as recipient responses to those jan-marked utterances. In doing so, this study claims that previously-researched characteristics of jan are not discrete but result from the management of epistemics in interaction that is realized in the jan's two directional orientations.