More than an epistemic hedge: French je sais pas ‘I don’t know’ as a resource for the sequential organization of turns and actions

Doehler, Simona Pekarek

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2016.06.014

Cited by 50 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…IDK was frequently used by speakers with aphasia for turn-constructional functions such as turn yielding, a finding supported by Simmons-Mackie & Damico (1997). Turn-constructional functions were also found in CPs which is in line with previous studies with neurotypical speakers (Pekarek Doehler, 2016). The higher proportion of tokens assigned to turn holding/yielding in the aphasic group is likely to stem from difficulties associated with aphasia.…”

Section: Idk Analysissupporting

confidence: 86%

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“I don’t know”: a usage-based approach to familiar collocations in non-fluent aphasia

et al. 2018

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Background: Familiar collocations (e.g., "it's alright") are an important part of everyday conversation. Such word combinations are often retained in speakers with Broca's aphasia. However, only few investigations have studied the forms and functions of familiar collocations available to speakers with Broca's aphasia. Aims: We first apply a frequency-based perspective to word combinations produced by speakers with Broca's aphasia and their conversation partners (CPs), and compare the frequency characteristics of word combinations in dyadic and non-dyadic speech. Second, we investigate the conversational functions of one prominent familiar collocation, "I don't know" (IDK). Methods & Procedures: In the first analysis, speech samples from interactions of nine dyads (each a speaker with Broca's aphasia and their CP) were examined. Non-dyadic samples were selected from 39 speakers with Broca's aphasia from AphasiaBank (MacWhinney et al., 2011). The Frequency in Language Analysis Tool (FLAT; Zimmerer & Wibrow, 2015) was used to estimate collocation strength (the degree of association between words in a combination) of well-formed bigrams (two-word combinations) and trigrams (three-word combinations). The second analysis presents a qualitative investigation of uses of IDK in dyadic exchanges. Outcomes & Results: Analysis 1 revealed that residual trigrams in Broca's aphasia were more strongly collocated in comparison to language produced by CPs. There was no difference in frequency-based profiles between dyadic and non-dyadic aphasic speech. Analysis 2 indicated that speakers with Broca's aphasia and CPs used IDK to achieve a variety of communicative functions. However, patterns specific to each participant group were found. Conclusions: These findings highlight that frequency-based analysis is useful in explaining residual, grammatically well-formed word combinations in Broca's aphasia. This study provides evidence that IDK can aid turn construction in aphasia.

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Section: Idk Analysissupporting

confidence: 86%

“…However, use of the phrase is not restricted to this prototypical meaning (e.g., Tsui, 1991;Diani, 2004;Pekarek Doehler, 2016). IDK can also function to avoid commenting, disagreement, or…”

Section: The Functions Of Idkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I don’t know”: a usage-based approach to familiar collocations in non-fluent aphasia

et al. 2018

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“…The findings across the languages studied show that IDK in this use is semantically bleached (it does not work as a claim of no knowledge and is not treated as such) and tends to be morpho-phonologically reduced or otherwise prosodically downgraded (e.g., by speed-up of tempo or lower volume). These features suggest grammaticalization into a particle-like element ( Bybee and Scheibmann, 1999 for English; Maschler, 2012 , 2017 for Hebrew; Keevallik, 2003 for Estonian, Pekarek Doehler, 2016 for French). The IDK-prefaced turn is often delayed and/or sometimes prefaced by particles such as no / ben ‘well,’ sound objects such as pff or clicks as further typical traits of dispreferred responses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Lindström and Karlsson (2016) point out that Swedish jag vet inte ‘I don’t know’ in doctor-patient interactions is a pragmatic marker that frames responsive turns as resisting the interlocutor’s question. Pekarek Doehler (2016) found that in French turn-initial chais pas ‘dunno’ projects a dispreferred response, whereas in mid-turn position it tends to function as an epistemic hedge and in turn-final position it serves as a turn- or sequence-closing device.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multimodal Assemblies for Prefacing a Dispreferred Response: A Cross-Linguistic Analysis

Doehler

Polak-Yitzhaki

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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In this paper we examine how participants’ multimodal conduct maps onto one of the basic organizational principles of social interaction: preference organization – and how it does so in a similar manner across five different languages (Czech, French, Hebrew, Mandarin, and Romanian). Based on interactional data from these languages, we identify a recurrent multimodal practice that respondents deploy in turn-initial position in dispreferred responses to various first actions, such as information requests, assessments, proposals, and informing. The practice involves the verbal delivery of a turn-initial expression corresponding to English ‘I don’t know’ and its variants (‘dunno’) coupled with gaze aversion from the prior speaker. We show that through this ‘multimodal assembly’ respondents preface a dispreferred response within various sequence types, and we demonstrate the cross-linguistic robustness of this practice: Through the focal multimodal assembly, respondents retrospectively mark the prior action as problematic and prospectively alert co-participants to incipient resistance to the constraints set out or to the stance conveyed by that action. By evidencing how grammar and body interface in related ways across a diverse set of languages, the findings open a window onto cross-linguistic, cross-modal, and cross-cultural consistencies in human interactional conduct.

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“…While there is little strictly conversation-analytic work focusing on ben, previous research on ben as a discourse marker (and passing references in conversationanalytic work) shows that it may preface nonanswer responses to questions, challenges, disagreeing or dispreferred responses, and responses that treat the prior turn as self-evident (Bruxelles & Traverso, 2001;Dostie, 2012, p. 112;Mosegaard Hansen, 1998, pp. 247-259;Pekarek Doehler, 2016). In particular, ben may alert the recipient to an upcoming nonstraightforward and/or expanded response to a question (Pekarek Doehler, 2016, p. 158), thus serving to problematize the answerability of the question as formulated.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking Issue with a Question While Answering It: Prefatory Particles and Multiple Sayings of Polar Response Tokens in French

Persson

2020

Research on Language and Social Interaction

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This article examines three practices in responses to polar questions in French: prefacing a polar response token (e.g., oui ["yes"] or non ["no"]) with the particle ah (e.g., ah oui), prefacing with the particle ben (e.g., ben oui), and producing more than one token (e.g., oui=oui). The analysis suggests that such responses serve to take issue with the question; specifically, respondents display the answer to be obvious or redundant, challenge the questioner's unknowing stance, or disalign with the further action implications of the question while still providing a polar answer. Comparisons are made with other practices for exerting agency in responses and with resources described for other languages. The resources available in French help participants differentiate in which way the respondent takes issue with the question, notwithstanding significant local particularization by reference to the specific question and its context. Data are in French, with English translation. Question-answer pairs are an essential locus of microlevel social organization, constituting a pervasive and fundamental sequence-organizational format that underpins a vast range of social activities. The respondent in a question-answer sequence is constrained to acting within a tightly organized normative structure involving projections and expectations as well as consequences that will follow any departure from what is expected. This is particularly clear for polar questions, where (in many languages) respondents are normatively expected to produce an item from a very limited set of polar response tokens. Conversation-analytic research is beginning to map the resources that respondents have for exerting social-interactional agency and asserting their own agenda or perspective. One method for departing from the constraints of a polar question is to provide a response that is not type-conforming, i.e., one that does not involve some form of a polar response token such as yes/no in English, or oui/non in French, and thus does not follow the normative response requirements imposed through particular question types (G. Raymond, 2003). With nonconforming responses, respondents can thus, e.g., answer the question while adjusting the terms, answer the question while correcting its presuppositions, or evade the question altogether. Nonconforming responses are a vital resource for embodying agency and carry with them their own implications of inferences that questioners can (and do) draw upon receipt of such responses. However, previous work has also shown that even type-conforming responses can be used in such a way as to allow the respondent a more agentive role in the emerging sequence and activity. This article examines three such practices, and I argue that respondents deploy them to take a stance toward a question while answering it by prefacing CONTACT Rasmus Persson

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More than an epistemic hedge: French je sais pas ‘I don’t know’ as a resource for the sequential organization of turns and actions

Cited by 50 publications

References 12 publications

“I don’t know”: a usage-based approach to familiar collocations in non-fluent aphasia

“I don’t know”: a usage-based approach to familiar collocations in non-fluent aphasia

Multimodal Assemblies for Prefacing a Dispreferred Response: A Cross-Linguistic Analysis

Taking Issue with a Question While Answering It: Prefatory Particles and Multiple Sayings of Polar Response Tokens in French

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