Imperative Turns at Talk: The design of directives in action

Description

In middle-class Anglo-speaking circles imperatives are considered impolite forms that command another to do something; etiquette manuals recommend avoiding them. The papers in this collection de-construct such lay beliefs. Through the empirical examination of everyday and institutional interaction across a range of languages, they show that imperatives are routinely used for constructing turns that further sociality in interactional situations. Moreover, they show that for understanding the use of an imperatively formatted turn, its specific design (whether it contains, e.g., an overt subject, object, modal particles, or diminutives), and its sequential and temporal positioning in verbal and embodied activities are crucial. The fact that the same type of imperative turn is appropriate under the same circumstances across linguistically diverse cultures suggests that there are common aspects of imperative turn design and common pragmatic dimensions of situations warranting their use. The volume provides new insights into the resources and processes involved when social actors try to get another to do something. Table of contents 1 Imperative turns at talk: An introduction • Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen Part 1. Structure and use of imperative turns 2 A cline of visible commitment in the situated design of imperative turns: Evidence from German and Polish • Jörg Zinken and Arnulf Deppermann 3 Precision timing and timed embeddedness of imperatives in embodied courses of action: Examples from French • Lorenza Mondada 4 Secondary and deviant uses of the imperative for requesting in Italian • Giovanni Rossi 5 Three imperative action formats in Danish talk-in-interaction: The case of imperative + modal particles bare and lige • Trine Heinemann and Jakob Steensig 6 Requests for here-and-now actions in Russian conversation • Galina Bolden Part 2. Sequences with imperative turns 7 In the face of resistance: A Finnish practice for insisting on imperatively formatted directives • Marja Etelämäki and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen 8 Imperatives and responsiveness in Finnish conversation • Marja-Leena Sorjonen 9 Negotiating deontic rights in second position: Young adult daughters ’imperatively formatted responses to mothers’ offers in Estonian • Leelo Keevallik Part 3. Sequences with imperative turns in asymmetric situations 10 Imperatives in Swedish medical consultations • Jan Lindström, Camilla Lindholm, Catrin Norrby, Camilla Wide and Jenny Nilsson 11 Assigning roles and responsibilities: Finnish imperatively formatted directive actions in a mobile instructional setting • Mirka Rauniomaa 12 Managing compliance in violin instruction: The case of the Finnish clitic particles -pA and -pAs in imperatives and hortatives • Melisa Stevanovic 13 Adjusting the design of directives to the activity environment: Imperatives in Finnish cooking club interaction • Liisa Raevaara 14 Epilogue: Imperatives – The language of immediate action • Peter Auer Appendix: Transcription conventions Name index Subject index