Introduces a special issue containing a series of articles on the relation of social interaction and morality. The articles analyze actual instances of moral discourse, elucidating the nature and dynamics of the relationship. This introduction discusses morality, discourse, and social science; proto-mortality as a substructure of discourse;…

Explores issues concerning the accountability of conduct and the moral work that may be managed through accounts of actions, in the context of naturally occurring telephone conversations. Distinguishes between the implicit and explicit moral work of accounts, considering cases in which speakers appear implicitly to be doing defensive moral work in…

While most previous research has implied or assumed that the conversational structure giving each speaker a turn to speak is universally normative, findings of one study suggest that in interactions with at least four participants, alternatives to this rule are possible. A phenomenon called "conversational fission" occurs when a four-…

This paper, part of a larger study, focuses on a single linguistic device, the "machine-gun question," which was used by three of six participants in a Thanksgiving dinner conversation. This conversational device is characteristic of a style that seems to grow out of the need to have others approve of one's wants. It is a style…

The functional approach, which views language as a potential for meaning in social situations, seems particularly relevant in analyzing the dynamic interaction between text and context. Function determines structure, and the context, which comes to define the function, determines the kinds of text that will be communicative. As the contextual…

The purpose of the model is to select either Spanish or English as the language to be used; its goals at this stage of development include modeling code-switching for lexical need, apparently random code-switching, dependency of code-switching upon sociolinguistic context, and code-switching within syntactic constraints. (EJS)

Tests Ervin-Tripps's hypotheses concerning the relationship between several social and ecological factors and the choice of directive variants in English, using as a sample a predominantly Black male migratory agricultural labor population. Found that most of the predictions derived from Ervin-Tripp's model for these directive variants were…

Article provides a brief overview of sociolinguistics for educational researchers, describes the relevance of sociolinguistics for understanding classroom discourse, and suggests ways to measure the adequacy of sociolinguistic studies. (RB)

Discusses glosses, that is, formulations which, on their occurrence, are adequate but which turn out to have been incomplete, ambiguous and perhaps misleading. Examines the ways in which a coparticipant's activities may result in a speaker either maintaining or revealing the gloss. (SED)

An analysis of two opposing talks given in connection with a television program; that of a union member and that of an employer. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Reviewed are the relevance and limitations of work in sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and conversational analysis with respect to a central issue in the sociological study of social interaction: the taken-for-granted and inferences made therefrom. The hope is to show the arbitrariness of the line dividing microsociological studies and…

A report of an investigation of conversations involving more than two persons. Two types of illocutionary acts are accounted for: the traditional kind directed at the addressee(s) and another, called an informative, addressed to all participants. Evidence is presented that every illocutionary act is performed by means of an informative. (AMH)

Discusses the process of understanding of intent by which participants, through the comparative interpretation of a series of cues and symbols as they are revealed in speech, develop categories for a contextual model of communication. Argues that discourse is essentially dialogic and phenomenologically realizable. (FL)

Studies the extent to which preschool children use pronoun ambiguity in a naturalistic setting, the circumstances in which ambiguity arises, and how the preschool children respond to such ambiguity. Results show that ambiguity of reference frequently occurs, especially when verbal disambiguation only is possible. Ambiguity did not influence…