A Form of Wh-Questions Indexing Incongruent Knowledge Claims

Lee Seung-Hee (이승희)

doi:10.14353/sjk.2016.24.2.04

A Form of Wh-Questions Indexing Incongruent Knowledge Claims

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea
Abbr : 사회언어학
2016, 24(2), pp.79-107
DOI : 10.14353/sjk.2016.24.2.04
Publisher : The Sociolinguistic Society Of Korea
Research Area : Humanities > Linguistics

Lee Seung-Hee ¹

¹연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In conversation analysis (CA), wh-questions are treated as invoking a claim that questioners have no knowledge about the information being solicited. This paper examines a particular form of wh-questions that indexes an epistemic claim incongruent with such a claim of no knowledge. In particular, it examines wh-questions that are marked with a committal suffix in Korean conversation, in which the committal suffix indicates that the speaker should have the information at hand. Using the method of CA, this paper shows that these wh-questions indexing incongruent knowledge claims are used in contexts in which questioners know or should know about the information being solicited. First, they are commonly used to seek a particular piece of information questioners already know about, or should already know about, by reference to prior talk or shared knowledge with recipients. Second, wh-questions marked with committal endings can be used as word searches. In these cases, they do not seek the other party's active participation in finding solutions to the missing word(s) and thus are self-directed. The analysis will suggest that wh-questions with committal endings can serve to avoid a potential trouble or accountability in interaction.

KEYWORDS

conversation analysis, epistemics, question, sequence, word search

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

[journal] Bolden, G. B. / 2011 / Soliciting accounts with why-interrogatives in conversation / Journal of Communication 61 : 94~119

[book] Clark, H. H. / 1996 / Using Language / Cambridge University Press

[book] De Ruiter, J. P. / 2012 / Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives / Cambridge University Press : 1~7

[journal] Egbert, M. M. / 2008 / Wh-interrogative formats used for questioning and beyond: German warum (why) and wieso (why) and English why / Discourse Studies 10 : 17~36

[book] Enfield, N. J. / 2006 / Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition, and Interaction / Berg : 399~430

[journal] Enfield, N. J. / 2010 / Question-response sequences in conversation across ten languages: An introduction / Journal of Pragmatics 42 : 2615~2619

[journal] Fox, B. A. / 2010 / Responses to wh-questions in English conversation / Research on Language and Social Interaction 43 : 133~156

[journal] Freed, A. F. / 1994 / The form and function of questions in informal dyadic conversation / Journal of Pragmatics 21 : 621~644

[book] Goodwin, M. H. / 1983 / Semiotics 1981 / Plenum : 129~138

[journal] Goodwin, M. H. / 1986 / Gesture and coparticipation in the activity of searching for a word / Semiotica 62 : 51~75

[journal] Hayashi, M. / 2003 / Language and the body as resources for collaborative action: A study of word searches in Japanese conversation / Research on Language and Social Interaction 36 : 109~141

[book] Heritage, J. / 1984 / Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology / Polity Press

[book] Heritage, J. / 2010 / Why Do You Ask?: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse / Oxford University Press : 42~68

[journal] Heritage, J. / 2012 / Epistemics in action: Action formation and territories of knowledge / Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 : 1~29

[book] Heritage, J. / 2013 / The Handbook of Conversation Analysis / Cambridge University Press : 370~394

[book] Heritage, J. / 2012 / Questions: Formal, Functional and Interactional Perspectives / Cambridge University Press : 179~192

[journal] Kim, H. / 1999 / The form and function of questions in Korean conversation / Discourse and Cognition 6 : 211~247

[journal] Koshik, I. / 2003 / Wh-questions used as challenges / Discourse Studies 5 : 51~77

[book] Koshik, I. / 2005 / Beyond Rhetorical Questions: Assertive Questions in Everyday Interaction / John Benjamins

[journal] Lee, H. S. / 1999 / A discourse-pragmatic analysis of the committal -ci in Korean: A synthetic approach to the form-meaning relation / Journal of Pragmatics 31 : 243~275

[book] Lee, S. -H. / 2013 / The Handbook of Conversation Analysis / Cambridge University Press : 415~432

[journal] Pomerantz, A. / 1988 / Offering a candidate answer: An information seeking strategy / Communication Monographs 55 : 360~373

[book] Quirk, R. / 1975 / A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language / Longman

[book] Schegloff, E. A. / 2007 / Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis / Cambridge University Press

[journal] Schegloff, E. A. / 1973 / Opening up closings / Semiotica 8 : 289~327

[book] Searle, J. / 1969 / Speech Acts : An Essay in the Philosophy of Language / Cambridge University Press

[journal] Smith, M. S. / 2013 / “I thought” initiated turns: Addressing discrepancies in first-hand and second-hand knowledge / Journal of Pragmatics 57 : 318~330

[book] Sohn, H. -M. / 1999 / The Korean Language / Cambridge University Press

[journal] Steensig, J. / 2008 / Introduction: Questioning and affiliation/ disaffiliation in interaction / Discourse Studies 10 : 5~15

[book] Stivers, T. / 2011 / The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation / Cambridge University Press : 3~24

[journal] Yoon, K. -E. / 2010 / Questions and responses in Korean conversation / Journal of Pragmatics 42 : 2782~2798

KJCKorea
Journal Central

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.57

A Form of Wh-Questions Indexing Incongruent Knowledge Claims

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.57

A Form of Wh-Questions Indexing Incongruent Knowledge Claims

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Statistics

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (1)

REFERENCES (31) * References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Search PDF

Citation

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.