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Extraction and aggregation in the repair of individual and collective self-reference

Department of Sociology, University of California, USA, lerner{at}soc.ucsb.edu

Celia Kitzinger

University of York, cck1{at}york.ac.uk

On some occasions of self-reference there can be two equally viable forms available to speakers: individual self-reference (e.g. `I') and collective self-reference (e.g. `we'). This means that selection of one or the other in talk-in-interaction can — akin to the selection of terms for reference to non-present persons — be guided by such considerations as recipient design and action formation. As a strategy for investigating the selection of self-reference terms, this article examines repairs to self-reference that change the form of reference from individual to collective and vice versa. We first identify two repair operations found in the domain of self-reference: aggregation (of an individual to a collectivity) and extraction (of an individual from a collectivity) and then we track the use of both operations across a range of positions in the repair initiation opportunity space (and as embedded correction). Finally we consider some of the interactional uses of aggregation and extraction repairs in resolving (and thereby exhibiting) sources of troubles associated with speaker epistemic authority and responsibility for described actions.

Key Words: conversation • conversation analysis • epistemics • first-person reference • footing • identity

Discourse Studies, Vol. 9, No. 4, 526-557 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1461445607079165


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