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Volume 29, Issue 3
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238
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Abstract

Abstract

Much of the research on affiliation to date has focused on how people (dis)affiliation. This paper explores the remedial work that instances of disaffiliation between interactants who are getting acquainted. Building on an interactional pragmatics analytical approach informed by methods and research in conversation analysis, findings indicate that extended remedial accounts recurrently follow moments of disaffiliation in initial interactions. These remedial accounts enable participants to reposition a prior disaffiliative stance as (ostensibly) affiliative. It appears in initial interactions, then, that remedial accounts play an important role in modulating troubles in affiliating. We propose that the considerable interactional work undertaken by these participants to modulate such troubles reflects a general preference for agreeability in initial interactions, at least amongst (Australian and British) speakers of English.

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2019-06-26
2025-02-09

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/content/journals/10.1075/prag.17010.fli
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): accounts; conversation analysis; disaffiliation; facework; getting acquainted; interactional pragmatics

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