The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation: 29 (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics, Series Number 29) - Softcover

Stivers, Tanya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 110767154X ISBN 13: 9781107671546

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Each time we take a turn in conversation we indicate what we know and what we think others know. However, knowledge is neither static nor absolute. It is shaped by those we interact with and governed by social norms - we monitor one another for whether we are fulfilling our rights and responsibilities with respect to knowledge, and for who has relatively more rights to assert knowledge over some state of affairs. This book brings together an international team of leading linguists, sociologists and anthropologists working across a range of European and Asian languages to document some of the ways in which speakers manage the moral domain of knowledge in conversation. The volume demonstrates that if we are to understand how speakers manage issues of agreement, affiliation and alignment - something clearly at the heart of human sociality - we must understand the social norms surrounding epistemic access, primacy and responsibilities.

About this title

Book Description:

In conversation we treat each other as having rights and responsibilities to know certain information and observe each other for violations of this moral order. This book examines practices used in managing what we know, how we monitor one another's knowledge, and how this affects our affiliation with others.

About the Author:

Tanya Stivers is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a scientific staff member of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 110767154X
• ISBN 13: 9781107671546
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356