This talk presents conversation
analytic research into a collection of extracts where participants produce
negative formulations of their affective stances. Explicit negative assessments
of emotional state are rare in the wider corpus of ordinary talk, and evidence
suggests they may be in interaction more generally. According to Ruusuvuori,
(2013: 330), "Although all talk is affective to some extent, emotion is
seldom the central focus of the ongoing activity".
Analysis of these actions reveals commonalities in terms of:
1. their design - for example, as well as including negative assessments of the speaker's state such as "miserable" and "despondent", they also include mitigating components
such as "a bit", "sometimes" and laughter;
2. the sequence to which they
contribute - they occur at points of possible transition to a new matter, or
closing, and are followed by talk that pursues the matter raised in the
formulation of state, but in pragmatic terms rather than addressing the emotion
itself.
Thus, I show how brief, multi-faceted references to negative emotional states evoke troubles, while at
the same time doing some "troubles-resistance" (Jefferson, 2015), at
moments of transition.
References
Jefferson, G. (2015). Talking about Troubles in Conversation. Edited
by P. Drew, J. Heritage, G.H. Lerner & A. Pomerantz. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Ruusuvuori, J. (2013). Emotion,
affect, and conversation. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (eds.), The
Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.
330-349.
