Hør dog hvad de siger - Note-to-Self: Trials & Errors

Excerpt 4 exemplifies two things. On the one hand, how the informant answers with
evading and not very elaborate accounts of his opinions – note also the very extended pauses
in which the informant is absorbed with filling out the questionnaire. On the other hand, how
focused he clearly is on filling out the questionnaire with as little ado as possible. He effecti-
vely cuts off the interviewer’s attempts to explicate questions and to provoke elaborations
(line 2 and the overlap in line 9). The excerpt thus illustrates that interviewer and informant
disagree as to what the task of the informant is.
(4) 1 Interv: når nu vi får de her engelske ord om du så=
‘when we get these English words if you then’
2 Resp: =mm
3 Interv: ja
’yes’
(7.0)
4 Resp: det ved jeg sgu ikke
’I don’t know’
(10.4)
5 Resp: det må jo blive engelsk og xxx
’it must be English and xxx’
6 Interv.: mm
(14.3)
7 Interv: og så (.) de øh andre nordiske sprog [de] samme spørgsmål
8 ‘and then uh the other Nordic languages the same questions’
9 Resp: [mm]
(3.3)
10 Resp: ja.
’yes’
(28.2)
11 Interv: du virker meget sikker
’you seem very certain’
12 Resp: ja øh det tror jeg sådan (1.3) virker sådan nogenlunde
’yeah uh I believe that is like about’
(0.9)
13 Interv: ja (.) hvorfor
yes why
(0.8)
14 Resp: ja fordi at øh der er øh (2.0) det ved jeg sgu ikke sådan (1.2) F
15 Færøerne (0.7) Finland og Island det er jo nogle mærkelige
16 lande jo (.) de kan jo kun tale med sig selv jo.
‘yes because there is uh I don’t know you know the Faeroes
Finland Iceland they are weird countries they can only speak
with themselves’
17 Interv.: ja.
‘yes’
(3.0)
100