Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

506 Part 6: Language and Interaction
13 Betty: Ri:ght
14 Amy: fo:r [ t w ] elve minutes.
15 Betty: [((sniff))]
16 Betty: → Twelve minutes?
17 Amy: Well I always do it faster than th(h)at (hh)
18 Betty: okay =
19 Amy: =I just boil the shit out of it [but]
20 Betty: [How]
21 do you know when it’s done?
We could make a range of observations about these examples. First,
notice that in (9), Anita repeats the whole of Ben’s prior turn, whereas in
(10) Betty repeats only the fi nal phrase of what Amy has just said. Second,
notice the different sequential positions in which the repeats occur. In (9)
Ben has called looking for ‘Mary’. When Anita cannot recognize anybody
by that name, Ben offers ‘The tax lady’ as an alternative. It is this that Anita
repeats. In (10), Amy is giving her daughter Betty advice on how to boil an
egg. When she concludes this with ‘you let it (.) uh simmer or you know
on Me:dium, fo:r twelve minutes’. Betty repeats ‘twelve minutes’ with
questioning intonation. And notice that in the fi rst case, a repeat of ‘the tax
lady’ occasions confi rmation with ‘yeah’, whereas in the second a repeat
of ‘twelve minutes’ encourages Amy to signifi cantly modify her advice.
This suggests that there is an element of challenge to the repeat in (10) not
present in (9). This, it seems, is a product of the sequential position in
which the repeat occurs – in (9) the repeat is responsive to an unfamiliar
name, whereas in (10) it is responsive to advice or instructions on how to
boil an egg. This element of challenge is especially visible in an example
such as (11). This fragment comes from a video recording of three fouryear-old
children playing. It begins with Matty challenging a prior claim,
which was unfortunately not recorded. When Matty asserts that there are
‘no ponies inside farms’, Tina replies ‘Ye:s. so:me’. After a short pause she
continues by grounding her claim in prior experience by saying ‘I went to
a real farm before’. At line 05, Grace begins a turn in which she proposes
‘an’ once (.) I: rode on a pony’. When this receives no uptake from the
other children, Grace turns to the adult in the room saying ‘I really did’.
The adult produces a minimal acknowledgment token and Grace continues
by providing the name of the place where she rode on the pony –
Centre Island. Tina picks up on this mention of Centre Island saying
something partially inaudible, which is confi rmed by Grace with ‘yes’ at
line 15. Matty then produces a questioning repeat of ‘Centre Island’? and
Grace responds with a confi rmation. This ‘I’ve been there’ appears to be
particularly oriented to the challenge that Matty’s questioning repeat is
heard to embody. It is clear that part of Grace’s claim involves her having
been to Centre Island – if this is where she rode on a pony, then she surely
must have been there. Thus, in responding to Matty’s questioning repeat