Download (23MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository

with a 'that's nothing special' type response' effectively smothering the flames of
our uniqueness under the blanket of commonality.
A nice example of a non-ratification and non-support of a negative claim
can be see to occur in the episode I have entitled 'Chris's Lad'.
Excerpt 6.9 'Chris's Lad'
KPi5 and PN (both late middle aged working class males) have been talking
about the cassette recorder and my research activities.
I KPs: He got so high a ma:: rk (1.5) at Salford University=they said (. ) we'll
2 pay for him to go in for that and [we'll give you a teachin' post here=
3 PN: [Yeah
4 PN: =Yeah
5 0
6 KPs: And then pay for your doctorate (1) for you're:: =course (. ) and it's up
7 li: ke (. ) >this year<
8 (1)
9 PN: CHRIS'S LAD's goin't Oxford you know (1) Chris Tudor (0.5) Dancin'
10 (0.5)
11 KPs: Oh Yeah
12 (1)
13 PN: He's passed for Oxford
14 (0.5)
15 KPs: Oh::
16 ((Drinks handed out aside, KP turns to drinks))
17 KPs: Cheers Peter
In this episode of sociable chat, KP proffers a negative claim by extolling
the virtues of his son (myself) as being intelligent and employed at a university.
Both KIP and PN are working class, and neither have been to or have had
relatives attending university (nor have any of the other co-present participants).
Based on this shared informational state, KP then can be relatively certain that
my status as 'academic researcher'will form a safe basis for uniqueness claim,
if only by association (see Chapter 7). However, PN responds in a manner that
does not unproblematically ratify and support this negative claim. Instead, PN
rather effectively claims similarity, indeed effectively goes further by'topping'
Salford (an urban lower ranking university) with Oxford (perhaps the highest
status university in the land). KP (somewhat crest-fallen) subsequently drops
the claim and initiates a joint focus of attention away from the conversation and
towards the drinks. Again, one might perceive this as being inappropriate or
1 rA