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1 (MB): Hm
Excerpt 6.17 Gorgeous
2 (0.8)
3 LM: Hm=
4 RP: =Gorgeous this
LM: =It's alright in't it=
MB: =Hm:
MB: =(It is)
This joint declaration of how'nice' the food is does eventually come to an
end as one of the male participants makes a 'farting' sound with his chair
leading to immediate humorous mocking of that individual from all the other
participants (again, thereby altercasting and adding some element of negative
alignment to the proceedings). The food is not referred to after that point apart
from at the end of the meal.
What this evidences than is the threat overly solidaric claims can pose
the equilibric nature of sociable conversation in English sociable episodes. As
with the preceding contingencies, this final set of sociable phenomenon is
equally applicable to German sociable conversation, albeit realised
conversationally differently.
Interestingly, although much of the literature suggests that German
conversation veers away from overly solidaric development, there seems to be
more of a tolerance for potential solidarity threshold breaches. Often in German
conversation, participants can agree themselves to conversational death
almost, to the point where no more agreement is possible if the semblance of
sincerity - somewhat of a pre-requisite for sociability - is to be maintained. At
such points, German conversation often stalls, albeit temporarily, as participants
cease contributing conversationally in favour of a period of extended silence.
The only contributions in such encounters are often 'hmms', acting as echoes of
a previously ratified state of heightened solidarity. At such moments,
participants are effectively mortified, unable to move conversationally under
immobilising weight of sameness. Of course, as with English strategies for
dealing with overly solidaric moments in talk, new conversational resources for
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