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allowed for by the facework as alignment framework advanced in Chapter 3
could be seen to occur in both English and German episodes. This appeared to
run contra- to the propositions outlined in Chapter 3, that English sociability was
essentially a positive alignment pursuit whilst German sociability was essentially
a negative one. It appeared that sociable episodes in both speech communities
equally required both positive and negative alignment for the achievement and
sustaining of sociable conversation. However, differences were identified in
terms of the nature of conversational claims in each milieu.
In Chapter 71 identified rather obvious differences in terms of the type
and nature of sociable selves routinely drawn upon by participants to achieve
these necessary alignments. In a nutshell, English sociable selves appeared to
be more entertaining entities, whilst German sociable selves appeared to be
more evaluative ones.
Extending the analysis into Chapter 8,1 addressed the question of
alignment in both cultures. Drawing on excerpts of talk taken from sociable
episodes in both English and German sociable gatherings, I outlined how these
essentially entertaining and evaluative and selves were aligned together in the
achievement of sociable conversation. Instances of both primarily positive and
primarily negative alignment were drawn upon. In looking at these data it
became evident that the sociological bases for English German differences in
sociable conversation was not any preference for negative alignment over
positive, or vice versa, but rather the nature of the selves mobilised to
normatively achieve such alignments. In short, what underlay both English and
German sociable style was shown to be the availability, mobilisation, and
alignment of sociable selves.
To conclude then, what this study has demonstrated is that English and
German sociable conversations display both positive and negative alignment
across and within sociable episodes. Such alignment is directly contingent on
the mobilisation of normatively available sociable selves in each culture. The
expressive nature of each of these selves though is subject to cross-cultural
variation. It is variation at the level of such normatively available and routinely
mobilised conversational selves both as conversational players and
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