Concept of Action (eBook)

N. J. Enfield, Jack Sidnell (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2017
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-108-51450-7 (ISBN)

Infos

When people do things with words, how do we know what they are doing? Many scholars have assumed a category of things called actions: 'requests', 'proposals', 'complaints', 'excuses'. The idea is both convenient and intuitive, but as this book argues, it is a spurious concept of action. In interaction, a person's primary task is to decide how to respond, not to label what someone just did. The labeling of actions is a meta-level process, appropriate only when we wish to draw attention to others' behaviors in order to quiz, sanction, praise, blame, or otherwise hold them to account. This book develops a new account of action grounded in certain fundamental ideas about the nature of human sociality: that social conduct is naturally interpreted as purposeful; that human behavior is shaped under a tyranny of social accountability; and that language is our central resource for social action and reaction.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.10.2017
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• ISBN-10: 1-108-51450-2 / 1108514502
• ISBN-13: 978-1-108-51450-7 / 9781108514507