Conversation Analysis

Jack Sidnell is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the structures and practices of talk and interaction in a range of settings. In addition to extensive research in the Caribbean, Sidnell has examined talk in court and among young children. He is the author Talk and Practical Epistemology: The Social Life of Knowledge in a Caribbean Community (2005) and the editor of Conversation Analysis: Comparative Perspectives (2009).

“Overall, I was very favorably impressed by Conversation Analysis: An Introduction . . . n its own terms, I particularly liked the straightforward, accessible style that Sidnell uses to discuss complex ideas and materials.”  (Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1 February 2013)“To conclude, this introduction is a rich source of authentic examples and will serve interested students and scholars very well.”  (Discourse and Communication, 1 November 2012)"The interdisciplinary research method and field of conversation analysis (CA) is remarkably well-suited to helping teachers achieve this objective, because CA provides tools that enable first the perception, and then the scientific description and analysis of regular patterns of human social conduct - patterns that organize, and make meaningful, the world of everyday life." (Language in Society, 2011)

• Acknowledgements viiTranscription Conventions ix1 Talk 12 Methods 203 Turn-Taking 364 Action and Understanding 595 Preference 776 Sequence 957 Repair 1108 Turn Construction 1399 Stories 17410 Openings and Closings 19711 Topic 22312 Context 24513 Conclusion 258References 271Index 281