Resumen de Question-answer sequences in conciliation hearings and interviews with political candidates

Paulo Cortes Gago, Sonia Bittencourt Silveira

• English

  This paper works at the intersection between applied linguistics and ethnomethodological conversation analysis. Applied linguistics has as its central c o n c e rn the interest in the study of discourse, especially in the professions, and addresses itself to real world problems of language use in interaction. In conversation analysis, social action must be interpreted taking centrally into account participant¿s conduct in sequences of action in interaction. Combining the two, social meaning is studied from an inherently emic point of view. In this paper we will compare the interactional practice of asking questions in conciliation hearings in consumers¿relations and in interv i ews with political candidates. The following questions have guided our study: 1) What actions are associated with the practice of questioning and answering in these settings? 2) What do they tell us about the institutional mandate of its participants? Results show that the point of convergence in the two data sets is the conduciveness embedded in the mediator¿s and the interviewer¿s questions. Differences are tied to their specific institutional mandates of framing legally the situation and trying to bring disputants to an agreement in the first case, and clarify the public opinion with confrontational questions in the second case, considering the candidates¿ future government programs and, when this is the case, their previous political career

• galego

  Este artigo sitúase na intersección entre a lingüística aplicada e a análise etnometodolóxica da conversa. A lingüística aplicada ten como preocupación central o estudo do discurso, especialmente no eido das profesións, e aborda problemas do mundo real relativos ó uso interaccional das linguas. Na análise da conversa, a acción social debe interpretarse tendo en conta sobre todo a conduta do participante en secuencias de acción interaccional. Combinando as dúas disciplinas, o significado social estúdase desde un punto de vista inherentemente émico. Neste artigo compararemos a práctica interaccional de facer preguntas en entrevistas con candidatos políticos e en vistas de conciliación de asociacións de consumidores. O noso estudo artellouse a través das preguntas seguintes: 1) Que accións se asocian coa práctica de preguntar e respostar nestes contextos? 2) Que nos din estas sobre o mandato institucional dos seus participantes? Os resultados mostran que o punto de converxencia nos dous conxuntos de datos é a orientación implícita das preguntas de mediador e entrevistador. As diferenzas están ligadas no caso das vistas de conciliación aos seus mandatos institucionais específicos de enmarcar legalmente a situación e tentar que os litigantes cheguen a un acordo; e no caso das entrevistas con candidatos a clarificar a opinión pública con preguntas de confrontación en vista dos futuros programas de goberno dos candidatos e, cando é o caso, da súa carreira política previa.