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“I only listen to one person at a time”: Dissonance and resonance in talk about talk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Barbara A. Gomes  and
Laura Martin
Barbara A. Gomes
Affiliation:
20800 Fairmount Boulevard, Shaker Heights, OH 44118
Laura Martin
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115
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Abstract

Close examination of a segment of classroom discourse permits definition of a set of linguistic devices and rhetorical structures that characterize the primary speaker's repertoire. As the discourse moves from dialog to monolog, and the teacher's roles and ideological assumptions come into conflict, these discourse patterns are seen to reveal the shifting contexts of talk and social personae that the teacher must use language to reconcile. The analysis claims that, under such conditions of discourse stress, opposing contexts can be temporarily harmonized through discourse structure, even though propositional content is contradictory. (Linguistic anthropology, education, coherence, discourse analysis)

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 205 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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