The Omnirelevance of Accountability
The Omnirelevance of Accountability
Off-Record Account Solicitations
This chapter builds on the work of Garfinkel and Heritage to argue that when questioners pose a known-answer question concerning a behavior, decision, or opinion for which an account is possible, recipients orient to the relevance of both a confirmation and an account for that conduct. Insofar as the initial confirmation effectively closes the request-for-confirmation sequence, the provision of an account is in a substantially more volunteered context than following a direct request for an account (e.g., after Why questions), which places recipients in a comparatively “coerced” position. Deviant cases—in which interactants decline to provide an account following their confirmation—provide additional evidence for the claim that known-answer requests for confirmation solicit accounts. This argument suggests both that there is a social preference for accounts to be provided for conduct that is presented without explanation, and also that interactants are reticent to overtly request accounts.
Keywords: conversation analysis, accountability, answer, intersubjectivity, morality, social norm, question, reflexivity, social interaction
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .