Lecture | LUCL Colloquium - Series '24/'25
Social interaction meets technology
- Date
- Thursday 14 November 2024
- Time
- Serie
- LUCL Colloquium - Series '24/'25
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 2.27
Abstract
Social interaction is increasingly enabled by technologies like in video conferencing, text-based messaging and apps. Methods to meticulously study social interaction have most prominently been developed in the tradition of conversation analysis (CA) (Heritage 1984). Central is the assumption that participants behave normatively, according to largely unspoken rules, to make themselves understood and to understand others (cf. Garfinkel 1967). Even in very early work in CA the normative relevance of technology in social interaction was acknowledged, for instance the role of summons in telephone conversation openings (Schegloff 1968, 1979). However, despite the immense growth of digital social interaction, relatively few studies focus on these technologized or digital dimensions and related normativities. In this lecture I present various examples of a CA-approach to how social interaction meets technology, such as opening up a video consultation, making an appointment through messaging, and referencing a gender ambiguous robot. The aim is to inspire linguists in the broadest sense to engage more with how language and social interaction work (digitally) today.