Using video recordings of draft meetings conducted as part of an intramural basketball program as data, this conversation analytic study examines the use of an incomplete utterance in a joint evaluative activity. In particular, we focus on how the participants, volunteer coaches, who meet to draft players for their respective teams, produce a syntactically incomplete utterance as a means to critically assess a player, a non-present third party to the interaction. Analysis reveals that the participants use an incomplete utterance as part of dispreferred design; it allows them to withhold articulating overt criticism of others. By trailing off where the criticism is due, the participants display reluctance to verbalize what is to be said and treat its articulation as delicate. The syntactic structure of the utterance that includes a contrastive conjunction (‘but’) and accompanying embodied actions such as head shakes help them convey a critical stance. We examine the use of incomplete utterances in both agreement and disagreement sequences; the recipients display their unproblematic understanding of the critical assessment and respond by providing their own assessments that either affiliate or disaffiliate with the conveyed critical stance.

中文翻译：

---

不完整的话语作为关键评估

使用作为校内篮球计划的一部分进行的草稿会议的视频记录作为数据，这项对话分析研究检查了在联合评估活动中使用不完整话语的情况。特别是，我们关注参与者，志愿者教练，他们会面为各自的球队选拔球员，如何产生句法上不完整的话语，作为批判性评估球员的一种手段，一个不存在的第三方互动。分析表明，参与者使用不完整的话语作为不喜欢设计的一部分；它允许他们隐瞒对他人的公开批评。通过在批评的地方拖延，参与者表现出不愿用语言表达要说的内容并将其表达视为微妙。话语的句法结构包括对比连词（“但是”）和伴随的具体动作，例如摇头，帮助他们传达批判性立场。我们检查了在同意和不同意序列中不完整话语的使用；接受者展示他们对批判性评估没有问题的理解，并通过提供他们自己的评估做出回应，这些评估与所传达的批判性立场相关或不相关。