ABSTRACT

This study expands and refines the argument presented by Heritage and Raymond by demonstrating that the orientation to probability in question design can intersect with a second orientation toward the positive or negative desirability—or valence—of the state of affairs inquired into. In most cases, the orientations to probability and to positively valenced information can be satisfied simultaneously: In a context where negatively valenced information is generally avoided, positively polarized questions invite “good news,” and negatively polarized questions are directed to “bad news” scenarios. These congruent orientations are routinely satisfied in polar question design and in a range of interactional environments. However, as has been illustrated with various other concurrently relevant preferences in interaction, these orientations can also conflict with one another, thereby revealing a hierarchization between them. Specifically, we show that when considerations of recipient design require questions about states of affairs that are both likely and also negatively valenced, orientations to positive outcomes will be attenuated or abandoned in favor of a “realistic” stance toward the likelihood of the negative state of affairs. It is therefore concluded that probability is a more fundamental aspect of the recipient design of polar questions than is information valence. Data are drawn from corpora of British and American English conversations.

抽象的

这项研究通过证明问题设计中概率的方向可以与正向或负向期望性或价态的第二个方向相交，扩展并完善了Heritage和Raymond提出的论点。所调查的事务状态。在大多数情况下，可以同时满足概率和正价信息的方向：在通常避免使用负价信息的情况下，正极化问题邀请“好消息”，负极化问题针对“坏消息”方案。在极性问题设计和一系列交互环境中，通常会满足这些一致的方向。然而，如已经在交互中的各种其他同时相关的偏好中所说明的那样，这些方向也可以彼此冲突，从而揭示了它们之间的层次结构。具体来说，我们表明，当考虑接收者的设计时，需要对既有可能也有负面影响的事务状态提出疑问时，朝积极成果的方向将被削弱或放弃，转而采取“现实”的态度对待消极事态的可能性。因此得出的结论是，概率是极性问题的接收者设计比信息效价更基本的方面。数据来自英美英语会话语料库。