This paper deals with pragmatic inference from the perspective of Conversation Analysis. In particular, we examine a specific variety of inferences – the attribution of incompetence which Self constructs on the basis of Other's prior action, hearable as positioning Self as incompetent (e.g., instructions, offers of assistance, advice); this attribution of incompetence concerns Self's execution of some practical task. This inference is indexed in Self's response, which highlights Self's expertise, or competence concerning the task at hand. We focus on two recurrent types of such responses in our data: (i) accounting for competence through formulations of prior experience with carrying out a practical action and (ii) explicit claims of competence for accomplishing this action. We analyze the interactional environments in which these responses occur, the ways in which the two practices index Self's understanding of being positioned as incompetent and the interactional work they do. Finally, we discuss how through rejecting an inferred attribution of incompetence, Self implicitly seeks to restore their face and defend their autonomy as an agent, yet, without entering an explicit identity-negotiation. Findings rest on the analysis of 20 cases found in video-recordings of naturally occurring talk-in-interaction in German from the corpus FOLK.

本文从会话分析的角度探讨语用推理。特别是，我们检查了一系列特定的推论——自我根据他人先前的行为构建的无能归因，可以听到将自己定位为无能（例如，指示、提供帮助、建议）；这种无能的归因涉及自我执行某些实际任务。这一推论被索引到 Self 的回答中，突出了 Self 的专业知识或有关当前任务的能力。我们重点关注数据中两种经常出现的此类响应：（i）通过制定实际行动的先前经验来解释能力，以及（ii）明确声称完成该行动的能力。我们分析了这些反应发生的交互环境、这两种实践索引自我对被定位为无能的理解的方式以及它们所做的交互工作。最后，我们讨论自我如何通过拒绝推断的无能归因，隐含地寻求恢复他们的面子并捍卫他们作为代理人的自主权，但没有进入明确的身份协商。研究结果基于对 FOLK 语料库中自然发生的德语互动对话视频记录中的 20 个案例的分析。