Practices and actions: Boundary cases of other‐initiated repair

Abstract

Working within a naturalistic paradigm for which the notion of “practices” is more apt than “processes,” I address the multiplicity of ties between practices of talk‐in‐interaction and the actions which they accomplish. After describing common procedures of data collection and preparation in this mode of inquiry and the “boundary cases” which these procedures may engender, I explore alternative actions which can be recognizably produced by practices of talking ordinarily associated with the action of “initiating repair.” Two practices in particular are examined: questioning terms (“huh?,” “who?,” etc.) and certain forms of repeats. As well, I show that in some contexts the action of initiating repair can be produced by a practice which does not ordinarily produce it. The moral of the article is that situated analysis must go hand‐in‐hand with more formal analysis in order to arrive at satisfactory accounts of discourse practices, and of discourse processes as well.