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Displaying emotional control by how crying and talking are managed

  • Ann Weatherall

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In this study I investigated crying, as a display of emotional upset. The aim was to provide a detailed description of how turns of talk were organised around crying. Using conversation analysis, I examined a sample of 26 calls to a helpline for victims. Talking and crying regularly occurred together, with evidence of effort to keep talking and suppress crying. A loss of emotional control was displayed when talking was suspended by crying. However, even when flooded out by crying, the resumption of talk was routinely linked back to where it had been disrupted which suggests a normative orientation to not crying and to progressing talk. I use the findings to elaborate on the concept of being flooded out by emotion so being out of play for interaction (Goffman, 1961, 1974), in microanalytic terms. A conclusion considers the relationships between the sequential organisation of talking and crying and social-cultural norms about emotions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationHow Emotions Are Made in Talk
    EditorsJessica S. Robles, Ann Weatherall 
    PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
    Pages77-97
    Number of pages21
    ISBN (Electronic)9789027260062
    ISBN (Print)9789027208521
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 12 May 2021

    Publication series

    NamePragmatics and Beyond New Series
    Volume321
    ISSN (Print)0922-842X

    Keywords

    • Crying
    • Emotion displays
    • Sequential deletion
    • Sound objects
    • Talk-in-interaction
    • Telephone helplines
    • Conversation analysis

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Language and Linguistics
    • Linguistics and Language

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