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  3. The Concept of Action
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  • Publisher:
    Cambridge University Press
    Publication date:
    29 September 2017
    12 October 2017
    ISBN:
    9781139025928
    9780521895286
    9780521719650
    DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139025928
    Dimensions:
    (228 x 152 mm)
    Weight & Pages:
    0.52kg, 242 Pages
    Dimensions:
    (228 x 152 mm)
    Weight & Pages:
    0.41kg, 242 Pages
    • Subjects:
    Linguistic Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology: General Interest, Anthropology
    Series:
    New Departures in Anthropology
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    Subjects:
    Linguistic Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology: General Interest, Anthropology
    Series:
    New Departures in Anthropology
    Information

    Book description

    When people do things with words, how do we know what they are doing? Many scholars have assumed a category of things called actions: 'requests', 'proposals', 'complaints', 'excuses'. The idea is both convenient and intuitive, but as this book argues, it is a spurious concept of action. In interaction, a person's primary task is to decide how to respond, not to label what someone just did. The labeling of actions is a meta-level process, appropriate only when we wish to draw attention to others' behaviors in order to quiz, sanction, praise, blame, or otherwise hold them to account. This book develops a new account of action grounded in certain fundamental ideas about the nature of human sociality: that social conduct is naturally interpreted as purposeful; that human behavior is shaped under a tyranny of social accountability; and that language is our central resource for social action and reaction.

    Reviews

    'This book constitutes a brilliant and indispensable contribution to our understanding of language and agency.'

    Paul Kockelman - Yale University, Connecticut

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    Contents

    Contents
    • ONE - Basics of Action
      pp 1-2
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