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Epistemics in post‐match interviews: A focus on questioning turn design
Author(s) -
Wilton Antje
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of applied linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.712
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1473-4192
pISSN - 0802-6106
DOI - 10.1111/ijal.12326
Subject(s) - foregrounding , german , conversation , turn taking , focus (optics) , conversation analysis , psychology , epistemology , sociology , linguistics , communication , philosophy , physics , optics
This contribution reports on a study of questioning turns in German and English football post‐match interviews (PMIs). Previous research on PMIs suggests that their main aim is to provide room for a delivery of the player's perspective of the match, thereby foregrounding his expertise and experience. The study uses a conversation analytic approach to focus on how interviewers design their turns in order to achieve this foregrounding. It is shown that participants employ means to systematically maintain an epistemic balance that reflects the player's epistemic access to the match as more authoritative. Furthermore, while both German and English interviewers perform similar actions in their turns, there are significant differences in the use of overtly marked questions, revealing different overall strategies of foregrounding.