(Dis)aligning for improving mutual understanding in talk-in-interaction

Abstract

This article deals with the mutual understanding phenomenon and its explicit marks in talk-in-interaction. Drawing on conversation literature, we attempt to enhance knowledge about understanding by linking it to the alignment concept. This allows us to shed light on the different levels of understanding required for the accomplishment of successful interaction. Feedback responses provided by recipients are one of the explicit marks for achieving understanding. However, we focus here on dispreferred responses that can be considered a cue of disalignment, i.e. a break in the activity in progress and a potential indicator of trouble in understanding. Using the Conversational Analysis framework, we show how and why recipients can disalign and to what extent the mutual understanding is impacted by this disalignment.