SCARY: A Dispreferred Second Assessment

In this fragment of interaction from a videotaped recording of family interaction at a Thanksgiving gathering, we recognize two of the participants from the Eyeroll instance in Chapter One, the Boy and one of his aunts, Aunt 1. They have been discussing movies, the "Alien" sequels in particular. After asking whether or not her nephew has seen the films in question and after his affirmative response, Aunt 1 provides an assessment of them at line 12 ("They're scary").

Our focus is on what happens next. As Pomerantz has shown (1984, 65) assessments regularly have a sequential structure such that the proffering of a first assessment is followed by a second assessment, and then frequently in unmarked instances an acknowledgment of the second closes off the sequence (when recipient has knowledge of the assessable). Second assessments are characterized by preference, and the shape of the turn's construction comes into play. In environments where agreement with the first assessment is preferred, disagreement is dispreferred; and the unfolding of a dispreferred, second assessment turn regularly may have certain features: a preface, unstated or weakly stated partial disagreements, and delay within the turn or across a series of turns. Such a dispreferred second is frequently oriented to as marked by the first assessor and can occasion a response showing it as having been marked.

In this instance, the aunt proffers an assessment of the "Aliens" movies ("They're scary"), and, although the boy has claimed knowledge of the two "Aliens" movies in his turn at line 10, there is no immediate uptake by him; instead, there is a delay. After a hearably-long pause in the talk at line 13 (a full second), the nephew performs a nonvocalized, embodied action-turn that displays something like a grimace -- a dispreferred second assessment in the sequence (line 14). In her immediate next turn at line 16, the aunt orients to the boy's dispreferred second as such by explicitly suggesting (in the form of a rapidly-uttered question) that he has just disagreed (">>you didn't think they were?<<").

(Click on PLAY button for SCARY)

 

1 Aunt 1: Did you see that ma- mo:vie yet?

2 (0.2)

3 Boy: (one?)[aliens three:?

[

4 Aunt 1: [yeah.

5 Aunt 1: [yeah.

[

6 Boy: [nah

7 (0.3)

8 Boy: I: 'idn't see it

9 (0.5)

10 Boy: I saw aliens one an two.

11 (0.2)

12 Aunt 1: they're scAry <---

13 (1.0)

14 Boy: ((EA assessment--(0.3)->)) <---

15 (0.4)

16 Aunt 1: >>you didn't think they were?<< <---

17 (0. 7)

18 Boy: (sort of)

 

At line 14, over a time-span of approximately three-tenths of a second, the BOY assembles a coordinated head and facial configuration which reaches a peak or apex halfway through that time period and then dissolves (see Chapter Four, Section Three for a detailed discussion of the description of stages of gestures). The peak of his displayed assessment involves arching his left brow, tilting his head to the left, jutting out his chin slightly to the right, raising up and pushing out his lower lip, and lowering his eyelids -- all in a coordinated way. Then he quickly disassembles the configuration and returns his facial display and head position to approximately their state before his embodied action-turn began (although he does sustain a slightly different mouth display in that it is somewhat curled, his bottom lip pushed up and outward).

What unfolds in the assessment sequence shown here is much as Pomerantz has described for dispreferred second assessments that display disagreement. However, what is new is the observation that the nephew constructs his turn in the sequence using a nonvocalized embodied action unit, and it is to this embodied action-turn that the aunt orients in a seamless and unmarked way. That is, through her explicit question back to him, she displays her orientation to the dispreferred and marked character of his disagreeing second-assessment in the sequence, not to the fact that he has constructed his turn using nonvocal embodied components.