A01 cohe4573 01 se fm. Qxd

participants’ efforts at interpreting each others’ interactive contributions to
a conversation.
7
By adopting a discursive approach, CA experts treat meaning
as the understandings that conversational participants display to each other
in the sequential organization of their talk. So, for example, speakers indi-
cate through their response how they understand what their conversational
partner said, and this then in turn provides an occasion for the first speaker
to confirm or repair that understanding. In this way, meaning is constructed
socially and interactively.
8
An advocate of CA has suggested, for example, that this approach to
pragmatics can help determine possible reasons for why cross-cultural dis-
course may diverge from L2 pragmatic norms. Two studies illustrate this: one
a study of telephone openings and the other on responses to compliments.
9
In the first study comparing telephone openings by L1 speakers of Farsi vs
3
Firth (1996: 237–8).
4
Schegloff et al. (2002).
5
Mori (2002, 2004).
6
Félix-Brasdefer (2006); Liddicoat and Crozet (2001).
7
Kasper (2007).
8
Kasper (2006: 294).
9
Kasper (2007).

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1 6 8
T H E N U T S A N D B O L T S O F P R A G M A T I C S I N S T R U C T I O N
those by L1 speakers of German, CA was used to illustrate how Iranian and
German telephone openings are different. Whereas Iranian openings pre-
dictably include extended inquiries about the other’s health and family,
German opening exchanges are generally shorter and usually without such
ritual inquiries. It is noted that this difference could possibly be a result of
negative pragmatic transfer by the L2 speaker.
10
The second study dealing with compliments illustrated the advantages
of CA for comparing responses to compliments in German and in American
English.
11
The researcher in this study used CA to illustrate how pragmatic
transfer occurs in an episode involving a native speaker of American English
– David – and two native speakers of German – Christiane and Annette – at
breakfast (see Figure 9.1, below). Whereas CA uses a detailed set of symbols
for the purposes of transcription,
12
the episode is presented here in a format
intended to be easier for the lay reader to understand:
1
David: That’s the best tea– I’ve – I think I’ve ever had.
2
Christiane: Great, right?
(D gazes at C with puzzled look)
3
(Pause)
4
David: Uh– that lemonny kinda, yeah. It’s quite nice.
5
Christiane: ( With a smile) Yeah, we like it too.
6
(Pause)
7
Annette: What was the– exact name of it. It’s just called– orange tea?
8
Christiane: Lemon tea. It’s Zitronentee.
In her explanation of the transcript, the researcher notes that after David
pays Christiane a compliment for making great tea (line 1), she responds 
to the compliment by giving a response strategy that works in German,
namely a same-strength second assessment (“Great”) followed by a response
pursuit marker, “right?” (line 2). The researcher notes that this is a compli-
ment response atypical of American conversations, and provides several
indicators in the transcript that this compliment response is very unusual
for David. First, after Christiane has agreed with the compliment and while
10
Taleghani-Nikazm (2002).
11
Golato (2002).
12
For the original transcription of this episode, see Golato (2002: 566).

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D I S C O U R S E , I N T E R A C T I O N , A N D L A N G U A G E C O R P O R A