Towards understanding gender and talk-in-interaction

Abstract

Feminist language researchers typically assume that gender is relevant to any interaction. Conversation analysis offers an interesting challenge for feminists to show how and that the pervasiveness of gender is achieved in talk-in-interaction. The aim of this article is to make a step towards understanding the interactional mechanisms underling the omnirelevance of gender in daily life. The present study draws upon the practices and principles of conversation analysis, particularly the notions of repair and membership categorization devices, to examine recordings of children's interactions. Evidence that supports the claim that the organization of repair may be implicated in the (re)production of gender is presented.