COGNITIVE-PROCESSES AND SOCIAL NORMS IN NATURAL DISCOURSE AT THE MARKETPLACE

This study constitutes a preliminary attempt to begin answering the fo llowing question: how can we hope to reconcile two seemingly opposite views of natural discourse, namely one which focuses on cognitive proc esses and underlying knowledge structures, and another which focuses o n the participants' 'social construction of reality' through ongoing i nteractive processes? An interesting source of inspiration for this ta sk is the recently developed 'communicator goal' approach, which is st rongly influenced by Schank and Abelson's view of interaction as guide d by pre-existing goals. This cognitive model is used here in conjunct ion with the ethnomethodological model of social interaction which str esses its dynamic dimensions. The focus in this paper is on one partic ular dimension of communicative competence which relates to both model s, namely the interactants' ability to deal with changeable goals duri ng a conversation. My proposed methodological framework is tested thro ugh the analysis of a 45-minute transcript of naturally occurring spee ch recorded at a Southern California marketplace. Verbal interaction i n service encounters is shown not to always follow a prototype scenari o based on pre-existing knowledge structures and goals: discourse has emergent properties based on the particular circumstances of the situa tion.