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detrimental effects foreigners are having on Germany's crime rates, this excerpt
evidences a moments of heightened solidarity between participants - as if all
were speaking as one. In terms of the topic chosen for this period of positive
alignment, again, the theme of some real external threat to the sociable
collective and what they posit themselves as representing (in this case law
abiding German citizens) is a salient one drawn upon in German agonistic
discussion. By its very nature then, it seems to allow for the joint proffering of
positive conversational claims and subsequent positive alignment.
Both these instances of positive alignment generally reflect then the
prevailing styles of sociable conversation in each milieu. In the former,
participants re-invoke some past event, one located in a collective past, for the
basis of solidarity. Claims made about this particular topic similarly define and
evaluate the occasion. In the latter, participants also discuss some topic of
central concern to all. Again, definitional and evaluative claims are made which
attest similarly to the central topic. What both the excerpts commonly illustrate
is moments in the course of ongoing episodes of sociable conversation where
solidarity is being claimed, ratified, and supported over a series of
conversational claims. In both sociable milieus, similar orientations are being
made, as participants signal and ratify their commonality and solidarity in and
through their sociable alignments to the topic itself and one another.
6.3.2 Negative Claims and their Ratification and Support
As with positive claims, negative claims - that is, claims were participants
express some aspect of individuation - equally require ratification and support
from fellow participants as part and parcel of sociable conversation. Indeed, due
to the salience of negative claims as essentially individuated phenomena - that
is, based around the person or, as in the case of married couples what might be
called the 'intimate team' - there may be even greater demands on the other
participants to support negative claims more markedly, so that they 'stand out'
more.
In the English data, there are several ways in which participants
collectively proffer, ratify, and support negative claims. Unsurprisingly, often
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