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41 LIP: [IN FACT THERE WAs quite a gang of us [who used to go
42 KP: [Next door to
43 LP: rou:::: nd=
44 KP: Mattie's
45 KP: =There was on there weren't they (0.5) mice on the pies women=they had
46 1
47 RP: [AW[E:: YEAH::::
48 LIP: [Sneakin' out of our [houses (. ) at like one o'clock in the mornin'=
49 KP:
50 RP: =It was a really good one that=
51 LP: =When our parents had gone to [bed
52 RP: [God it were some years ago that weren't it
((20 second schism as LP loudly continues her tale of 'stealing motorbikes'
and KP/RP continue on the hedge-hoppin' theme))
In this particular moment of talk, LM proffers her own account of
childhood 'naughtiness'. This is done within a wider narrative 'round' (Tannen
1984) in which all participants proffer individuated variations on a common
theme, that is, naughty things done as children. What happens in this excerpt is
that LM essentially 'goes too far. She goes beyond the boundaries of what is
'acceptable' and importantly, what can be accommodated within the current
sociability. In and through her negative clam, she in effect posits herself beyond
the thresholds of solidarity. What is claimed as the basis for uniqueness is no
longer naughtiness (positively recognised and valued), but something more
deviant, i. e., theft per se.
From this identification of threshold breach, we can look again to the
episode for evidence of the second of the elements noted above, i. e. the repair
or remedy. Two main ways of handling possible negative alignment threshold
breaches in English conversation appear to be as follows: Quickly seek
solidarity (mitigate counter-propositions or expression of difference by proffering
similar but mitigated versions of the problematic claim); or use humour to re-
frame the claim as non-serious and therefore non-disequilibric. A good example
of this latter strategy is in the frequent use of teases which frequently follow
some overly individuated claim. Teases in this sense function as an effective
form of social control on overly individuated selves (see Drew 1987) and in
effect prevent 'runaway' individuation. The following excerpt provides a good
example of the first strategy for handling potential threshold breaches, that is, in
the use of similar but mitigated versions of a potentially disequilibric one.
177