Emanuel Schegloff relates a story, told to him by an old friend, which is set on a train carriage travelling through New York. At the centre of this narrative is a ‘young woman … talking on the cell phone, apparently to her boyfriend, with whom she is in something of a crisis’ (Schegloff, 2002: 285). Other people in the carriage, we are told, busy themselves ‘doing “not overhearing this conversation”’: ‘Except for one passenger. And when the protagonist of this tale has her eyes intersect this fellow-passenger’s gaze, she calls out in outraged protest, “Do you mind?! This is a private conversation!”’ (Schegloff, 2002: 286)
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:13:48 +0000