Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning Essays on Situated Cognition Edited by Lauren B. Resnick Learning Research and Development Center University of Pittsburgh, 3939 O'Hara Street Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Roger Saljé Department of Communication Studies Linképing University, Sweden Clotilde Pontecorvo Dipartimento di Psicologia dei Processi di Sviluppo ¢ Socializzazione, Université degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", Italy Barbara Burge Learning Research and Development Center University of Pittsburgh, USA Springer «LW Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs DivisionProceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Situated Cognition and Technologically Supported Environments, held in Lucca (Il Ciocco), Italy, November 2-7, 1993 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Discourse, tools, and reasoning : essays on situated cognition / edited by Lauren B. Resnick ... [et al.J. p. cm. ~~ (NATO ASI series. Series F, Computer and systens sciences ; vol. 160) "Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division." "Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Situated Cognition and Technologically Supported Environments, held in Lucca (I1 Ctocco), Italy, November 2-7, 1993"~-T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 3-640-63811-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cognition--Congresses. 2. Cognitive learning theory ~Congresses. 3. Cognition and culture--Congresses. 4. Learning, Psychology of--Congresses. I. Resnick, Lauren B. IT. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Scientific Affairs Division. III. NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Situated Cognition and Technologically Supported Environments (1993 : I1 Ciocco, Italy) IV. Series: NATO ASI series. Series F, Computer and systens sciences ; no. 160. BF311,05376 1997 183--de21 97-35966 cIP CR Subject Classification (1991): K.3, K.4 ISBN 3-540-63511-4 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg NewYork ‘This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag, Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1997 Printed in Germany ‘Typesetting: Camera-ready by editors Printed on acid-free paper SPIN: 10645153 45/3142 ~5 43210Contents List of Contributors... XI Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning Lauren B. Resnick, Clotilde Pontecorvo, and Roger Sai 1 Part One _ Distributed Cognition: Discourse and Activity in Complex Work Environments Chapter 1 Constructing Meaning from Space, Gesture, and Speech Edwin Hutchins and Leysia Palen... 23 Chapter 2 Centers of Coordination: A Case and Some Themes Lucy Suchman... oo 41 Chapter 3 Animated Texts: Selective Renditions of News Stories Christian Heath and Gillian Nicholls.... 63 Chapter 4 To Resolve a Technical Problem Through Conversation Alain Trognon and Corinne Grusenmeyer... 87 Chapter 5 The Blackness of Black: Color Categories as Situated Practice Charles Goodwin.Vil Contents Part Two Negotiating Identities: The Construction of Sociocognitive Communities Chapter 6 Reasonable Uncertainties: Parents’ Talk About Caring for Children with Chronic Renal Failure David Middletor Chapter 7 Syncretic Literacy in a Samoan American Family Alessandro Duranti and Elinor Ochs Chapter 8 Other Voices, Other Minds: ‘The Use of Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk Alessandra Fasulo... Chapter 9 Situational Effects in Computer-Based Problem Solving Paul Light and Karen Littleton..... Part Three Learning in Practice: How People and Tools Shape One Another : Notes from the Field Chapter 10 Discourse and Developme: Joseph Glick... Chapter 11 _Interactional Perspectives on the Use of the Computer and on. the Technological Development of a New Tool: The Case of Word Processing Michéle Grossen and Luc-Olivier Pochor Chapter 12 What Organizes Our Problem-Solving Activities? Terezinha Nune: arena Chapter 13 Understanding Symbols With Intermediate Abstractions: ‘An Analysis of the Collaborative Construction of Mathematical Meaning Baruch B. Schwarz... “ Chapter 14 Strategy-Specific Information Access in Knowledge ‘Acquisition from Hypertext Wolfgang Schnotz..Contents IX Part Four Accountable Talk: Learning to Reason Chapter 15 Talking About Reasoning: How Important Is the Peer in Peer Collaboration? Stephanie D. Teasley ... Chapter 16 Seeing the Light: Discourse and Practice in the Optics Lab Roger Stiljé and Kerstin Bergqvist s Chapter 17 Learning to Argue in Family-Shared Discourse: The Reconstruction of Past Events Clotilde Pontecorvo and Alessandra Fasulo... Chapter 18 Discourse in the Adult Classtoom: Rhetoric as Technology for Dialogue Juan D. Ramirez and James V. Wertsch... - 443 Author Index. Subject Index...List of Contributors Kerstin Bergqvist, Department of Communication Studies, Linképing University, ‘Sweden Alessandro Duranti, Department of Anthropology, UCLA, CA, USA Alessandra Fasulo, Dipartimento di Psicologia dei Processi di Sviluppo e Socializzazione, Universit4 degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza,” Italy Joseph Glick, City University of New York, Graduate Center, NY, USA Charles Goodwin, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, SC, USA Michéle Grossen, Institut de Psychologie, Université de Neuchatel, Switzerland Corinne Grusenmeyer, Research Group on Communication, Nancy I University and French National Research and Safety Institute, Nancy-Vandoeuvre, France Christian Heath, University of Nottingham and King’s College, London, United Kingdom Edwin Hutchins, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA Paul Light, Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, United Kingdom Karen Littleton, Faculty of Social Sciences, Psychology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom David Middleton, Department of Human Sciences, Loughborough University, United Kingdom Gillian Nicholls, Middlesex University, United Kingdom Terezinha Nunes, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdomxt List of Contributors Elinor Ochs, Department of Applied Linguistics, UCLA, CA, USA Leysia Palen, Department of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA Luc-Olivier Pochon, Institut Romand de Documentation et de Recherches Pédagogiques (IRDP), Université de Neuchatel, Switzerland Clotilde Pontecorvo, Dipartimento di Psicologia dei Processi di Sviluppo ¢ Socializzazione, Université degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza’, Italy Juan D, Ramirez, Laboratory of Human Activity, University of Sevilla, Spain Lauren B. Resnick, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Roger Saljd, Department of Communication Studies, Linkdping University, Sweden Baruch B. Schwarz, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel Wolfgang Schnotz, Department of Psychology, University of Landau, Germany Lucy Suchman, Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA, USA Stephanie D. Teasley, Colaboratory for Research on Blectronic Work (CREW), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Alain Trognon, Research Group on Communication, Nancy II University and French National Research and Safety Institute, Nancy-Vandoeuvre, France James V. Wertsch, Department of Education, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USAChapter 8 Other Voices, Other Minds: The Use of Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk Alessandra Fasulo Dipartimento di Psicologia dei Processi di Sviluppo e Socializzazione Université degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza,” Italy Voglio un ruolo importante in questo gioco di parole. 1 want an important role in this word-game] Scusa i mancati giorni. [Posthumous diary of a heroin addict] Daniele Leandri Abstract ‘This study analyzes the different types and uses of direct reported speech in the context of psychotherapeutic discussions. The data are drawn from four sessions of group therapy. The participants were 6 men, doing a program of recovery from drug addiction, and a psychologist. The entire sessions have been videotaped and transcribed. Direct reported speech occurrences have been classified with regard to author, content, and time location of the quote. An overarching distinction concerns the fictional versus realistic character of the quotes. Data show that the therapist’s talk is strongly characterized by fictional quotes, whereas the patients make a ‘more narrative use of reported speech. Specific functions of reported speech are also examined in relation to therapeutic work, proposing a view on identity and self-understanding as based on intertextuality.204 Alessandra Fasulo Intertextuality, or heteroglossia, is, in the work of Bakhtin, the very feature of discourse that makes it animate, alive. All words are hybrids; every utterance borrows its flavor and takes its resonances from having been used within other discourses. Thus, Bakhtin (1934/1991) brought to our attention the significance of our use of the words of others: ‘The transmission and assessment of the speech of others, the discourse of another, is one of the most widespread and fundamental topics of human speech. In all areas of life and ideological activity, our speech is filled to overflowing with other people’s words, which are transmitted with highly varied degrees of accuracy and impartiality. (p. 337) In his early discussion of reported speech, Voloshinov (1929/1973), a student of Bakhtin and probably a pseudonym for Bakhtin himself, treated it as a document of the way another speaker’s speech is received, which is assumed to be dependant on social tendencies “crystallized into language forms” (p. 116). The reporting is also said to be constrained by the context and aims of transmission and by the receiver of this transmission. The forms used thus reflect patterns of interrelationships among speakers, which are seen, at this stage of Bakhtin theorization, as representative of the communicative ideology of a given historical period. Bakhtin’s insights have proved useful and inspiring for subsequent studies focusing on the relations between formal structures of language and its pragmatic functions. Such an approach constitutes a twist in linguistic work that, especially after Saussure, has analyzed language’s structural features independently from its enactment in concrete situations (cf. Lee, 1994). ‘As concerns reported speech, a distinction was classically drawn between the direct and indirect form. The first type was defined as the introduction into one’s discourse of words that were authored by someone else, exactly reproducing them as they were uttered originally. The second type consists of the report of the content of someone else’s statement, without any assumption of fidelity in form, with transformations in tense, grammatical persons, deictic elements and verbal modes of the original utterance according to the narrative context in which the report takes place. Leech (1978, quoted by Hill & Irvine, 1993) argued that, in both cases, the reporter is responsible only for fidelity (of form in the direct style, and of content in the indirect one). In this view, author and reporter of the reported speech remain separate, but such a view does not always hold in light of actual examples. Voloshinov (1929/1973), drawing on literary examples, presents a variety of ways in which, both in direct and indirect reporting, the boundaries between an author's and a natrator’s discourses are blurred, and one meshes into the other, adding to each other evaluating tones, comic effects, and so on. Hill and Irvine (1993), discussing reported speech in interactive talk, maintained that, “because of leakage, we prefer to say that reported speech . . . ‘distribute[s]’ responsibility,Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 205 thinning out and socializing its central focus, rather than absolutely relocating it at a distance from the animator” (p. 13). It appears fruitful then to consider reported speech as a linguistic structural resource co-occurring in the determination of meaning, particularly with regard to asctibable intentionality and degree of accountability of the spoken words. Rather than assuming reported speech as detached from the reporter, we want to think of it as a manipulation of the “otherness” of discourse, containing cues for the interpretation of the speaker’ stance toward the quote. Direct Reported Speech Direct reported speech consists of a recognizable change of the speaker's footing (Goffman, 1981), indicating that the words now coming out from the “sounding box” (= the speaker) belong to an I that does not correspond to the I who is talking. The shift can be signaled by a variety of indicators, possibly co- occurring. The most explicit can be an introductory sentence such as “He said,” but there can also be code-switching (Gumperz, 1982) and voice alterations (Macauley, 1987). When direct quotes slip into a context of indirect reporting (as in Voloshinov's preset direct discourse), they can be indicated by use of characteristic features of first person talk, such as exclamations, discourse markers (e.g., ob, well; Macauley, 1987), deixis and imperative forms, or by use of parody (Bakhtin, 1991) and mimicry (Macauley, 1987). Direct reported speech allows operations in talk that would be dispreferred when appearing in plain speaking. Self-praise and negative evaluations of others can be accomplished by presenting them as coming from other people’s mouths (Macauley, 1987); affect can be displayed covertly through intonational means and thetorical style of the quote (Besnier, 1993). Reported Speech and Identity Self-quotation can also occur. One’s thoughts and speech acts, when framed in reported speech, make for a weakened form of reflexivity, that is, discourse about a self that does not entirely overlap with the present one, incorporating a certain degree of otherness. In autobiographical narratives, splitting the omniscient narrator of the present from the figure acting in the past can create suspense in the telling (Hill & Irvine, 1993), which sustains listeners’ involvement (Tannen, 1988). In fact, if, on the dimension of accountability, reported speech increases distance, it also creates a kind of co-presence of quoting and quoted discourse, transporting speakers and listeners in a different here-and-now (Blanche-Benveniste, 1991).206 Alessandra Fasulo ‘The management of identity through reported speech is a central focus of this chapter. Data and Methods The data used for this study are conversations occurting in a psychotherapy setting. The participants are six men (19 to 29 years of age) living in a community home in southern Italy where they were recovering from heroin addiction plus their therapist, who had done his training in transactional psychology. All the participants including the therapist were born in the area. They were in a weekly group therapy program: I videorecorded 8 consecutive sessions starting from the first time they met as a new group that had moved to the mountain site where the home is located. The recordings have been transcribed following Jefferson’s (1985) method. The setting had originally been chosen for the study of autobiography in context (Fasulo, 1994a, 1994b). From a discourse analysis point of view, I was interested in observing how life stories were presented and the work that was done on them, within an activity that had talk about personal issues as its main focus, and in a context socially (and physically) constructed as one of recovery and, ‘presumably, of identity reshaping. Finally, the visual angle of these persons on their own lives was extremely peculiar. They were at that time in a sort of liminal space, as described by Turner (1974); secluded from the rest of society, where they expected to return with a different membership status, these people had abandoned their life as heroin addicts, but their present everyday routine was, by definition, temporary, and the future had uncertain contours. Therefore, my aim was to look at how, in their interaction with the therapist and with each other, the participants ‘would recast (or simply redecorate) meaning and values of their experience. The organization of participation was flexible. The standard pattern was of separate interviews of the therapist and one participant, during which another who wished to intervene was expected to ask for permission. Between one interview and the next, or before the start, a participant could self-select for questions or open up a new topic. Non-participating members were often called in by the therapist while interviewing another member. Rounds of opinions on some issues were also frequent, within or outside the individual interview. Direct reported speech appeared to be abundant in this talk, used in various ways ranging from repetition of parts of adjacent turns to long dialogue sequences. In ‘All subjects were there voluntarily, except for one for whom the community was legally an alternative to jail. The others could leave when they wished, but a one-year stay was considered the minimal time for a successful program. The members of the group were the only residents of the community, without any control authority.Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 207 the next section, I list the different types that were identified, trying to keep a record of the discourse context in which they took place and the different “owners” of the quoted words. Initial letters refer to the fictionalized names of the participants: the therapist, Antonio (T); Mauro (M); Luca (L); Nino (N); Francesco (F); Andrea (A); Daniele ©). Quotations are indicated by asterisks. The numbers in square brackets stand for the number of the therapeutic session and the page of the transcript. The turn where the quote begins is indicated by an arrow. The translation does not mirror dialect aspects and jargon; intonation marks are reproduced partially to permit comprehensibility. Direct Reported Speech Types (1) Simple repetition: Incomplete parts of a preceding turn, generally coming ‘unmarked in the turn immediately following the original utterance. Excerpt 1 [2:3] ic eh inizia da ‘na cosa facile=facile va. let’s begin with something easy quanti anni ctha:i, how old are you M diciannove. 1i devo fa’ a febbra:io diciannove. nineteen. in february I'll be nineteen. ancora diciotto cenn’ho. I am still eighteen TH *diciannove*. (1.0) di dove sei? *nineteen*. (1.0) where do you come from? This form appears mainly to have a topic-tying function, but it can assume evaluative muances, such as, in this case, where the young age of Mauro is repeated and followed by a significant pause. (2) Self-quotation of therapy talk: A participant refers back to something he said in the current or in a former session. Usually it is anticipated by introductory talk that specifies the sense of its reappearance.208 Alessandra Fasulo Excerpt 2 [4:21] [The therapist turns to the other participants with a question asked him by Nino} % dai va iniziamo il giro. come on let’s start the round. ognuno mi dica che ce sta di buono della commita everybody told me what is the good of the commmity n> no:: *che ce sta di buono* non hai capito not *what is the good* you didn’t understand *di che cosa dobbiamo essere contenti* ‘what we should be happy about* T [no non ho capito no I didn’t understand N [di stare in commita* [0:Ltre- oltre al fatto being in the community* beside- beside the fact v [bra:vo meglio ancora [good even better Here Nino specifies the exact wording of his question, which had just been challenged through a procedure of group judgment. Metapragmatic work of explanation and redefinition is common in self-quotation occurrences. When this is the case, they can be considered as articulated forms of self-repair (Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977). (3) Other-quotation of therapy talk: Words previously uttered by another participant are again made to enter the circuit of discussion. They can be taken up in the immediately following turn (as in the example) or reprised at a different point of the discussion. Excerpt 3 [3:12] D (1.0) come quando uno pensa non lo so de se ne i’= like when one thinks- I don’t know- of leaving= shai capi. chess’ e chell’altro secondo me 8 sempre you see- this and that- to me is always il bambino che: che parla capl=comprime 1’adu:lto. the child who: who speaks y’see=presses the adult v allo:ra, (then, ) D “perch [8 debole® because he’s weak v (bra:vo:-Dania. questa me piace. good Danié. I like this one.jorted Speech in Group Therapy Talk 209 *come quando uno se ne vuole andare*. pid o meno *like when one wants to leave*. more or less io pure cre:do siamo in una situazione si:mile. I too believe we are in a similar situation vale a dire(...) that is to say (...) '@ “Doing the other”: The speaker produces words on behalf of another. The |person to whom the words are meant to belong is the immediately preceding ‘speaker or the next one, after turn allocation.” The sequence positioning of this kind of utterance makes it possible to read them as reformulations, anticipations, free interpretations of the other’s thoughts or feelings. Often the quote is roduced in a parodic style and has a mocking spirit. ‘Excerpt 4 [4:32] [The therapist looks at Nino, who is sitting back on the sofa with his arms folded] T3 Nino s‘é chiuso ha ditt’ *augh a me n’ me fate Nino has closed himself off he said *augh. me I won’t parlA manco se me torturate* talk not even if you torture me (See also Excerpt 9, last line) After the conclusion of an interview with one participant, the next speaker is selected by the therapist. The direction of his look is a first indicator of the choice, and a change of posture by the called person is common. The immobility ‘of Nino was thus a visible absence that got voiced by the therapist. (5) Candidate utterances for another: This is a more complex way of enacting the role of another participant. It is the offer of one or more propositions of which the grammatical first person corresponds to the addressee, whereas the content comes from the point of view of the speaker. I analyze this kind of reported speech in more detail in the next section. *When not otherwise indicated, all references to turn-taking organization are based on Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974,210 Alessandra Fasulo Excerpt 5 [2:15] v quello che ma:nca Luca & il discorso del valor: what is missing Luca is the discourse of value= 3 ‘per me- per me io Luca cio’ *to me to me I Luca I mean che valore ha and& a rubare?* what’s the value of robbing?+ L non ha nessun valo:re. it has no value. Here the therapist offers Luca a question that, in his view, Luca should ask himself. This excerpt also shows a systematic feature of candidate utterances, namely, that they are a translation in reported speech of an immediately preceding assertive statement by the same speaker (Fasulo, 1994b). (6) Candidate utterances for himself: The quote belongs to the speaker himself, but what he is presenting is an utterance that he is now constructing as a possible one. This is made clear by the conditional mode of the introductory verb. Excerpt 6 [4:35] v ch®. io ho detto che con te, se non ti metti I said that with you, if you don’t take in un atteggiamento-se non entri in commita: an attitude- if you don’t come in the commmity: N> allora pur’io mo me pigliavo la maschera=dico *Antd well I too could take the mask=and say *antd sto lavora:ndo sto facendo un bel programma I am working I am doing a nice program dentro di me sto cambia:ndo. inside me. I am changing. L ma do 1’hai vi:sti dentro cca? ste ( ) but where did you see inside here? these (...) che se mette le maschere. who put on masks. ‘The reported speech is framed here as the equivalent of putting on a mask. Because Nino said he could do that 100, Luca reacts, asking to whom he is referring. It could be argued that Nino is reporting a sample speech of other members of the group, but, because the reported words are accompanied by a negative evaluation, she makes them up as a candidate utterance for himself.i | Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 211 |" @) Fictional dialogues: One or more “turns“? are produced in a story-telling | fashion, but the depicted situations are hypothetical. “Excerpt 7 [2:26] D i. ah nel sen[{so quando lui (uh you mean when he) [Andrea te lo viene a chiedere nella pausa Andrea asks for that during the break dopo pranzo fino alle tre. invece de anda a dorm) after lunch ‘til three. instead of going to sleep dice: [*Danid he says: *Danie [aspe wait invece d’anda a dormi perch’ non me fai ved instead of going to sleep why don’t you show me un disegno come se fa* a drawing how I can do it* "The therapist here is testing Daniele’s availability for helping the others. He does so by a short hypothetical narrative (the setting is the after-lunch pause in the “community activities) in which a member of the group advances a request. Given ‘the exemplar character of the situation, Daniele’s response represents an instance of his general attitude. Direct reported speech in these cases performs in the present of hypothetical event, yet maintai ing the abstractness of the argument. (8) Animation of psychic entities: The child, the parent, or the adult are internal “unconscious instances, according to the psychological theory adopted by the ‘therapist, Here they are represented as internal voices. Excerpt 8 [4:26] To il genitore & quello che ci dice *questo si fa questo the parent is the one who tells us *one does this, one non si fa. questo lo puoi fare questo non lo puoi does that. you can do this you cannot do that fare=questo sei in grado di farlo questo non sei in you are able to do this you are not able to do that* grado di farlo.* 7A tum is intended here not as the whole contribution of the current speaker, but as the Teported utterance of a single author or principal.212 Alessandra Fasulo (9) Natrative self-quotation and (10) Narrative other-quotation are the canonical forms of quotation, where an utterance or a dialogue is presented by replaying episodes that happened in the past. These types come within a specified temporal frame but often are instantiations of prototypical episodes; therefore, it is not fidelity with the original utterances that is central but the transmission of the affect connected with the situation. As in the following excerpt, the verbal tense is the Italian imperfetto (translated here with conjunctive), which is an iterative form, Both types are illustrated in the following recalled dialogue. Excerpt 9 [4:3] L no all’inizio: in commita: no in the beginning in community- when I had [appena entrato in commita: me dicev’ just come in the community they'd say T [eh in comunita si. yes in the commnity No *fai ques:to fai quell’altro me la pijavo proprio= *do this and do that* I was really bothered= > dicevo *ch ma tu che vuoi da me ma tu: I'd say *oh what do you want but you: perché aggi’a fa’ sta co:sa* capi*[%h why should I do this* y’see T U*che mi paghi* tare you paying me?* This is part of a typical narrative of the patients, which I have called the “I am changed” narrative (Fasulo, 1994a). This implies the contraposition of two moments that, when displayed in conjunction, show a change in the patient’s attitudes or feelings. Here Luca reports his initial discomfort (second arrow) with the obligations of the community life, as represented by a generic older resident giving him instructions (first arrow). The temporal reference is not just a neutral landmark but also sensitive to the point of the story,* in that it places the story itself just after Luca’s entrance in the community, which is also the beginning of the therapeutic path. The continuation of this narrative is presented in the next example, “For a discussion on temporal and spatial references in conversation, see Sacks (1992) and Schegloff (1972). 5Luca had had four months of community life. Before moving into the home where I found them, some of the members were staying in a different place run by the same organization, although they had another therapist following them.‘Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 213 (11) Reported thought: This is a form of self-quotation referring to a mental event. Packaging thoughts in a direct reported speech form permits one to lend to the thought quoted the meaning of a punctual action. Excerpt 10 [4:4] T [eh. e poi’ ch’& cambiato che-, (ch, and then what changed that- . ® cambiato che: me so’fatto un resoconto dico: (0.3) it changed that I have made myself a report I say vedevo che: gli altri che lavoravano no? I saw that the others who were working y’see? > dico *io mica posso sta: cos senza fa’ niente. I say *I can’t stay this way doing nothing loro non possono lavorare e io no perch’: It can’t be that they work and I don’t because: ’aggia fa‘* e penso che sto fatto cca I have to do it*, I think this fact too pure t’aiuta a crescere-t’aiuta: t’aiuter& penso. (1.0) helps you growing=helps you: it will help you I think. ‘This instance of reported thought testifies to a change that is narrated as a punctual mental action (a realization), and a following resolution that led to a behavioral change. Comparing this excerpt with the last one, we can observe how the relation of reported speech to the outside context whence it is supposed to come is ‘maximally dependant on the procedure by which it gets introduced, and speci- fically by the punctuative versus the iterative tense of the introducing verb. What ‘we have here is that a real dialogue has an undetermined duration or, actually, an indefinite number of occurrences, whereas a thought is prestnted as a specific event. (12) “Generic voice” of a member of the group or a drug-addict: These are instances of words expressing the point of view of an unspecified person, whose only recognizable feature is that of being within the category of “member of the community” or “heroin-addict.”214 Alessandra Fasulo Excerpt 11 [4:27] N Antd ma tu ti: hai trovato qual- Antd but you- did you ever find- cio’ in percentuale no? gente che ha detto I mean in percentage no? people who said > [*no- *no- Ls (una persona che vuole f& la commita hehe a person who wants to do the commmity’ hehe N aggio a and& vi:a- m’aggio f& due anni* I must go I mist do two years* cio& gid dai primi quattro cinque mesi. I mean from the very first four five months. © generalmente: siamo tutti quanti titubanti or generally: we are all doubtful about leaving per uscire dice- siamo tutti quanti cosi vero? one says- we are all like that isn’t that right? Here the therapist is asked whether, in his experience, he has found some people who were determined to complete the program from the very beginning of their stay in the community. The operation is that of a normative confrontation (the information requested is, in fact, a statistic) on the dimension of will as expressed in public statements, The cases that I have presented reveal that reported speech is used in the psychotherapy situation in a highly situated fashion, Its pragmatic implicatures and aspects of performance make it a useful tool for conveying affect, past and present attitudes, and envisaged possibilities. Let us see how the different forms are distributed in the talk of the patients and of the therapist. Asterisks mark the types that are considered fictional, that is, those that are not meant to refer back to something that had already been uttered (or thought). “Doing the community” is a conveiitional saying that expresses well what is both an ideology and an observation: Leaving the addiction behind is an active accomplishment and not a simple change of residence.[Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 215 Distribution of Direct Reported Speech Types (%) Patients Therapist Simple repetition 13,9 *1. Simple repetition 61 Self-quotation within 2,4 2. Self-quotation within 2,2 therapy therapy Other-quotation within 59 3. Other-quotation within 14,9 therapy therapy Doing the other 5,9 *4, Doing the other 8,8 Other candidate utterance 1,1 5. Other candidate utterance 38,7 Self candidate utterance 24 6. Self candidate utterance - . Fictional dialogues 33,7 +7. Fictional dialogues 12,7 . Animation of psychic 0,9 *8. Animation of psychic 4,9 entities entities Narrative self-quotation 14,4 9. Natrative self-quotation 0,5 . Narrative other- 19,3 10. Narrative other- 44 quotation quotation . Reported thoughts 10,6 11. Reported thoughts 0,5 . Generic member 51 12, Generic member 61 Realistic quotations 66,6 Realistic quotations 28,7 Fictional quotations (*) 33,4 Fictional quotations (*) 71,3 100 100 Alll the types of direct reported speech are available resources for participants in both roles, showing that the two roles are performed not via thoroughly differentiated verbal modes but via a difference in their rate of use, Patients and therapist have a mirroring pattern in their use of direct reported speech, with regard ‘10 fictional versus realistic types. As is predictable on the basis of the role- ‘defining traits, the patients make much use of narrative quotations, including Teported thoughts, whereas the therapist shows a higher degree of offered candidate utterances and other-quotation of therapy talk. The fictional type of reported Speech most often present in the participants’ talk is that of fictional dialogues; ‘that is, they actualize possible problematic situations to be submitted under the therapist’s scrutiny. The simple repetition is also higher in the patients’ talk. Presumably, given that most of their dialogues are between one of them and the ‘therapist, it is the therapist’s words that get embodied in their following utterances and used as a point of departure of the following discussion.216 Alessandra Fasulo Exercises on Future In his analysis of psychotherapy in radio call-in transmissions, Gaik (1992) argues that the use of irrealis is an index of therapeutic activity, by which he means a particular type of conversational move of the doctor. Through this mode, a proposal is conveyed concerning the patient's internal states that the listener- patient can decide to acknowledge or reject. In my view, the interesting feature of therapists” utterances in the irrealis mode is that it occupies an intermediate zone between the interactants: the joint outcome of the patient’s telling of his story and the therapist’s interpretive tools. I think this is the domain of candidate utterances, ‘Among the therapist’s candidate utterances ate positive and negative ones, by which we mean that they are presented to be accepted ot disregarded, plus some that take on a “Hamletic” form. The last ones are interrogative sentences in which an alternative is posed, and they never appear in patients’ talk. ‘Therapist’s positive candidate utterance: Excerpt 12 [4:11] v sul futuro tu hai pote:re tu puoi farcela= on the future you have power you can make it. > puoi decidere *voglio avere una famiglia~ you can decide *I want to have a family- voglio avere una famiglia tranqui:lla I want to have a quiet family in cui si sta be:ne=che i miei figli non vivano where one feels good=that my sons won’t live quello che ho vissuto io* questo lo puo:i fare. what I have lived* you can do that. non @ facile, it’s not easy L speriamo I hope so Here is a candidate utterance that represents an act of will, introduced by “you can decide”: Note that this therapeutic action is not addressed to outline a possible state of the world, because he is not saying “you can have a normal family” but “you can decide *I want to have a normal family*.” The action is adiressed primarily to communicate to the patient his psychological capability of making decisions and pursuing his own will. ‘Therapist’s “Hamletic” candidate utterances:‘Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 217 [Excerpt 13 [4:39] ognuno [si conosce molto bene dopo la commita everyone knows himself very well after the conmmity [vabb& questo si 0.K. that’s right [sa *io sto scivolando un’ altra vo:lta sto knows *I am slipping again, I am doing Mw [questo si : that’s right . a fa’ la stronzata. la vado a fa’ la stronzata, shit. shall I go and do it, or shall I go to © m- o me ne vado a parla co padre Domenico? talk with father Domenico?’ or with my friends,or with © cogli amici, o con chi,-* capito Mauro? who,- you see Mauro? « si questo & vero=so’ d’acco:rdo yes that’s true. I agree ‘The same type of action in the previous excerpt is carried on here, but we see that two options are presented, and the patient, Mauro, is provided with the illustration of what it is like after the community. He is only in the third week of his stay, so these words also have the meaning of a definition of the therapeutic work in terms of what it does to the members. And again, what it does is not to rule out the possibility that a person, once out, can feel like using drugs again. The focus here is on the mental activity of pondering different options and acting according to a decision. Reported speech again helps in describing internal processes as actions to be performed at a given moment (When realizing one is “slipping” again and just before doing it). Patient's negative candidate utterances referred to others: Excerpt 14 [3:15] FR penza a esse autonomo da te stess-non chiedere mai think of being autonomous by yoursel~ don’t ever ask niente cio& non puoi dire for anything you can’t say ° *io faccio la commitA tu mi compri la macchina* k *I go into the commmity you buy me a car* a no [s(h)e:: no ‘Apriest who is the founder of the community and to whom requests for help and counseling are often addressed.218 Alessandra Fasulo Here one patient is describing to another what he deems a wrong pact with parents and also a wrong approach to the community, namely, entering it under the condition of some material reward. Patient’s negative candidate utterances for oneself: see Excerpt 6. Types of Candidate Utterances (%) Therapist Patients Self Other Positive 378 20,7 16,6 Negative 27,1 46,6 16,6 Hamletic 35,1 - = 100 100 The different types of candidate utterances are homogeneously distributed in the therapist’s talk, but the patients show a higher frequence of negative self-referring ones. ‘A possible interpretation of such a result can be in terms of allercasting (Hewitt, 1976). This is a process of contrastive self-description through the presentation of some other person’s characteristic. Here, as well, through unacceptable self-candidate utterances (that is, words that they are not saying), the patients make clear what kind of person they are not, obtaining by contrast a self- image profile that is acknowledged. Through such a procedure, though, the only aspects that undergo judgment are those that are rejected, whereas the implicated ones remain safely covert. ‘More generally, the regular exchange of candidate utterances (from therapist to the patients and from patients to other patients and to themselves) reminds me of the technologies of the self described by Foucault (1992) and particularly of the stoical askesis, that is, “exercises that permit the subject to verify whether he is able to cope with the events and to make use of the [teachers’] discourses that he had memorized” (p. 32, my translation), The task is described as that of thinking up the right words or arguments that one would use in challenging situations from an ethical point of view. Negative events were a consistent part of what was imagined, and it was crucial to think of them as “something actual and in course of its happening. The procedure is that of keeping in consciousness, one beside the other, the future and the present” (Foucault, 1992, p. 33). The stress is on both the discursive nature of such technologies of self-domain and the necessity to make up the imagined event as a “live” one, Candidate utterances (and in this sense also fictional dialogues) are precisely discursive events that receive actuality and closeness from the reported'speech form, with the difference, in our case, that the guide is present and participates in the exercise.'/ Reported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 219 Trying on Identity | The continous word-sharing in the therapy situation also appears with regard to a | particular type of utterances that have the aspect of claims of identity. The following is one of the most relevant, given what the group is doing: | (A) Therapist provides candidate utterance: Excerpt 15 [4:43] M io quello- quello sto a di: ' what I- what I am saying @ =Mauro sai che significa-significa che qua:ndo esci i Mauro you know what it mean: means that when you p dalla comunita il- lo rinnovi in ogni cosa che fai. leave the community the- you renew it in anything you 4 *io non sono pil un tossicodipendente* @ come se ogni do *I am no longer a drug-addict*. It’s as if every 2 volta dic- *io sono un ex-tossicodipendente* time you'd s- *I am an ex drug-addict*, M questo & vero che uno quando fa ‘na cosa, se prima a that’s true that when one does something if before facevi: (0.2) superficia:le=no? io so sempre stato una you did it: (0.2) superficial=y’ see? I have always Persona molto superficiale perd adesso posso cambia been a very superficial person but now I can change (eed |) Participant recalls a past dialogue: Excerpt 16 [4:41] M allora noi mo qua non siamo usciti dalla ro:ba Antd, y then now we here are not out of the junk Antd, ' no. Daniele e io ieri stavamo a parlA proprio di questo Daniele and I yesterday were just talking about it qua. *dopo due me:si sono ex tossicodipendente?* *after two months am I an ex drug-addict?* no Mauro.diciamocelo chiaro e tondo Ma’. no Mauro. let's be frank about it Ma’220 Alessandra Fasulo (3) Participant provides candidate utterance to the addressee: Excerpt 17 [2:7] F si della situazione di una persona che: quando uno yes about the situation of a person who: when one dice eh: *quello- quello 1a eh quello: says uh: *that one- that one eh that one: > & drogato * *ero*. is a junker* *I was*. M si: ma tu tu *ero* si ma tu non devi fa proprio yes but you you *I was* yes but you don’t have to u discorso, (...) talk to them at all(...) In Excerpt 15, the therapist stresses the need for adapting behavior with the claim of being an ex-drug-addict, once out of the institution. In Excerpt 16, a participant wonders about how long it takes to become entitled to utter the claim, and, in Excerpt 17, a problem of labeling is dealt with by suggesting that they counter the label by saying “I was.” ‘The hot topic of being or not being a drug-addict is dealt with in an interesting fashion: It appears as if the movement were from the utterance to the actor. The utterance is “there” and circulates, but the actor has to work on himself in order to become entitled to pick it up and use it when characterizing himself. Identity claims can be tried on in a relatively safe environment until they get attached to the person who “wears” them and are felt to belong to that person, Conclusion ‘The analysis of reported speech in a group-therapy context shows that others’ words enter speaker talk at various levels of complexity, from repetition of some words of an immediately preceding utterance to the alleged quotation that serves as apoint of departure for further discussion (where the utterance can be changed in the process) and to the temporary substitution of one speaker with another. In the microculture of six persons living together, sharing a past of drug addiction and interacting with their regular therapist, some utterances appeat consistently throughout the therapy sessions, with a changing actor behind the J who speaks. The fact seems to-account for the primacy of discourse on single individuals, the contemporary presence of different voices within one’s repertoire, and a conceptualization of psychotherapeutic work as the handing over from{§Réported Speech in Group Therapy Talk 221 p b ‘therapist to patient a set of different voices that, entering into a dialogue with the pretsing ones, can help patients on their way to change. "Certainly reported speech must be considered a socialized mode of expression |and a resource for pulling back to earth abstract concepts, especially in interactional contexts where a gap in education is present among participants, ‘Nevertheless, other forms of reported speech are used without any problems in the ‘context I have observed. Therefore, I would not be satisfied with an explanation invoking simplicity and rapidity at the basis of quoted speech usage. This appears ‘to be another piece of evidence in support of a view of the social person as a _ctossing of possible discourses, none of which is truer than the other; on the other ‘hand, some can be felt as beyond one’s grasp, and some have a limited horizon, ‘Such a theory of self works against the idea of monolithic individuals as much as against an image of the person as the expression of gross sociological categories, ‘but it does not claim that we can say what we want: Doing “being normal,” as we ‘have seen, can be no trivial undertaking. Acknowledgments ‘The work presented here has benefited from discussion with the participants at the workshop and especially from suggestions of further readings by Clotilde Pontecorvo and Alessandro Duranti, Roger Siljo’s revisions were also of great help on both formal and content aspects. The remaining faults are due only to the author's stubbornness.222 Alessandra Fasulo References Bakhtin, M. M. (1991). Discourse in the novel. In M. 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