What is an account?

Definition
	An account is an explanation as to why a dispreferred second part is given as a response in an adjacency pair.

Discussion
	An account is a frequent feature of dispreferred second parts.

Example (English)

B’s response I’m supervising here in the following adjacency pair is an account:

A: What about coming here on the way; or doesn’t that give you enough time?

B: Well no; I’m supervising here.

Adapted from:

Levinson 1983 335

Source
	Levinson 1983 334–335

Concept module: account
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): A
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004