‘Language as action’ (Wittenstein, 1953/1958). 'It is not a matter of proving or disproving
the nature or existence of real minds or what children as individuals ‘really’
think or learn, but rather of taking a different perspective on language, which
examines verbal conceptualizations as flexible components of situated talk' (Edwards, 1993, p. 209).
I think that I understand the idea of language as
action. We are all doing something with
our language even if we are unaware of what it is that we are doing. You have spoken in class about different
things that we do in conversations that help us accomplish different things in
our conversations. You stated that we
aren’t being manipulative or anything, but instead we are unknowingly
accomplishing something. For example,
one of my classmates (I think Jessica) stated that she never could figure out
in DP how you knew when she wanted to speak until she read about breaths role
in conversation (looking for an in). What
does Wittenstein or Edwards mean by ‘flexible components of situated
talk’? Is it just simply like the breath
example? Is it those moments that we
have in our conversations (next-turn responses, breaths, pauses, etc.) or is it
something else?
Yes - "flexible components of situated talk" also known as "discursive resources" or "language features" that we use (in-breaths, pauses, word choice) and the effect they have on the conversation. Good job! : )
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