Confirming Allusions: Toward an Empirical Account of Action

Abstract

As part of a larger effort to develop an empirically grounded theory of action, this article describes a previously undescribed action that occurs in talk-in-interaction. The practice of agreeing with another by repeating what they have said is shown to constitute the action of confirming an allusion-that is, confirming both its "content" and its prior inexplicit conveyance. The author reviews the past treatment of "action" in sociology and the key constraints on undertaking an empirically grounded account. The account of "confirming allusions" is offered to exemplify what this undertaking will involve: several instances of an unremarkable usage in conversation are displayed and used to formulate a puzzle, a database is developed for the exploration of the target usage, and a candidate solution to the puzzle is formulated, exemplified, and defended through a range of analytic techniques. The linkage between the practice and the action that it implements is analytically sketched by examining other uses of repetition in talk-in-interaction. In conclusion, the significance of both the theme and the analysis for studies of interaction and culture and for sociological theory is discussed.