Cross-linguistic conversation analysis (sometimes known as ‘pragmatic typology’) is usually a team-based comparative undertaking, often with quite lofty ambitions such as teasing apart the relationships between linguistic types, culture and interactional practices. Yet overtly comparative projects of this type are reliant on baseline descriptions of individual languages being used for everyday practical purposes. While not inherently cross-linguistic per se, authentic interactional corpora have the potential to contribute to the broader knowledge base required for cross-linguistic comparison.
 
In this data-driven workshop we deal with practical issues relating to recording, presenting and analysing minority language data for conversation analysis or interactional linguistic research. We consider challenges relating to developing and analysing multimodal multi-tiered multilingual transcripts, such that they are not more complicated than necessary. In data sessions participants will conduct joint analyses of conversational extracts from a range of languages from different families and linguistic types, including interactions with codeswitching or codemixing. We consider the motivations and rationale for undertaking cross-linguistic conversation analytic research, whilst paying heed to aspects of project design (including potential demographic confounds), so as to facilitate viable comparisons across languages and cultures.
 
Facilitated By: Ilana Mushin and Joe Blythe