Based on the premise that grammar and social interaction mutually organize one another (Ochs, Schegloff, & Thompson, 1996), this workshop is structured around three complementary analytical pathways: 1) From Grammar to Action – starting with one or more grammatical forms and examining how they are used in talk-in-interaction to implement social actions; 2) From Action to Grammar – starting with a social action and investigating its grammatical realizations; and 3) Mixed Methods – integrating both approaches with multimodal and cross-linguistic perspectives.

Participants will work with both instructor-provided examples and their own data and research topics to investigate how interaction, along with other competing motivations, shapes grammatical practices in the moment-by-moment unfolding of social encounters. The workshop will also address cross-linguistically recurrent grammar–action configurations and usage-induced patterns of grammatic(al)ization. Finally, participants will be introduced to technological tools that support the processing and analysis of grammar in/for interaction, with practical, hands-on applications.

Facilitated By: Hongyin Tao