ABSTRACT

This study documents change over time and across proficiency levels in French second-language (L2) speakers’ practices for initiating complaints. Prior research has shown that speakers typically initiate complaints in a stepwise manner that indexes the contingent, moral, and delicate nature of the activity. Although elementary speakers in my data often launch complaint sequences in a straightforward way, they sometimes embodiedly foreshadow verbal expressions of negative stance or delay negative talk through brief positively valenced prefaces. More advanced speakers in part rely on the same initiation practices as elementary speakers. In addition, they recurrently use extensive prefatory work that accounts for and legitimizes the upcoming complaint, and they regularly initiate complaints jointly with coparticipants through a progressive escalation of negative stance expressions. I document interactional resources involved in this change and discuss the findings in terms of speakers’ development of L2 interactional competence. Data are in French with English translations.

摘要

这项研究记录了法语第二语言（L2）说话者提出投诉的做法随时间和跨熟练水平的变化。先前的研究表明，演讲者通常以逐步的方式提出投诉，以索引该活动的偶然性，道德性和精致性。尽管我数据中的基本讲话者经常以直截了当的方式发出投诉序列，但他们有时会通过简短的积极有序的前言来掩饰负面态度的口头表达或延迟负面言论。更高级的演讲者在某种程度上依赖与基本演讲者相同的启动练习。此外，他们经常使用大量的准备工作，以解决即将到来的投诉并使其合法化，并且他们会通过逐步升级负面态度来与参与者共同发起投诉。我记录了这种变化所涉及的交互资源，并根据说话者对L2交互能力的发展来讨论发现。数据为法文，并提供英文翻译。