| Introduction | |
| Language and power | p. 1 |
| Investigating power in a close-knit group | p. 2 |
| Latent and emergent networks | p. 4 |
| Interventions as interruptions in discourse | p. 6 |
| The structure of the book | p. 8 |
| The data and the participants | p. 10 |
| The data | p. 10 |
| The participants | p. 17 |
| Towards a dynamic model of discourse | |
| Introductory | p. 23 |
| A modular approach to discourse structure | p. 24 |
| The exchange structure | p. 24 |
| Action structure | p. 26 |
| Ideational structure | p. 27 |
| The participation framework | p. 29 |
| The information state | p. 32 |
| Levels or modules? | p. 33 |
| Turns and floors | p. 34 |
| Turns as on-record "speakings" | p. 37 |
| The floor as participation space in the discourse | p. 42 |
| Topics | p. 47 |
| Defining power | |
| Power as inherent to verbal interaction | p. 53 |
| Self-image, status and dominance | p. 54 |
| Definitions of power | p. 55 |
| Power as the capacity to impose one's will | p. 56 |
| The consensual view of power | p. 58 |
| Power as a commodity and power as a discursive force | p. 58 |
| Power as the capacity to achieve one's aims | p. 59 |
| Defining the exercise of power | p. 61 |
| Intervention as interruption in social science research | |
| Preliminary remarks | p. 63 |
| Interruption as a theoretical term | p. 64 |
| Interruptions as simultaneous speech | p. 65 |
| Operationalising interruption as a variable in experimental research | p. 73 |
| Conceptualising the term "interruption" within conversation analysis | p. 77 |
| Taxonomies of interruption | p. 81 |
| Interpretive criteria in evaluating interruptions | p. 88 |
| Interruptions as face-threatening behaviour and the exercise of power | p. 92 |
| A return to the "prudish view" of interruptions | p. 93 |
| Interrupting as a reprehensible social activity: the lay interpretation | p. 100 |
| Towards a definition of interruption | p. 105 |
| Types of verbal intervention in family discourse | |
| Introduction | p. 109 |
| Turn-internal interventions | p. 111 |
| Off-record minimal listener responses | p. 112 |
| Turn-internal support and agreement | p. 115 |
| Looking for space on the floor: the preemptive bid | p. 116 |
| Responding and contradicting turn-internally | p. 121 |
| Apparent interventions due to lack of synchronisation | p. 124 |
| Intervening without overlap: the "silent interruption" | p. 129 |
| Petering out | p. 129 |
| Cutting in | p. 130 |
| Projecting turn-completion and intervening at tone unit boundaries | p. 132 |
| Blatant interventions | p. 135 |
| Blatant interventions of a negative kind | p. 136 |
| Blatant interventions of a positive kind | p. 140 |
| Latent and emergent networks | |
| Introductory remarks | p. 145 |
| The concept of network in social science research | p. 146 |
| Morphological and interactional features of a network | p. 149 |
| Morphological features | p. 149 |
| Interactional features | p. 152 |
| Latent and emergent networks | p. 154 |
| The development of an emergent network | p. 156 |
| An individual member's status within the latent family network | p. 160 |
| The peripheral member | p. 163 |
| The member as competitor | p. 166 |
| The member as authority and resource person | p. 169 |
| Status in the emergent network | |
| Introduction | p. 173 |
| Dramatising the self | p. 174 |
| The negotiation of status in an emergent network | p. 176 |
| A detailed analysis | p. 181 |
| Requests and narratives | p. 190 |
| Interventions and the negotiation of status and power | |
| Introductory remarks | p. 195 |
| Struggling for power as a resource person: the data | p. 195 |
| Determining the emergent networks | p. 204 |
| Attempting to open up a second floor | p. 209 |
| The centrality index and the measurement of status | p. 212 |
| Setting up and consolidating status as a resource person | p. 219 |
| Challenging a position of power | p. 225 |
| Establishing power as a narrator | p. 234 |
| Regaining status as a narrator | p. 240 |
| Intervention research in and beyond family discourse | |
| Introduction | p. 247 |
| Status, power and the exercise of power | p. 248 |
| Emergent networks in radio phone-in programmes | p. 251 |
| Perceiving interventions as interruptive: evidence for face loss | p. 257 |
| Gathering further data | p. 263 |
| Notes | p. 267 |
| References | p. 273 |
| Author and subject index | p. 289 |
| Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved. |