Epistemics

Abstract

Current research into epistemics in social interaction considers the various ways in which participants design their contributions and understand the contributions of others, in relation to a distribution of knowledge that is assumed to preexist. Following the work of John Heritage, this article suggests that a wide range of phenomena within this general domain of interactional organization can be understood through the central ideas of epistemic status and epistemic stance. Epistemic status refers to a distribution of knowledge among participants that is assumed to preexist and to the rights and entitlements that flow from it. Epistemic stance on the other hand refers to the multitude of ways in which a turn at talk can convey through the details of its design the differential knowledge entitlements of speaker, recipient, and other participants. These ideas have been developed, and are articulated here, within a conversation‐analytic framework: an approach to talk and social interaction that adopts a broadly naturalistic perspective, attempting to identify stable practices of conduct across different occasions and settings, with the goal of describing the underlying normative organization of interaction.

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