Doing disaffiliation with now-prefaced utterances

Like prosody and gestures, discourse markers are part of the contextualization cues (Gumperz, 1982) that signal subtle meanings in interaction. In this paper, I detail a particular type of utterance that involves one such marker – now. Using data from audio and video recordings from various contexts, I investigate what now-prefaced utterances (NPUs) are used to accomplish in interaction. The methodology is predominantly conversation analytic, complemented by acoustic readings. The findings show that NPUs are important resources for doing disaffiliation, either self-directed or other-directed.

► In this study, I examine the use of now-prefaced utterances in actual interaction.
► I use conversation analysis supplemented by acoustic analysis.
► I show how now-prefaced utterance may be used to convey disaffiliation, both self-directed and other-directed.