Barbara A Fox

Biographic Data

ID126962
NAMEBarbara A Fox
GIVEN NAMESBarbara A
FAMILY NAMEFox
SIGNATUREFOX B A
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Colorado Boulder
ORCID0000-0003-2491-5670
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS46
TOTAL CITATIONS295
WORKS AS AUTHOR43
WORKS AS EDITOR3
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1981
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX10

  • Conversation Analysis and Repair Organization

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Trevor Benjamin et al.CHAPTEREncyclopedia of Applied Linguistics2026

    Repair is the cover term for a range of practices, found in all languages that have been studied, by which trouble of all sorts is managed.

  • Conversation Analysis and Self‐Repair

    Open AccessBarbara A FoxCHAPTEREncyclopedia of Applied Linguistics2026

    This entry builds on “Conversation Analysis and Repair Organization: Overvie” and examines the first and most frequent site of self‐repair, namely same‐turn self‐repair.The three other opportunities for self to initiate repair (transition space, third turn, and third position) are discussed in the general review of repair.

  • I wonder + indirect question

    Barbara A Fox, Scott A Thompson et al.ARTICLEResearch on Language and Social…2026

    This study explores the interactional work being done by speakers of American English when they use the format “IWIQ” (I wonder + indirect question; as in, “I wonder how that actually works”). IWIQs in our mundane conversational data are used for making a private, internal state or position publicly available, which in turn allows IWIQs to serve as vehicles for opening an opportunity space for the participants to join in speculating on the matter…

  • On the “next-turn proof procedure” in the analysis of social interaction

    Open AccessAlexandra Gubina, Arnulf Deppermann et al.ARTICLEResearch on Language and Social…2026

    Recipients’ understanding of speakers’ actions typically becomes publicly available through their responses, making the next-turn proof procedure central for the analysis of social interaction. However, little is known about how to methodologically warrant the analysis of actions with minimal or no response. This is particularly evident in case of trouble formulations. We examine trouble formulations in the context of practical activities, produc…

  • A multimodal approach to grammatical aspect

    Open AccessRosario Neyra, Matthew Butler et al.ARTICLEInteractional Linguistics2024References: 94

    This paper offers a multimodal approach to grammatical aspect, traditionally seen in linguistics as a verbal-morphological category. Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, we take as our object of study turn completions done with bodily movements and non-lexical vocalizations, focusing on the aspectual information they construct, and how this information is oriented to as relevant to the trajectory of action underway. We argue…

  • Embodied-Visual Practices during Conversational Repair

    Open AccessSatu Saalasti, Kati Pajo et al.ARTICLEResearch on Language and Social…2023References: 20

    Repair organization provides a powerful mechanism for handling problems of mutual understanding in natural conversation. Our study reviews past research on repair initiation and resolution practices involving embodied-visual practices, including eye gaze, facial expressions, hand gestures, and head and body movements. We charted details of theoretical background, methodology, and main findings for 31 studies. Embodiment was studied equally in con…

  • On formulating reference

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Scott A ThompsonARTICLEIPrA Papers in Pragmatics2022

    Preview this article: On formulating reference, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/iprapip.4.1-2.05fox-1.gif

  • Practices in the construction of turns

    Open AccessCecilia E Ford, Barbara A Fox et al.ARTICLEPragmatics Quarterly Publication…2022

    This study began with a simple question that has been on our minds, indMdually and collectively, for some time: What are the basic units of talk-in-conversation? Units in conversation must be understood as usable for the construction of joint activities, not merely as packages of information to be parsed. Features of turn construction are adapted to such functions as displaying responsiveness to other turns and making interpretable contributions …

  • The Grammar of Obviousness

    Open AccessOlivia H Marrese, Chase Wesley Raymond et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Communication2021

    This paper investigates the body’s role in grammar in argument sequences. Drawing from a database of public disputes on language use, we document the work of the palm-up gesture in action formation. Using conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, we show how this gesture is an interactional resource that indexes a particular epistemic stance—namely to cast the proposition being advanced as obvious. In this report, we focus on instances…

  • Grammar and Hands

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Barbara Fox et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Communication2021

    When customers bring a material item to a shop for repair, they must make the item and its troubles inspectable to the staff at the shop. This typically requires physical manipulation of the object by the customer. For their part, the staff person may then need to take the item into their own hands to further inspect it. A physical transfer of the object from customer to staff person may thus need to be accomplished. A practical problem that can …

  • Are They Requests? An Exploration of Declaratives of Trouble in Service Encounters

    Barbara A Fox, T HeinemannARTICLEResearch on Language and Social…2021Cited by: 7References: 6

    Despite extensive literature on what may be involved in making a request, there is dispute among scholars as to which linguistic formats constitute the social action of making a request proper. In this study, we examine the much-disputed declarative request format and in particular what we call “declaratives of trouble.” We present evidence that in the context of a service encounter such as the shoe repair shop, this format is unproblematically a…

  • The grammar of proposals for joint activities

    Open AccessScott A Thompson, Barbara A Fox et al.ARTICLEInteractional Linguistics2021Cited by: 5References: 41

    The action of proposing has been studied from various perspectives in research on talk-in-interaction, both in mundane as well as in institutional talk. Aiming to exemplify Interactional Linguistics as a drawing together of insights from Linguistics and Conversation Analysis, we explore the grammar of proposals and the stances displayed by participants in making proposals in the context of joint activities, where a future or hypothetical activity…

  • Modulating action through minimization

    Open AccessChase Wesley Raymond, Jeffrey D Robinson et al.ARTICLELanguage in Society2021Cited by: 8References: 78

    This study uses data from a shoe-repair shop, supplemented by data from medical and mundane contexts, to analyze three progressively minimal grammatical formats used to implement offers and requests in interaction (i.e.do you want...?,you want...?, andwant...?). We argue that this cline of minimality reflects a cline of the action-initiator's stance, from relatively weak to strong (respectively), regarding their expectation that the action will b…

  • Parsing particles in Wa'ikhana

    Open AccessN Williams, Kristine Stenzel et al.ARTICLERevista Linguíʃtica2020Cited by: 2

    This article analyzes the use of several response particles in face-to-face interaction in Wa'ikhana, an East Tukano language of northwestern Amazonia. Adopting a Conversation Analysis approach, we explore details of each particle, considering their prosodic shapes, the action contexts in which they occur, and their sequential positioning, all crucial to understanding their meanings in interaction. Our analysis shows that Wa'ikhana response parti…

  • Spatio-temporal contingencies for making a request at the shoe repair shop

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Barbara Fox et al.ARTICLEJournal of Pragmatics2020Cited by: 5References: 19

  • Telescoping responses to requests

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Barbara Fox et al.ARTICLEDiscourse Studies2019Cited by: 4References: 38

    In this paper, we identify and describe a new practice for responding to unfinished requests, which we call telescoping responses, due to their being designed for telescoping the request sequence forward in the face of troubles with progressivity and in producing the request. Considering cases from an American shoe repair shop, we demonstrate that telescoping responses serve to telescope request sequences exactly because they are neither syntacti…

  • Scaffolding Embodied Access for Categorization in Interactions between a Blind Child and Her Mother

    Open AccessCarolyn Rickard, Carolyn Eryl Rickard et al.ARTICLELanguages2019References: 30

    During language acquisition, sighted children have immediate and temporally stable access to the 'gestalt' of an object, including particular features that suggest its categorization as part of a class of objects. Blind children, however, must effectively and productively constitute the whole object from its constitutive parts in order to categorize them. While prior studies have suggested that varied experience and appropriate sensory access can…

  • Issues in Action Formation

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, T HeinemannARTICLEOpen Linguistics2017

    In previous interactional studies of formats for utterances doing requests, attention has been given to the initial verb (such as can/could or wonder) and possibly the subject (especially I vs you). The current study examines the main types of grammatical variation found in what we call the “x component,” that is the segment after the initial verb and subject. We examine two types of requests: those with can you x and those with wonder x, and we …

  • Morphological self-repair

    Barbara A Fox, Fay Wouk et al.ARTICLEStudies in Language2017

    In this study we explore patterns of same-turn self-repair within the word, across ten typologically and areally diverse languages. We find universal processes emerging through language-specific resources, namely: recycling is used to delay a next item due, while replacement is used to replace an inappropriate item. For example, most of our languages with prefixes or proclitics recycle those elements to delay production of the root/host, while la…

  • Rethinking format

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Barbara Fox et al.ARTICLELanguage in Society2016Cited by: 22References: 34

    This study explores the formulation of requests in an American English-speaking shoe repair shop. Taking prior work on request formats as our starting point, we explore the two primary syntactic moods (declarative and interrogative) in our collection and two of the commonly noted subtypes of these moods,need/want-declaratives andcan-interrogatives. While our findings in very general terms match those of previous studies, we also find significant …

  • Grammar in Everyday Talk

    Open AccessScott A Thompson, Sandra A Thompson et al.BOOKGrammar in Everyday Talk2015

    Drawing on everyday telephone and video interactions, this book surveys how English speakers use grammar to formulate responses in ordinary conversation. The authors show that speakers build their responses in a variety of ways: the responses can be longer or shorter, repetitive or not, and can be uttered with different intonational 'melodies'. Focusing on four sequence types: responses to questions ('What time are we leaving?' - 'Seven'), respon…

  • The Alignment of Manual and Verbal Displays in Requests for the Repair of an Object

    Barbara A Fox, T HeinemannARTICLEResearch on Language and Social…2015Cited by: 18References: 8

    In this study we explore request sequences at an American shoe repair shop. We investigate the methods through which customers at the shop present objects for repair or alteration, focusing on the fine interplay between their verbal requests and their manual manipulation of these objects. Our analysis shows that customers coming to the shoe repair shop enact an epistemic stance toward the object they have brought in for repair. We argue that the …

  • On the notion of pre-request

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, Barbara FoxARTICLEDiscourse Studies2015Cited by: 9References: 22

    In early work within Conversation Analysis, utterances within a request sequence which inquire regarding some of the preconditions of granting the request (such as having the item or having the ability to perform the action) are analyzed as pre-requests. Levinson, in an extended discussion of the organization of pre-requests and request sequences, treats utterances such as ‘do you have X?’, ‘can I have X?’ or ‘can you X for me?’ as inquiring abou…

  • Responses to Wh -Questions in English Conversation

    Barbara A Fox, Scott A ThompsonARTICLEResearch on Language and Social…2010Cited by: 48References: 14

    We explore the grammatical and interactional characteristics of various response-types to wh-questions in American English conversation. Our data reveal that there are two broad types of responses to type-specifying wh-questions, phrasal and clausal. We argue that each of these types of responses exhibits unique interactional properties, such that while phrasal responses to wh-questions do simple answering, clausal responses occur when there is t…

  • It’s like mmm

    Open AccessBarbara A Fox, J S Robles et al.ARTICLEDiscourse Studies2010Cited by: 13References: 31

    This article explores the distribution and use of a relatively new grammatical format in English, it’s like + enactment. We propose that it’s like utterances are used to enact thoughts, feelings and attitudes which are internal and affect-laden assessments of a prior utterance or event, produced as assessments that anyone in the same situation might have had. As such they tend to occur within stories, typically during the closing of a story. The …