Joshua Raclaw, currently an honorary fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison: Indexing inferables and organizational shifts: ‘No’-prefaces in English conversation. Dissertation chair: Barbara Fox of University of Colorado.
Reviewers wrote that: This research employs theories and methods well-grounded in the LSI historical community, but makes strong, clear contributions to that literature as well. The author ably employs complimentary analytic concepts that span sub-disciplinary boundaries, tacking between a CA style,
line-by-line close analysis of talk and a concern for the accomplishment of social actions at the socio-cultural level. The work is easy to read, the conclusions are directly tied to his analysis, and speak clearly to larger research questions. I see the author pushing into new territory, trying to answer persistently vexing issues like the actual accomplishment of inference outside the Gricean model. Overall I find this to be a well written blend of descriptive and interpretive work.