ABSTRACT
Conversation analysis (henceforth CA) has long served as an approach to the study of language and politics. Although CA research initially focused on generic interactional practices largely within the domain of ordinary conversation, a shift toward task-oriented forms of institutional talk emerged by the 1980s, with political speeches and broadcast news interviews figuring prominently in this line of work. Other politically relevant forms of talk soon became the focus of study, including radio call-in shows, presidential news conferences, campaign debates, and participatory democracy meetings. As should be apparent from this list, CA studies have illuminated the production of talk about political matters as well as talk that is central to the doing of politics itself. Scholarly attention to these areas has not been evenly distributed, but there are now few politically relevant interactional forms that have not been subject to scrutiny from a conversation analytic perspective. And while CA studies have not always explicitly addressed the political dimensions of such talk, nor even language per se as opposed to multimodal forms of vocal and non-vocal behaviour, many such studies nonetheless yield insight into the nexus of language, interaction and politics.
