Twelve articles by leading linguists and linguistic anthropologists develop an important series of case studies that show how ideas such as "responsibility," "agency," "authority," and "evidence" are simultaneously aspects of social meaning and implications of linguistic form. The studies show how speakers attribute responsibility for acts and situations, how particular forms of language and discourse relate to claims and disclaimers of responsibility, and how verbal acts are themselves social acts, subject to such attributions. This book will serve as a landmark volume in the study and analysis of oral discourse.

List of figures and tables; Introduction Jane H. Hill and Judith T. Irvine; 1. Intentions, self, and responsibility: an essay in Samoan ethnopragmatics Alessandro Duranti; 2. Meaning without intention: lessons from divination John W. Du Bois; 3. Seneca speaking styles and the location of authority Wallace Chafe; 4. Obligations to the word: ritual speech, performance, and responsibility: verbal abuse in a Wolof village Judith T. Irvine; 6. 'Get outa my face': entitlement and authoritative discouse Amy Shuman; 7. Reported speech and affect on Nukulaelae Atoll Niko Besnier; 8. Disclaimers of performance Richard Bauman; 9. Mrs. Patricio's trouble: the distribution of responsibility in an account of personal experience Jane H. Hill and Ofelia Zepeda; 10. The grammaticalization of responsibility and evidence: interactional manipulation of evidential categories in Newari Edward H. Bendix; 11. Evidentiary standards for American trials: just the facts Susan U. Philips; 12. Recollections of fieldwork conversations, or authorial difficulties in anthropological writing Tullio Maranhão; References; Index of subjects; Index of names.