Local Constructions of Singularities

Abstract

A researcher must constantly decide whether the discourses, acts, identities, and singularities in one locality operate differently or, in fact, are fundamentally different from those in other localities. For example, in daily Turkish conversations which syntactically give precedence to the action (unlike the ones which syntactically give precedence to the subject), participants display important differences in terms of subject positioning and its relation with meaning constructions of action in talk-in-interactions. In this paper, motivated by a recent article by Gülerce, I will discuss construction strategies of individuals’ singularity in Turkish talk-in-interactions in which participants have the choice of constructing singularity based on the meaning construction of the action in context. Singular positioning is not a necessary requirement for constructing an action in an utterance in Turkish conversations.