Book review: Elena Mihas, Conversational Structures of Alto Perené (Arawak) of Peru

Book review: Response to review (Williams, 2019) of Elena Mihas (2017) Conversational Structures of Alto Perené (Arawak) of Peru

“…I will respond to his claims in the order they appear in the review. First, Williams (2019: 226) contends that the book misapplies CA/IL when it comes to making the distinction between macro and micro domains. However, the book does not profess allegiance to any framework (Mihas, 2017: 5).…”

“…The book’s discussion of OIR prosody does not include the prosody of the content interrogative strategy, which would have strengthened my argumentation. Williams (2019: 227) writes that ‘this case appears to be straightforwardly not concerned with resolving the problem of hearing or understanding in the prior turn’. This case is not that straightforward if supplementary prosodic evidence is taken into account.…”

“…Next, Williams (2019: 227) writes that ‘as with other parts of the book, the account of these aspects of the multimodal nature of conversation is partial’ and that ‘[…] claims are made throughout the book, but often with only a single illustrative example and without indication of how such a conclusion was drawn’. The ample amount of evidence used in support of the book’s argumentation is evident in the sheer number of extracts cited.…”

“…In addition, I included citations to my directly related work on non-verbal communication patterns (Mihas, 2013, cited Mihas, 2017: 142, 148, 166), and epistemics (Mihas, 2016, cited Mihas, 2017: 285). Williams (2019: 228) contends that ‘the ‘local cultural norms’ are generally assumed’. The book links interaction to social relationships and social contexts in a dedicated chapter (Chapter 3) concentrating on the culture-specific notions related to speaker identities and norms.…”