This article focuses on sequences of classroom talk, in which Swedish junior high-school pupils engage in reproaches of absent parties or, to use an established gloss, `gossiping'. This kind of talk makes up a significant part of the off-task talk that pupils engage in when working in small groups. In order to initiate and participate in gossip interaction, pupils need to master sophisticated social competencies. The study focuses on these competencies and on one major function that gossip can be seen to perform for the primary gossiper: gossip as remedial action.
Abrahams, R.D. (1970) `A Performance-Centred Approach to Gossip', Man5: 290—301.
2.
Adelswärd, V. (1989) `Laughter and Dialogue: The Social Significance of Laughter in Institutional Discourse', Nordic Journal of Linguistics12: 107—36.
3.
Alton-Lee, A., Nuthall, G. and Patrick, J. (1993) `Reframing Classroom Research: A Lesson from the Private World of Children', Harvard Educational Review63: 50—84.
4.
Atkinson, J.M. and Heritage, J. (eds) (1984) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Ayim, M. (1994) `Knowledge through the Grapevine: Gossip as Inquiry ', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 85—99. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
6.
Bakhtin, M. (1984) Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
7.
Baruch, G. (1981) `Moral Tales: Parents' Stories of Encounters with the Health Professions', Sociology of Health and Illness3(3): 275—95.
8.
Beach, W.A. (2000) `Inviting Collaborations in Stories about a Woman ', Language in Society29: 379—407.
9.
Ben-Ze'ev, A. (1994) `The Vindication of Gossip', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 11—24. Lawrence : University Press of Kansas.
10.
Bergmann, J.R. (1993) Discreet Indiscretions: The Social Organization of Gossip. New York: Aldinede Gruyter.
11.
Billig, M. (1996) Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
Blum-Kulka, S. (2000) `Gossipy Events at Family Dinners: Negotiating Sociability, Presence and the Moral Order', in J. Coupland (ed.) Small Talk, pp. 213—40. London: Longman.
13.
Coates, J. (2000) `Pushing at the Boundaries: The Expression of Alternative Masculinities', in J. Cotterill and A. Ife (eds) Language across Boundaries, pp. 1—24. London: Continuum .
14.
Collins, L. (1994) `Gossip: A Feminist Defense', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 106—14. Lawrence : University Press of Kansas.
15.
Dingwall, R. (1977) `“Atrocity Stories” and Professional Relationships', Sociology of Work and Occupations4(4): 371—96.
16.
Drew, P. (1987) `Po-Faced Receipts of Teases', Linguistics25: 219—53.
17.
Dyson, H.A. (1987) `The Value of “Time off Task”: Young Children's Spontaneous Talk and Deliberate Text', Harvard Educational Review57: 396—420.
18.
Edwards, D. (2000) `Extreme Case Formulations: Softeners, Investment, and Doing Nonliteral', Research on Language and Social Interaction33(4): 347—73.
19.
Edwards, D. and Potter, J. (1992) Discursive Psychology. London : Sage.
20.
Emler, N. (1994) `Gossip, Reputation, and Social Adaptation', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 117—38. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
21.
Epstein, A.L. (1969) `Gossip, Norms, and Social Network', in J.C. Mitchell (ed.) Social Networks in Urban Situations, pp. 117—27. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Festinger, L. (1954) `A Theory of Social Comparison Process', Human Relations7: 117—40.
24.
Frönes, I. (1995) Among Peers: On the Meaning of Peers in the Process of Socialization. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget .
25.
Garfinkel, H. and Sacks, H. (1970) `On Formal Structures of Practical Actions', in J.C. McKinney and E.A. Tiryakian (eds) Theoretical Sociology, pp. 337—66. New York: Appleton Crofts.
26.
Gluckman, M. (1963) `Gossip and Scandal', Current Anthropology4(3): 307—16.
27.
Goffman, E. (1982[1959]) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
28.
Goffman, E. (1963) Behavior in Public Places. New York: Free Press.
29.
Goffman, E. (1971) Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. London: Allen Lane.
30.
Goffman, E. (1978) `Response Cries', Language54: 787—815.
31.
Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press.
32.
Goodman, R.F. (1994) `Introduction', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 1—8. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
33.
Goodwin, M.H. (1990) He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization among Black Children. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
34.
Guendouzi, J. (2001) `“You'll Think We're Always Bitching”: The Functions of Cooperativity and Competition in Women's Gossip', Discourse Studies3(1): 29—51.
35.
Heritage, J.C. (1984) Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Worcester: Polity Press.
36.
Jaworski, A. (2000) `Silence and Small Talk', in J. Coupland (ed.) Small Talk, pp. 110—32. London: Longman.
37.
Jefferson, G., Sacks, H. and Schegloff, E.A. (1987) `Notes on Laughter in Pursuit of Intimacy', in G. Button and J.R.E. Lee (eds) Talk and Social Organization, pp. 152—205. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
38.
Labov, W. (1972) `The Transformation of Experience in Narrative ', in Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular, pp. 354—97. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
39.
Malinowski, B. (1972[1923]) `The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages', in C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards (eds) The Meaning of Meaning , pp. 296—336. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
40.
Morreall, J. (1994) `Gossip and Humor', in R.F. Goodman andA. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 56—64. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
41.
Nevo, O., Nevo, B. and Derech-Zehavi, A. (1994) `The Tendency to Gossip as a Psychological Disposition: Constructing a Measure and Validating it', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 180—9. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
42.
Ochs, E., Taylor, C., Rudolph, D. and Smith, R. (1992) `Storytelling as a Theory-Building Activity', Discourse Processes1: 37—72.
43.
Paine, R. (1967) `What is Gossip About? An Alternative Hypothesis ', Man2: 278—85.
44.
Pomerantz, A.M. (1980) `Telling My Side: “Limited Access” as a “Fishing Device”', Sociological Inquiry50: 186—98.
45.
Pomerantz, A.M. (1984) `Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred/Dispreferred Turn Shapes', in J.M. Atkinson and J.C. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis , pp. 57—101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
46.
Pomerantz, A.M. (1986) `Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimating Claims', HumanStudies9: 219—30.
47.
Potter, J. (1996) Representing Reality: Discourse, Rhetoric and Social ConstructionLondon: Sage.
48.
Potter, J. (1997) `Discourse Analysis as a Way of Analysing Naturally Occurring Talk', in D. Silverman (ed.) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, pp. 144—60. London: Sage.
49.
Rosnow, R.L. and Fine, G.A. (1976) Rumor and Gossip: The Social Psychology of Hearsay . New York: Elsevier.
50.
Sabini, J. and Silver, M. (1982) Moralities of Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press.
51.
Sacks, H. (1985) `The Inference-Making Machine: Notes on Observability ', in T.A. van Dijk (ed.) Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Vol. 3: Discourse and Dialogue, pp. 13—23. London: Academic Press.
52.
Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation, Vols I and II. Oxford: Blackwell.
53.
Sahlström, F. (1999) Up the Hill Backwards: On Interactional Constraints and Affordances for Equity-Constitution in the Classrooms of the Swedish Comprehensive School (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 85). Uppsala: Universitet Pedagogiska Institutionen.
54.
Schoeman, F. (1994) `Gossip and Privacy', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 72—82. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
55.
Sieber, R.T. (1979) `Classmates as Workmates: Informal Peer Activity in the Elementary School', Anthropology and Educational Quarterly10: 207—35.
56.
Simmel, G. (1964) The Sociology of George Simmel. New York: Free Press.
57.
Suls, J.M. (1977) `Gossip as Social Comparison', Journal of Communication27: 164—68.
58.
Taylor, G. (1994) `Gossip as Moral Talk', in R.F. Goodman and A. Ben-Ze'ev (eds) Good Gossip, pp. 34—46. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
59.
Webb, B. and Stimson, G. (1976) `People's Accounts of Medical Encounters', in M. Wadsworth and D. Robinson (eds) Studies in Everyday Medical Life, pp. 108—22. London: Martin Robertson.
60.
Yonge, C. and Stables, A. (1998) `“I Am It the Clown”: Problematizing the Distinction between “Off Task” and “On Task” Classroom Talk', Language and Education55: 55—70.
61.
Zimmerman, D.H. and Pollner, M. (1971) `The Everyday World as a Phenomenon', in J.D. Douglas (ed.) Understanding Everyday Life: Toward a Construction of Sociological Knowledge, pp. 80—103. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
