Getting there first: non-narrative reported speech in interaction

Research on so-called ‘direct reported speech’ (henceforth simply ‘reported speech’) in interaction has hitherto overwhelmingly focused on the most common context for its occurrence, namely story-telling, whether in mundane talk (see, inter alia, the collection in Lucy, 1993 andHolt, 1996, 2000) or in various institutional contexts (e.g. Buttny, 1997; Holt, 1999; Clayman, this volume; Galatolo, this volume; Rae and Kerby, this volume; and Wooffitt, this volume). There are occasions in mundane talk, however, in which reported speech is not used in the service of a more extended story but, as in the following, is deployed fleetingly by a speaker in the course of an exchange with another (arrowed) (see also Couper-Kuhlen, this volume): [Rahman:B:2:JV(14):4] In (1), Jenny and Vera have been talking about Vera's son Bill, his wife Jean, and their children. Vera's report of what she said to Jean at line 7, and its response from Bill, neither launches an extended story-telling, nor forms an element of an ongoing story. It is offered as a response to an assessment from Jenny, ‘All they need now is a little girl to complete it’, and in turn gets laughter from her, endorsed by Vera's own laughter at line 10. Jenny's jocular inquiry at lines 11–12 subsequently provides a wry commentary on what Vera has reported.