Rapport and discourse transformation in ethnographic interviews

Abstract

This chapter explores Kanako’s 1989 and 2000 interviews by adopting an approach focusing on rapport, in which diachronic analysis of the data is embedded in the interview participants’ negotiation of identity and relationship in discourse. Stylistic features of the interview discourse such as regional variation, interactional particles, clause-final forms, as well as interaction dynamics are analyzed, while the life experiences of Kanako and the interview settings, are also considered. The analysis reveals a complex and nuanced negotiation of rapport between the researcher and Kanako as their social identities and shared aspects of life go through transformation over a decade.