Ordinary Morality and Gossip Jessica S. Robles University of New Hampshire

Questions How do people talk about others? How are stances toward others proffered in communication? How is this accomplished in interpersonal group interaction? What are the implications of the moral orientations evinced in discourse?

Are your neighbors all drug dealers? 1Carrie: um (0.5) so are your neighbors all drug dealers: (0.5) or, 2Kathy: [heh heh] 3Mike:[wha:t] 4 Kathy: heh heh heh (.) heh heh heh heh heh= 5Carrie: =so I was sitting outside the other morning (0.5) eating breakfast reading (.) 6 (just on the step) and (.) one of them stumbles out (.) [literally stumbles out 7Mike: hmheh 8 Carrie: in a sports bra (0.5) and shorts (.) like brings the dog out and just goes and 9 like s- stre:tches (.) full out on the gr(h)ass: (.) its l(h)ike= 10Kathy: =huh huh 11Carrie: [(eight) in the morning] Line 9 action

Like totally judging 1Kathy: =heh heh heh heh heh th(h)e little boys like whered you just move 2 in (.) and was like to:tally judging Im like I moved in that d(h)uplex r(h)ight 3 [th(h)ere 4Riley: [ha ha ha] ha 5Kathy: and he wa - and then it was like o:h and 6 like no one said anything 7 [(all the sudden) 8Riley:[(and then theres just) 9Carrie: [and all the sudden they realized 10Kathy: see ya:: huh huh huh huh huh 11Carrie: they realized you were in the poor houses= 12Kathy: =yeah= 13Mike:=oh you rent= 14Kathy: =great. 15Mike:youre not in a two-and-a-half million dollar home 16Kathy: uh huh

And then its validated 1Mike: [kid] probly has a twenty thousand dollar tree house. 2Kathy: I know hes l(h)ike nine totally judging me like o:h. huh huh huh Im 3 like fu(h)ck y(h)ou(h) 4Carrie: hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah= 5Mike:=huh= 6Carrie: =please tell me you said that. 7Riley:a::nd then its validated [huh huh huh huh 8((laughter)) 9Mike:=huh.hh (.) then you [spit on their crops and r(h)an [aw(h)ay 10((laughter)) 11Kathy: oh yeah (.) Im takin this= 12((laughter)) 13Carrie: [grabbed a [pumpkin and ran] ((4 lines deleted)) 17Mike:=Im gonna go home and roll a cigarette (.) huh huh huh huh= 18Kathy: =hah hah hah hah (.) o:h my god

Lady of the night 1Carrie: I just dont understand why she doesnt put clothes on (.) I swear 2 Ive seen her dressed? twice= 3Mike:=she had to sell though 4Kathy: huh huh huh [huh huh] 5Carrie: [appar]ently 6Riley:[huh (.) shes in between clients] ((2 lines deleted) 9Carrie: (yeah) Ive seen her in clothes twice other than that shes in her ro:be 10Kathy: [did she have a red light on over her head 11Carrie: [or shes wrapped in a blanket sitting [on the ( )] 12Mike: [yeah she] must be uh:: 13 (1.0) 14Kathy: prostitute= 15Riley:=(may[be she-)] 16Mike: [lady] of the night line 9 twice

Reconstructing/moralizing… Appropriate or intelligible actions Actions aligned with socioeconomic/class categorizations Actions aligned with gendered behavior