{"product_id":"9781108505567","title":"The Concept of Action","description":"When people do things with words, how do we know what they are doing? Many scholars have assumed a category of things called actions: 'requests', 'proposals', 'complaints', 'excuses'. The idea is both convenient and intuitive, but as this book argues, it is a spurious concept of action. In interaction, a person's primary task is to decide how to respond, not to label what someone just did. The labeling of actions is a meta-level process, appropriate only when we wish to draw attention to others' behaviors in order to quiz, sanction, praise, blame, or otherwise hold them to account. This book develops a new account of action grounded in certain fundamental ideas about the nature of human sociality: that social conduct is naturally interpreted as purposeful; that human behavior is shaped under a tyranny of social accountability; and that language is our central resource for social action and reaction.","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47117597802736,"sku":"9781108505567","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781108505567_p0.jpg?v=1763692282","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781108505567","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}