Japanese hypothetical enactment as a response to third-party complaint

Abstract This study examines Japanese enactment, an interactional phenomenon wherein participants in conversation act out themselves or others by utilizing specific designs of lexis, grammar, and prosody, as well as body movements. While these enactments can often be observed when a speaker depicts what someone said, did, or thought in the past, this article explores hypothetical enactments. Unlike enactments that are designed as representing real utterances and/or body movements performed in the past, hypothetical enactments are designed with linguistic and contextual features that indicate that they are fictitious. The data were drawn from a collection of video-recorded ordinary conversations in Japanese. Employing Conversation Analysis as its analytical framework, this study focuses on how Japanese speakers use hypothetical enactments to respond to co-participants’ complaints about a third party who is absent from an ongoing here-and-now interactional site (i.e., third-party complaints). The findings reveal that complaint recipients may produce hypothetical enactments as jokes or advice. When complaint recipients provide hypothetical enactments as jokes, they depict an improbable situation sarcastically. When complaint recipients provide hypothetical enactment as advice, they often demonstrate taking an alternative approach toward an antagonist. These enacted hypothetical scenarios may or may not be collaboratively extended by other participants, depending on how those participants treat the proposed scenarios.