Retrospective and prospective orientation in the construction of argumentative moves

Analysis focuses on how utterances opposing another position in an argument are constructed with a simultaneous orientation to (a) the detailed structure of the prior utterance being opposed and (b) the future trajectories of action projected by that utterance, which the current utterance attempts to counter and intercept. Through such practices participants treat each other as cognitively complex, reflexive actors who are reshaping a contested, consequential social landscape through the choices they make as they build each next action. Data is drawn from a dispute between a father and his son who is just entering adolescence.