Conversation analysis
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Conversation analysis is the study of talk in interaction. Its aim is to see how people bring off the daily work of their lives, whether institutional (in the school, doctor's surgery, government office or any other place of work) or casual. Inspired by ethnomethodology, it was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s principally by the sociologist Harvey Sacks and, among others, his close associates Emanuel A. Schegloff and Gail Jefferson. Sacks died early in his career, but his work was championed by others in his field, and CA has now become an established force in sociology, linguistics and psychology. It is particularly influential in interactional sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and discursive psychology, as well as being a coherent discipline in its own right.