ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests some basic terminology which author have found suitable for non-experimentally designed research of interpreter-mediated interaction. It deals with methodological issues connected to the collection of authentic discourse data, including questions concerning scientific validity and the limits of relevant 'context'. Role analysis may be concerned with the range of activities in different social settings in which a certain actor is typically involved. The concept of role distance provides a sociological means of dealing with one type in divergence between obligation and actual 'role performance'. In problematizing the organization of social interaction, one could start by pointing to apparent shortcomings in traditional models of analysing 'speaking' and 'listening'. Transcription as method and theory has been prospering since the seventies. Social interaction consists of much more than verbal activities, hence transcribing talk can catch a great deal, but far from all communication exchanged in and by a given encounter.
