Professorial Style in Context 157108 Ms. L.: //Yeah, I agree // with him because
they, they (), like you said, to keep these people employed and
everything, but if- if they had paid these people while there was a
delay going on to decide this dispute between the county and- I
think it would have cost them more.
109 Prof.: Who can say, respond to that on behalf of the county? I mean, what
about the poor workers in this case? The- the workers who heard
from their boss, who got this job with Rockingham County, uh, to
take nine months to fix it, um is it Mr. T.? Yeah?
110 Mr. T.: () court, the court awarded them any other losses and as far as any
materials[... omit rest of .23 turn... ]
111 Prof.: Uh, the court says that they would be awarded what?
112 Mr. T.: Uh, //it says, “Any prof- //
113 Prof.: //What page// are you on?
114 Mr. T.: I’m on page 39 [[115 Prof.: Good]], same paragraph. [... omitted
material (.28 overall turn time)... ] So, if those were all of the
losses that would have resulted from that, so he could have taken
care of his work; he could have paid the cement trucks, paid
everybody, that’s what the court () real well had he stopped at that
time, because he would have got his profit and he could have just
sat back in a rocking chair while the dust settled.
116 Prof.: Mr. U.?
117 Mr. U.: But that would have been after the entire litigation process. I mean,
he wouldn’t have received that- that- those damages until after the
actual lawsuit went through, ah, the whole litigation process, is that
true?
118 Prof.: Not necessarily, no. [... omitted material (.36 total turn time)... ]
The only issue then is going to be whether uh- compensation, and
how much compensation is owed. Mr.-?
119 Mr. Q.: Q [last name]. Q.
120 Prof.: Q.
121 Mr. Q.: Yes, he doesn’t, according to the law, stated uh, the contractor
should not be paying employees and these other things, he should
be stopping all those kinds of expenses he could control at that
point and then, if that wouldn’t be considered part of the damages.
122 Prof.: Okay, that he could control, all right? [[123 Mr. Q.: Yeah.]] How
can he control his obligation to his laborers?In this passage, the professor shifts six times between five different speakers, or-
chestrating an exchange that at times is as much among the students as between
professor and student.^28 We see this immediately in turn 102, where the profes-
sor invites a connection between this student’s comment and a prior answer: “I
think you’re challenging Ms. L.’s claim,” a very rich metalinguistic move that si-
multaneously reports and characterizes two different instances of talk (Ms. L.’s
and Mr. N.’s), situating them vis-à-vis one another and animating them as two