Wei2026
| Wei2026 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Wei2026 |
| Author(s) | Wan Wei |
| Title | Unwrapping the gift of life: Newborn gender announcements as an interactional achievement |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Conversation analysis, Gender |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2026 |
| Language | English |
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| Month | |
| Journal | Research on Language and Social Interaction |
| Volume | 58 |
| Number | 4 |
| Pages | 372-396 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1080/08351813.2025.2567821 |
| ISBN | |
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Abstract
This study examines how labor and delivery staff in Chinese hospitals announce the gender of newborns during the first encounter with family members. Using conversation analysis of 97 video-recorded birth encounters, the study identifies interactional practices such as guesswork, testing the waters, and gender-specific compliments that delay or soften the gender announcement. These practices function as forms of forecasting, enabling recipients to anticipate and realize the news themselves rather than being told directly. Although the birth of a child is typically treated as good news, announcements of girls are often managed as socially delicate. These findings extend prior work on news delivery and forecasting in clinical settings and contribute to conversation analytic research on gender by showing how participants use interactional practices to make gender relevant and to manage its interactional consequences. Data used in this study are in Mandarin Chinese, with English translation.
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