Telling My Side: “Limited Access” as a “Fishing” Device
“Telling my side” is a way of seeking information without going on record with an explicit request. The practice involves a speaker’s reporting recognizably limited access to, and knowledge of, a situation in which the recipient was an actor. A limited-access formulation may be likened to an outsider’s or observer’s version of a situation. This practice is used when there are negative sanctions for directly seeking the type of information being sought. Its success relies on participants’ orienting to a sequence of actions: the limited-access report sets up the relevance of the recipient’s providing information. The recipient needs to infer that the speaker seeks further information; furthermore, the recipient must be willing to provide it