This paper brings together a range of commentary on conversational organisation and work on the notion of the self construal to present an argument for what is termed ‘the conversational construal’. The argument rests on observations around such things as the exploration of sameness and difference, development of affiliation and disaffiliation and indexing of solidarity and autonomy that are recurrent features of spoken interaction. Such features of talk are argued to be intimately connected to expanding and contracting notions of selfhood. In employing the notion of the self construal – or construal of the self – in this way, the paper seeks to locate ideas previously dedicated to cultural examination or psychological measurement in a conversational context
