Discourse and conversation
- 1. 5 Discourse and Conversation DISCOURSE ANALYSIS BRIAN PALTRIDGE Professor: Dr. Sheykhi Presented by: Nastaran Razavi
- 2. Conversation analysis • A major area of study in the analysis of discourse is conversation analysis. • Conversation analysis looks at ordinary everyday spoken discourse and aims to understand how people manage their interactions and also how social relations are developed through the use of spoken discourse.
- 3. Transcribing and coding conversation analysis data • In conversation analysis, the transcription of the data is also the analysis. In this way, texts are recorded (either on tape or by video), then analyzed at the same time as they are transcribed. If a particular feature such as the use of increased pitch becomes apparent in the analysis, this then becomes the starting point for further analysis. The analyst listens and transcribes to see how frequently this aspect of the conversation occurs. Therefore, the analysts aims to understand how speakers manage their conversational interactions.
- 4. Transcription conventions Transcription, in the linguistic sense, is the systematic representation of language in the written form. The source can either be utterances (speech) or pre-existing text in another writing system. In the academic discipline of linguistics, transcription is an essential part of the methodologies of phonetics, conversation analysis, diale- ctology and sociolinguistics.
- 5. Transcription conventions Particular transcription conventions are used in conversation analysis. The Jefferson Notation System is a set of symbols, developed by Gail Jefferson, which is used for transcribing talk. Consider some examples of transcription conventions:
- 6. Transcription conventions The list below is fairly representative of the most widely-used symbols.
- 7. Transcription conventions In addition to the regular mark-up, transcribers supplement the transcripts with Transcriber’s notes in which they provide additio- nal contextual information and observations about other features of the interaction not accounted for in the transcript.
- 8. Sequence and structure in conversation A particular interest of conversation analysis is the sequence and structure of spoken discourse. Aspects of conversational interactions that have been examined from this perspective include: •Conversational openings and closings •Turn taking •Sequences of related utterances (adjacency pairs) •Preferences for particular combinations of utterances (preference organization) •Feedback •Conversational repair
- 9. Opening conversations One area where conversational openings have been examined in detail is in the area of telephone conversations. Schegloff (1979) found that most U.S. telephone openings include an identification and recognition sequence. In addition, he identified five sequences of adjacency pairs in mundane private telephone conversation openings: 1. Summons-answer sequence (e.g. the phone rings and the recipient answers ‘Hello’); 2. Identification/recognition sequence (e.g. ‘Hi Ida?’/‘Yeah’); 3. Greeting sequence (e.g. ‘Hi, this is Carla’/‘Hi Carla’); 4. ‘How are you’ sequence (e.g. ‘How are you?’/‘Good, how about you?’) 5. Reason for call sequence (e.g. Fine. Don wants to know ...)
- 10. Opening conversations The sequences of telephone openings differ based on different cultures. Despite the occurrence of the ‘How are you?’ sequence in telephone conversation in all target communities, it has been shown that the extent and pattern vary from one culture to the other.
- 11. Closing conversations Schegloff and Sacks (1973) have also looked at conversational closings. This work has since been continued by Button (1987) who points out that telephone closings usually go over four turns of talk, made up of pre-closing and closing moves:
- 12. Closing conversations Button calls the closing move as an archetype closing. In this closing both speakers mutually negotiate the end of the conversa- tions. The closing may also be preceded by a number of pre-sequences, such as the making of an arrangement, referring back to somethin g previously said in the conversation, the initiation of a new topic, good wishes (e.g. ‘give my love to Jane’), a restatement of the reason for calling and thanks for calling. Sometimes, however, the closing may be foreshortened when the archetype closing is skipped over. Equally the closing may be extended by continued repetition of pre-closing and closing items (e.g. ‘bye’, ‘bye’, ‘love you’, ‘love you’, ‘sleep well’, ‘you too’, etc.)
- 13. Turn taking Conversation analysis has also examined how people take and manage turns in spoken interactions. The basic rule in English conversation is that one person speaks at a time, then he may nominate another speaker, or another speaker may take up the turn without being nominated (Sacks et al 1974; Sacks 2004).
- 14. Turn taking Some ways showing the end of a turn
- 15. Turn taking
- 16. Adjacency pairs • Adjacency pairs are utterances produced by two successive speakers in a way that the second utterance is identified as related to the first one such as greeting-greeting, apology- acceptance. The speaking of the first utterance (the first-pair part, or the first turn) provokes a responding utterance (the second-pair part, or the second turn).
- 17. Adjacency pairs • Utterance function Expected response • • greeting greeting • congratulation thanks • apology acceptance • inform acknowledge