Dsicourse and Pragmatics

Conversation Analysis

Doing ‘Being Ordinary’

• Harold Garfinkle• ‘Ethnomethodology’• How do people make interaction orderly?• How do people make sense of interaction?• Studying people’s actions on their own terms

rather than with reference to a theory

Conversation Analysis

• Developed in the 1960’s by Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson

• Study of telephone conversations• Fine tuned (‘microanalytic’) analysis of the sequential

structure of conversations• Conversation unfolds ‘one thing after another’• No a priori assumptions• Looking for patterns in actual conversations• Understanding how people ‘make sense’ of

conversations• Search for ‘patterns’ and ‘regularities’ in talk

Topics in CA

• How utterances are related to each other (‘adjacency pairs’)

• Preference organization• Turn-taking• Topic initiation• Feedback• Openings and closings• Repair

Context

• Contrast with E of S and pragmatics• Only valid ‘context’ is the immediate context of the

conversation• Context is dynamic• We create context by what we say and respond to

the context other people create by what they say• Factors external to the talk is only relevant if

participants make it relevant• ‘Pure’ conversational data• Based only on what participants actually do• Close data transcription

Transcription

• Transcription is…• A process of selection• Driven by analyst's theoretical stance

• Gail Jefferson Transcription conventions

Sample• Henry: (a) Y'want a piece of candy?• Irene: (b) No.//• Zelda: (c) She's on a // diet• Deby: (d) // Who's not on a diet • Irene: (e) =I'm on a diet.• (f) and my mother // buys• Zelda: (g) // You're not!• Irene: (h)=my // mother buys these mints.=• Deby: (i) // Oh yes I// amhhh!• Zelda: (j) Oh yeh• Irene: (k) The Russel Stouffer mints.• (l) I said, 'I don't want any Mom."• (m) "Well, I don't want to eat the whole thing."• (n) She gives me a tiny piece.• (o) I eat it.• (p) Then she give me an//other,= • Henry: (q) // Was, =• Irene: (r) =so I threw it out the window=• Henry =there a lot of people?=• Irene (s) =I didn't // tell her.=• Henry: (t) // Was there=

• Irene: (u) =She'd kill me.

The structure of conversations

• Openings• Initiating exchanges that establish social relations

• Middle• Topic negotiation and development• Turn taking mechanics• Feedback

• Closings• Pre-closing exchanges• Closings

• Meaning of an utterance depends on stage of conversation• ‘How are you?’• ‘Hello’

Openings and Closings

• Conversational ‘rituals’

• Vary from culture to culture• Closing telephone conversations in

Australia and New Zealand

Openings

• Ritualistic openings• Utterances have different meanings when

they occur at the beginning• ‘Hey!’• ‘How are you?’• ‘Have you eaten yet?’

• Summons--Answer• Greeting--Greeting• Often done simultaneously

Openings in Telephone Conversations

• A: Hello. (…)• B: Hello.• A: oh, hello Anne, what’s up. • B: Nothing much. I just had something I

wanted to ask you.

• Summons/Answer• Greeting/Greeting

Closings

• FTA• Pre-closings• Body language• Excuses• Ritualistic expressions (e.g. ‘good’, ‘ok’)

• Signal invitation to or willingness to pass on one’s turn

• Invitation for or offering of ‘unmentioned mentionables’

Why it’s so hard to get off the phone (Cameron)

• From Cameron

Adjacency Pairs• A pair of utterances in which the first part

predicts the second part• ‘Conditional Relevance’ • Second half is functionally dependent on the first.• First is also dependent on the second: Second

half provides evidence of how the first half was understood

• ‘What makes something a request?’ • Speech Act Theory vs. CA

• ‘Preferred Responses’

Dispreferred Responses

• May create implicature• A: I’m sorry• B: …• A: I love you.• B: Thanks.

• Second half of pair is heard as ‘officially absent’

Dispreferred ResponsesMay require extra ‘conversational work’ such as ‘delay’, ‘preface’, and/or ‘account’. The ‘work’ involved isWhat identifies an utterance as ‘preferred’ or ‘dispreferred’’

Matching

Adjacency Pairs

• Cultural differences• ‘How was your weekend’• Australians and French (Beal 1992)

Insertion Sequences

• A: May I please speak to Rodney?• B: May I ask who’s calling?• A: Alan.• B: Just a minute. I’ll get him. • A: Gimme a beer.• B: How old are you? • A: 21• B: Okay. Coming up.

• CONDITIONAL RELEVANCE

Turn Taking

• We ‘take turns’ in conversation• Turns are negotiated as we go along (conversation is ‘locally

managed’)• ‘Turn Constructional Units’• ‘Turn Transition Relevance Place’• Choices

• S nominates next speaker• If not, then…

• Next speaker nominates self• If not, then…

• Current speaker may (but does not have to) continue

• ‘Accountable’ and ‘non-accountable’ silence• ‘Overlaps’ vs. ‘Interruptions’

‘Supportive Interventions’

Turn Taking• Signaling the end of our turn

• Adjacency pair structure• Nominating another speaker• Pausing• Falling intonation/pitch• Body language (e.g. gaze, body torque)

Turn Taking

• Signaling that we want to keep talking• Pausing in the middle of a phrase/clause• Looking away• Talking louder or maintaining

pitch/loudness

Turn Taking

• Special situations have special rules for turn taking• Classrooms• Meetings

• Can also be affected by…• Topic• Cooperativeness• Power• Distance

Topic Management

• Appropriate and Taboo Topics

• Rules on who initiates topics

• How topics are initiated

• Changing topics

Backchannel (Feedback)

• Verbal feedback

• Non-verbal feedback

• Role in maintaining channel (‘focused interaction’)

• Role in turn taking, topic management

• Cultural differences

Repair

• Self-repair

• Other-repair

CA and Culture

• An Argentinean in Sweden (Cameron)

• Cultures where simultaneous talk is the norm

• Cultures where extended silence is the norm

Talk in institutional settings

• What special considerations apply that make talk in institutional settings different from casual conversation?• Goal oriented• Special constraints on allowable

contributions• Context specific inferential frameworks

‘One rule for one and one for another’