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Go Higher Language Week 9

Conversational Analysis : Speech

Acts

Mary E. ClintonSchool of English

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Aims of this Unit

Introduction to Discourse Analysis, specifically

Conversational Analysis

Speech Acts, Austen and Searle Conversational implicature and structure

Turn Taking

Adjacency Pairs

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Learning Outcomes

After this unit you will be able to

Describe conversations

Describe certain theories about

conversations

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Discourse analysis

In the 1960s and 1970s TWO traditions thatstudied language use beyond sentenceboundaries.

Text Linguistics: written texts from a variety offields and genres

Discourse Analysis: cognitive and social

perspectives on language use andcommunication exchanges which includedboth written and spoken language.

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What is conversation?

Conversation consists of spoken language

Discourse analysis examines how stretches of

language, considered in their full textual,social and psychological context, become

meaningful and unified for their users(Cook, 1989).

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Austin and speech acts

Austin successfully directed attention to language-in-use. In hiswords: "the total speech act in the total speech situation is the onlyactual phenomenon, which, in the last resort, we are engaged inelucidating".

The meaning of the utterance was in what it did, notwhat it was.

The study of language was never the same after Austin. Everyonenow accepts two things:

that one has to examine the use, not just the

'accuracy' or 'truth', of an utterance; and that the conditions of the utterance are just as

important as what was uttered.

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Felicity conditions

a performative utterance is neither true nor

false, but can instead be deemed "felicitous"

or "infelicitous" according to a set of

conditions whose interpretation differs

depending on whether the utterance in

question is a declaration ("I sentence you to

death"), a request ("I ask that you stop doingthat") or a warning ("I warn you not to jump

off the roof").

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Felicity conditions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicity_conditio

ns

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Utterances

Propositional

Utterances

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Illocutionary Utterance

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"I'm tired."

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"I'm tired."

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Perlocutionary Utterances

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SearleSearle

J.J. Searle'sSearle's SpeechSpeech ActsActs theorytheoryisis aa developmentdevelopment ofof

Austin'sAustin's analysisanalysis ofof performativeperformative utterancesutterances

A theory of language use will have to specify:A theory of language use will have to specify:

1.1. thethe conditionsconditions under which a particular kind ofunder which a particular kind ofact is successful.act is successful.

2.2. whatwhat types of actstypes of acts can be perfomed b speakerscan be perfomed b speakers

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The following remarks are all likely to be spoken byparents attempting to teach young children the finerpoints of conversation.

Consider them and discuss what rule of conversationthey could be asking the child to learn.

Dont interrupt me while Im speaking.

Speak when youre spoken to.

Whats the magic word?

Dont tell me what to do.

Dont say that in front of your gran.

Dont say what, say pardon.

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A child learning a language also acquires social competence i.e. the

ability to recognize and interpret the social activity taking place.

e.g. opening or closing a conversation

taking conversational turns

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Turn Taking and structure

Dont interrupt me while Im speaking.

Levinson (1983), less (and often considerably less)than 5% of the speech stream is delivered in

overlap (two speakers speaking simultaneously). Speak when youre spoken to.

Silence after a question can be interpreted asdeliberately challenging or controversial.

These expected pairings of question and answer,greeting and greeting, information andacknowledgement are known as adjacency pairs.

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Politeness and negotiation

Whats the magic word?

Dont tell me what to do.

Conversation is not just about passing on

information or getting things done.

It is also about the way speakers relate to oneanother and choose to co-operate or not to

co-operate with one another.

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Content and conditioning

Dont say that in front of your gran.

Dont say what, say pardon.The intention behind an utterance can even mean that, as they are spoken,

the words actually achieve something beyond whats being said. Forexample, the bride at a wedding ceremony saying I do has the legalstatus of performing the act of marriage. These words perform a speechact. Speech act theory, derived from the work of Austin (1962) and Searle(1969), refers to what is being done when something is said, for example,warning or promising.

The speech act can be indirect if the apparent meaning is different from itsunderlying real meaning. The purpose of the utterance Can you pass thesalt?, for example, is to try to get the hearer to do something rather thana request for information.

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How can a conversation be

described?

Turntaking: speakers take turns in talking (orhaving the floor)

Every turn is composed of linguistic units and

other actions according to a structural pattern Unusual that the parties talk simultaneously

Very short pauses between contributions

Transition relevant place: a place in speech

where a transition to next speaker could takeplace. A too long (e.g. 1 sec.) pause isexperienced as a silence, and will be subject tointerpretation by the other party

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Variations in turn-taking patterns

Examples of issues to study in conversation:

Are the participants having an equal part of theconversational floor?

Who takes the initiative to new topics?

Does one participant often interrupt another? Isthis related to social or institutional roles?(Unequal conversations)

Are there any problems in regulating turn-taking,that might relate to the medium ofcommunication?

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Structural units in conversation

Conversation has an inherent structure atdifferent levels

Different units have been suggested to describe

this structure at a local level: Initiative - response

Adjacency pair (Schegloff & Sacks)

Exchange (Sinclair-Coulthard)

Dialogue game, move (Carlson)

At higher levels: episode, transaction, activitytype

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Fill In the Blanks: Assumptions

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CONVERSATION RULES

The Theory behind all of this

Grices Cooperative Principle

Leechs Politeness Principle

Sperber and Wilsons Economy Principle

NOTE: Polite forms are not economic but are verycooperative.

(Mey 180)

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Co-operation

The Co-operative Principle (Grice): Be

relevant, clear, truthful and say as much as is

necessary

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CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES

I. Quantity

A. Be informative

B. Dont give more information than is required

II. Quality

A. Dont lie or mislead

B. Dont make statements unless there is adequate evidenceIII. Relation

A. Be relevant

IV. Manner

A. Avoid obscurity

B. Avoid ambiguity

C. Be succinctD. Be orderly

(Grice Logic and Conversation 47)

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Maxim of Quantity: Say as much as is

helpful

The maxim is "say as much as is helpful but no

more and no less

Eg SP1 Where did you go yesterday? SP2 Lime Street Station

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Maxim ofManner: Be concise, to the

point, etc

Let's use this maxim to see how a speaker canmake listeners draw quite extensiveimplications by the way they flagrantly go

against, or flout, as Grice called it, themaxims.

Suppose you overheard two parents say to eachother (the example is from Levinson, p 104; )

A: Let's get the kids something

B: OK but not I-C-E C-R-E-A-M [spelling it out]

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Maxim of Quality: Be as truthful as is

appropriate

A: I might win the lottery

B: Yes, and pigs might fly.

Flouting the maxim of quality is the drivingforce in irony - try thinking of ironic comments

you've heard recently, or generate some witty

repartee of your own (hard to do just like that,

I know) and see how they achieve their ends

by what they do to expectations of 'truth'.

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Violations of Conversational

Implicatures:

BILL CLINTONS VIOLATION OFTHE MAXIM OF QUALITY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs

QUENTIN TARENTINOS VIOLATION OFTHE MAXIM OFQUANTITY (FROM RESERVOIR DOGS: LIKE A VIRGIN):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyR4RK0LA_E

FOREST GUMPS FRIENDS VIOLATION OFTHE MAXIM OFRELATION:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhfK98f5S00

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OTHER COOPERATION SYSTEMS

Geoffrey Leech offers four: tact, generosity, approbation and irony.

(Leech 131ff)

Horn has only two Maxims: Quantity and Relation

(Horn 15)

Sperber and Wilson have a minimalistic theory that needs only one concept:

relevance.

(Sperber and Wilson 161)

Nilsen and Nilsen also have a minimalistic theory that needs only one concept:

tendency.

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Brown and Yule (1983)

Transactional or Interactional Transactional language is used in obtaining

goods and services. Interactional language is used when people

relate to each other.

The purpose of many conversations appearsprincipally to be interactional language usedfor socialising.

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Transactional or Interactional?

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TURN TAKING

Turn taking is part of the cooperative principle.It is based on quid pro quo.

It makes speech aware of the audience.Compare the following:

Bibles Golden Rule

French Universal Declaration of Rights

United Nations Freedom Charter

(Mey 268)

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The organization of turn taking

Turn-taking, according to Levinson (1983), is an A-B-A-B-A-B distribution of talk across twoparticipants.

Speakers take turns (Sacks , 1974) and speakerchange recurs (Sacks, 1974)

In other words, the floor is constantly negotiatedand renegotiated as a conversation goes along.

In fact this continual negotiation is a generalfeature of conversational organization(Cameron, 2001: 90).

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Turn Taking

1. Current speaker selects next speaker (e.g. bypassing feather, downward inflection, pausingetc.)

2. Next speaker selects himself

3. Speaker runs out of things to say

4. Speaker runs out of breath

5. Speaker opens the floor to any taker

6. Speaker retains the floor by telling a joke or story,unnatural breaks, or turn-threatening noises

(Sacks 224, Mey 139-140))

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Insertion sequences in conversation

A conversation may have an embedded part:May I have a bottle of beer?

Are you twenty-one?

No.No.Not until the last No, the expectancy of a relevant

response has been fulfilled.

This is called an insertion sequence (oran embedded

subdialogue).Insertion sequence draws attention to the fact that

conversation is discourse mutually constructed andnegotiated in time (Cook, 1989: 55).

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ADJACENCY PAIRS

In a book entitled, Lectures on Conversation(1995), Harvey Sacks said that conversation isdialogue and that dialogue consists ofadjacency relationships like the following:

Greeting-Greeting, Question-Answer, Request-Offer (or Denial), Order-Compliance, Buying-Selling, Small Talk

Openings (Hello-Hello or Excuse me-Yes?)

Closings (OK?-OK, Tara, tarra )(Mey 141, 146)

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Adjacency Pairs 2

First pair parts (FPPs)

(like questions, invitations and orders)

are regularly followed by certain kinds ofresponses, or second pair parts (SPPs)

(which in these cases would be answers,

acceptances, and compliances respectively).

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ADJACENCY: ATTENTION GETTERS

Hey! Yes?

You know something? What?

Excuse me. Sure.

Whaddyaknow? I dont know.

Guess what. What?

(Levinson 346ff)

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Example of adjacency pairs: question-answer,

offer/a

ccepta

nce, request-complia

nce

If the second part of an adjacency pair is missing, this issomething remarkable: a noticeable absence

However: the second part is not always possible toidentify. The important thing is conditional relevance:Given the first pair part, the second part isimmediately relevant and expectable

This explains e.g. why certain pauses occur if theconversation continues in a non-normal way.

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Preferred and Dispreferred If you look at a collection of 'unexpected' responses you'll find that they

are done differently from 'expected' ones. They are not so prompt, andwill have a hedge, or a request for clarification, or an account, ortsomething that alludes to a difficulty or an excuse.

A: "why don't you come to our party on Saturday?"(pause)

B: "Well I'd like to but it's Hannah's birthday" [marked rejection]

This latter is an example of what is called a 'dispreferred' response. Therejection is (it is empirically found) marked by hesitation and hedging andan account of why the preferred response wasn't given. The mark is sopowerful that it alone will suffice as a rejection:

A: "why don't you come to our party on Sunday?"(pause)B: "Well ..."

And A knows that B is declining the invitation.

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ADJACENCY INDIRECTNESS 1 Whats the time?

Twelve noon.

Time for coffee.

I havent got a watch; sorry.

How should I know? Ask Jack.

You know bloody well what time it is.

Why do you ask?

What did you say? What do you mean?

(Tsui 115)

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Imagine what would happen if you gave the

dispreferred reply without marking it:

A: "why don't you come to our party on

Sunday?"

B: "No"

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ADJACENCY INDIRECTNESS 2

AT A DINNER PARTY: Its getting late,Mildred.

Are you bored?

Do you want to go home?

So?

Dont you like my flirting?

Yes, I need to take my pills.

(Mey 162)

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ADJACENCY INSERTIONS

Are you doing anything tonight?Why are you asking?

I thought we might catch a movie.

NOTE: Answering of cell phones in the middleof a conversation is becoming more and more

frequent(Mey 145)

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ADJACENCY MARKEDNESS

REQUIRES MORE POLITENESSNORMAL: MARKED

Request Acceptance Refusal

Offer Acceptance Refusal

Assessment Agreement Disagreement

Question Expected Answer Unexpected Answer

Blame Denial Admission

(Levinson 336)

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ADJACENCY: VIOLATES

SPEAKER-KNOWS-BEST RULE

Two psychiatrists, Dr. Sapirstein and Dr.

Barnstone pass each other in the hallway of

their clinic:

DR. SAPIRSTEIN: Youre fine, how am I?

DR. BARNSTONE: Thanks, youre fine too.

(Mey 170)

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CALL AND RESPONSE

Call and Response is an important aspect of the

preaching in Black churches.

Call and Response is also an aspect of bird language.

Call and Response also occurs in music.

You can hear it in Webbers Phantam of the Opera.

You can also hear it in Bachs Two Part Inventions.

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On-line lectures

Philosophy 138, 001 - Philosophy of Society

TTh 2-3:30 | 126 BARROWS

Instructor John R. SEARLE Philosophy of

Society

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_n

ew.php?seriesid=2009-D-

67309&semesterid=2009-D

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References

Brown G. & Yule, G. (1983) Discourse analysis. Cambridge: C.U.P.

Cook,

Hutchby, I. & Wooffitt, R. (1997) Conversation Analysis. Oxford:Blackwell

Leech, Geoffrey N. (1983) Principles ofPragmatics. London:Longman

Levinson, S. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.

Mey, Jacob L. (2001) Pragmatics: An Introduction, 2nd Edition.Oxford: O.U.P.

Sacks, H. (1995) Lectures on Conversation Oxford: Blackwell

Tsui, Amy B. Sequencing Rules and Coherence in Discourse.Journal ofPragmatics 15.2 (1991): 111-129.