Conversation and Preference Structure

Conversation Analysis Conversation analysis is a popular approach to the study of discourse. Conversation analysis (CA) is a method for investigating the structure and process of social interaction between humans. It is a way of thinking about and analyzing the pragmatics of ordinary conversation, focusing on the interactive, practical construction of everyday interchanges.

" Conversation is a process in which people interact on a moment-by-moment, turn-by-turn basis. During a sequence of turns participants exchange talk with each other, but, more important, they exchange social or communicative actions. These actions are the moves of conversation considered as a collection of games. Indeed, conversational actions are some of the most important moves of the broader game of everyday life." (Nofsinger, p. 10) "Conversation may be taken to be that familiar predominant kind of talk in which two or more participants freely alternate in speaking, which generally occurs outside specific institutional settings like religious services, law courts, classrooms and the like" (Levinson, 1983, p. 284)

 Turn  Turn-taking  Floor  Transition Relevance Place(TRP)  Local management System

Pauses, overlaps, and backchannels Overlap  Smooth transitions from one speaker to the next seem to be valued. Transitions with a long silence between turns or with substantial Overlap (both speakers trying to speak at the same time) are felt to be awkward.  For example you can see on page 73 number 1. The type of overlap shown in conversation between Mr. Strait and Dave is simply part of difficult first conversation with an unfamiliar person

Attributable Silence  Attributable silence is if one speaker actually turns over the floor to another and the other does not speak, then the silence is attributed to the second speaker and becomes significant. Example: on page 73 number 2

Overlap Communicate Closeness  overlapped talk appears to function like an expression of solidarity or closeness in expressing similar opinions or values. the effect of the overlapping talk creates a feeling of two voices collaborating as one, in harmony.

Overlap Communicate Competition  For example you can open page 74 number 4  the speakers may appear to be having a discussion, but they are, in fact, competing for the floor. The point at overlap occurs is treated as an interruption and the first speaker actually has to make a comment about procedure with a louder voice, shown by the capital letters in ‘wait CAN I FINISH?’

Backchannels Caller: if you use your long distance service a lot then you’ll Mary : uh-uh Caller: be interested in the discount I’m talking about because Mary : Yeah Caller: it can only save you money to switch to a cheaper service Mary : mmm

 These type of signal (‘uh-uh’, ’yeah’, ’mmm’) provide feedback to the current speaker that the message is being received. They normally indicate that the listener is following, and not objecting to, what speaker is saying.

Conversational Style  High involvement style  High considerateness style

Adjacency Pairs An adjacency pair is a unit of conversation that contains an exchange of one turn each by two speakers. The turns are functionally related to each other in such a fashion that the first turn requires a certain type or range of types of second turn.

question → answer "What does this big red button do?" → "It causes two-thirds of the universe to implode" complaint → excuse/remedy "It's awfully cold in here" → "Oh, sorry, I'll close the window" inform → acknowledge "Your phone is over there" → "I know"

Automatic Pattern greeting → response “Assalamu’alaikum” → “Wa’alaikumsalam”

Insertion Sequence ( Q 1 —Q 2 —A 2 —A 1 ) Form Q1 - Q2 - A2 - A1 (one adjacency pair within another): Agent: Do you want the early flight? (Q 1 ) Client: What time does it arrive? (Q 2 ) Agent: Nine forty-five (A 2 ) Client: Yeah - that's great (A 1 ) Mix of different sequences possible: Jean: Could you mail this letter for me? (Request) Fred: Does it have a stamp on?(Q 2 ) Jean: Yeah. (A 2 ) Fred: Okay (Acceptance) Also with temporary interactional exit: A: Uhm, what’s the price now with VAT? (Q 1 ) B: Er, I’ll just work that out for you(Hold) A: Thanks (Acceptance) (10.0 s) B: Three Dollars nineteen a tube, Sir (A 1 )

Opening Sections (Summons-Answer Sequences) Child : Mommy? summons Mum: Yes, dear. answer Child : Can I have chocolate? reason for summons In telephone conversations the ringing of the telephone acts as the summons. Additional potential problems are identification/recognition A: (causes telephone to ring at B’s location)summons B: Helloanswer + display for recognition A: Higreeting 1 + claim that A has recognized B + claim that B can recognize A B: Oh hi!greeting 2 + claim thatB has recognized A

Closing Sections A: Why don’t we all have lunch? B: Okay, so that would be in St. Jude’s wouldn’t it? A: Yes B: Okay so … A: One o’clock in the bar closing implicative topic (arrangement) B: Okay A: Okay? one or more pairs of passing turns with B: Okay then thanks very much indeed George – pre-closing items (okay, alright, so …) A: - Alright B: //See you there A: //See you there B: Okay A: Okay // bye terminal elements B: // bye

Preference Structure  Preference structure divides second parts into preferred and dispreferred social acts  The preferred is the structurally expected next act  The dispreferred is the structurally unexpected next act.  The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures are presented in the table 8.I. (page 79)

In considering requests of offers as first parts, acceptance is the preferred and refusal is the dispreferred second part  Acceptance in agreement is the preferred second part response to a request, an offer, an assessment, or a proposal.  Look at the examples in page 79 [8.1], [I5] page 80 [ I6], [I7] page 81 [ I8]  The patterns associated with a dispreferred second in English in page 81 [I9]