5 Discourse and Conversation

DISCOURSE ANALYSISBRIAN PALTRIDGE

Professor: Dr. Sheykhi

Presented by: Nastaran Razavi

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.

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.

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.

Transcription conventionsParticular 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:

Transcription conventionsThe list below is fairly representative of the most widely-used

symbols.

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.

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

Opening conversationsOne 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 ...)

Opening conversationsThe 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.

Closing conversationsSchegloff 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:

Closing conversationsButton 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.)

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).

Turn taking

Some ways showing the end of a turn

Turn taking

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).

Adjacency pairs

• Utterance function Expected response

• • greeting greeting• congratulation thanks• apology acceptance

• inform acknowledge