CONVERSATION ANALYSIS,04.12.2006,Sindy Kermer Melanie Mller,2,1 What is conversation? a way of using language socially, of “doing things with words” an interaction of two or more participants number of participants and length of contribution to the conversation can vary open-ended, has the potential to develop in any way planned occasions for speaking, such as meetings or debates,WHAT IS CONVERSATION ANALYSIS?,CA is the study of recorded, naturally occurring talk-in-interaction. Its object of study is the interactional organization of social activities. CA aims at discovering how participants understand and respond to one another in their turns at talk, with a central focus on how sequences of actions are generated. CA is only marginally interested in language as such, but first and foremost in language as a practical social accomplishment.,Background to CA, Harold Garfinkel, 1960s, ethnomethodological/ sociological approach organization of talk-in-interaction empirical approach which avoids premature theory construction methods are inductive- search for recurring patterns gathering data and analysis of data of actual pieces of language, real-life-conversations data-driven theorizing,MindMap,Conversational Analysis,Practical Examples Conversations between friends Relationship counselling sessions Legal hearings,Fields Ethnomethodology Discursive Psychology Qualitative Research,People Harvey Sacks Emanuel Schegloff,Audio/video recordings Transcripts Analyses are both context-free = (-) ethnographic context context-renewing = (+) conversational context, avoids analyses based on a single text as many instances as possible of some particular phenomenon examined across texts discover the systematic properties of the sequential organization of talk and the ways in which utterances are designed to manage such sequences,Basic notions,turn: basic unit of conversation may contain many illocutions, is everything a speaker communicates during a unit of conversation turn-taking: basic form of organization for conversation speaker-change occurs mostly, one speaker talks at a time transition from one turn to the next without gap or overlap turn order and size not fixed,Turn-Taking length and topic of contribution not specified in advance current speaker may select another speaker or parties may self-select in starting to talk transition from one turn to the next without gap or overlap turn order and size not fixed repair mechanisms: deal with turn-taking errors and violations Size of turns is variable but there is a tendency toward minimalization,Transition Relevance Places (TRP) transition: a relay of the right to speak to the next speaker mechanisms of selection (self- or other-) TRP can be exploited by the speaker holding the floor directly, for the purpose of allocating the right to speak to a next speaker of his/her choice indirectly, by throwing the floor wide open to whoever speaker may just ignore the TRP and continue past,A Transition Relevance Place (TRP) is a point at which a turn change can occur. Typical techniques for selecting next speaker: Question (offer or request) + address term Tagged assertion + address feature Repair initiators Who? You did what? Pardon?,Previewing TRPs Why are we often able to predict the end of somebodys speech? Adjacency Pairs changes of speed delivery intonation word-choice patterns,04.12.2006,Sindy Kermer Melanie Mller,13,Adjacency Pairs discovery that became a starting point for a whole new approach (similar as speech acts to pragmatics) two subsequent utterances constituting a conversational exchange distinction between first pair part and second pair part,Adjacency Pairs: Examples Complaint/denial Ken : Hey yuh took my chair by the way an I dont think that was very nice Al: I didnt take yer chair, its my chair. Compliment/rejection A: Im glad I have you for a friend. B: Thats because you dont have any others.,PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION OF ADJACENCY PAIRS,An inferential aspect of adjacency pairs stems from the fact that certain first pair parts make alternative actions relevant in second position. In some adjacency pairs there is a choice of two likely responses, of which one is termed preferred response (because it occurs more frequently), and the other dispreferred (because it is less common).,Preferred response = unmarked response Dispreferred response = marked response Preferred response to an invitation is an acceptance Dispreferred response is a declination,Adjacency Pairs,PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION,1. Offer A: Like a lift? -acceptance (preferred) B: You saved my life. -refusal (dispreferred) B: Thanks, but Im waiting for my friend 2. Compliment A: Thats a nice shirt. -acceptance (preferred) B: Thanks -rejection (dispreferred) B: Well, I think it makes me look old -agreement (preferred) B: Its qui