Conversation Analysis PALTDRIGE WHAT IS CONVERSATION ANALYSIS Conversation

Conversation Analysis PALTDRIGE

WHAT IS CONVERSATION ANALYSIS? Conversation analysis is an approach to the analysis of spoken discourse that looks at the way in which people manage their everyday conversational interactions. • It examines how spoken discourse is organized and develops as speakers carry out these interactions. Conversation analysis has examined aspects of spoken discourse such as(i) sequences of related utterances (adjacency pairs), (ii) preferences for particular combinations of utterances (preference organization), (iii) turn taking, (iv) feedback, (v) repair, (vi) conversational openings and (vii) closings, (viii) discourse markers and response tokens. • Conversation analysis works with recordings of spoken data and carries out careful and fine-grained analyses of this data.

BACKGROUND TO CA Conversation analysis originated in the early 1960 s at the University of California with the work of Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson. Conversation analysis comes from the field of sociology. How language goes about performing social action. Conversation analysts are interested, in particular, in how social worlds are jointly constructed and recognized by speakers as they take part in conversational discourse.

BACKGROUND TO CA Early work in conversation analysis looked mostly at everyday spoken interactions such as casual conversation. This has since been extended to include spoken discourse such as doctor-patient consultations, legal hearings, news interviews, psyciatric interviews interactions in courtrooms and classrooms.

ISSUES IN CA A key issue in conversation analysis is the view of ordinary conversation as the most basic form of talk. For conversation analysts, conversation is the main way in which people come together, exchange information, negotiate and maintain social relations. A further key feature of conversation analysis is the primacy of the data as the source of information. Conversation analysis, thus, focuses on the analysis of the text for its argumentation and explanation, rather than consideration of psychological or other factors that might be involved in the production and interpretation of the discourse.

ISSUES IN CA Conversation analysts look for phenomena which regularly occur in the data and then make that the point of further investigation. Interest is in fine-tuned analysis of the sequence, structure and coherence of conversations. In this view, conversation is seen as context-shape and context-renewing in the sense that 'anything anyone says in conversation both builds on what has been said or what has been going on. . . [as well as] creates the conditions for what will be said next’ (Gardner 1994: 102).

TRANSCRIBING AND CODING DATA • The transcription of the data is also the analysis. Texts are, thus, recorded (either on tape or by video) then analysed at the same time as they are transcribed. • If a particular feature such as the use of increased pitch, or particular sequences of utterances, 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 and, importantly, if speakers respond to it in the same way each time it occurs. In this way, the analysis aims to understand how speakers manage their conversational interactions.

SEQUENCE AND STRUCTURE IN CONVERSATION • Opening conversation • Closing conversation • Turn-taking • Adjacency pairs across cultures • Adjacency pairs and stage of the conversation

OPENING CONVERSATION • Openings in telephone conversations : American private call ((ring)) summons/answer sequence Recipient: Hello Caller: Hi Ida? identilication/recognitien sequence Recipient: Yeah Caller: Hi, this is Carla= greeting sequence Recipient: =Hi Carla. Caller: How are you. how are you sequence Recipient: Okay: . Caller: Good. "' Recipient: =How about you. Caller: Fine. Don wants to know. . reason for call sequence Schegloff 1986: 115

OPENING CONVERSATION • Openings in telephone conversations : Mandarin Chinese private call ((ring)) summons Recipient: Wei? (Hello) answer Caller: Jinghong. identification Recipient: Ei (Yes) recognition ( Yang 1997: 25) The greeting and 'how are you' sequences found in American and Australian phone calls, however, were less common or even absent in Chinese data. The majority of the telephone openings she examined went straight from the identification/recognition sequence to the first topic of the conversation.

CLOSING CONVERSATION • Closings in telephone conversation Four turns of talk, made up of pre-closing and closing moves The pre-closing is often made up of two turn units consisting of items such as 'OK' and 'all right' with falling intonation. The closing is made up of two further units, such as 'bye bye' and 'goodbye. ' (Button 1987: 102) This is an archetype closing. In this closing both speakers mutually negotiate the end of the conversation.

CLOSING CONVERSATION The closing may also be preceded by a number of pre-sequences, such as (i) the making of an arrangement, (ii)referring back to something previously said in the conversation, (iii) the initiation of a new topic (which may not be responded to), (iv) good wishes (such as 'give my love to Jane'), (v) a restatement of the reason for calling (vi) thanks for calling. Equally the closing may be extended by continued repetition of preclosing and closing items (such as 'bye', 'love you', 'sleep well', 'you too', etc. ). Closings are, thus, complex interactional units which are sensitive to the speaker's orientation to continuing, closing (or not wanting to close) the conversation.

TURN TAKING Turn taking deals with how people take and manage turns in spoken interactions. The basic rule in English conversation is that one person speaks at a time, after which they may nominate another speaker, or another speaker may take up the turn without being nominated (Sacks et a/1974; Sacks 2004).

SIGNALS OF TURN TAKING There a number of ways in which we can signal the end of a turn, such as • completion of syntactic unit, • the use of falling intonation, then pausing. • We may also end a unit with a signal such as 'mmm' or 'anyway', etc. which signals the end of the turn. • The end of a turn may also be signalled through eye contact, body position and movement and voice pitch.

EXCERPT (8): E 7)AGREEING/DISSENT 073_091109_00128 (CONVERSATION AT WORKPLACE) MUR AND HAR CRITICIZE THE PERFORMANCES OF THEIR SOCCER TEAM’S FOOTBALL PLAYERS. (E 8)

HOLDING TURN We may hold on to a turn by not pausing too long at the end of an utterance and starting straight away with saying something else. We may also hold on to a turn by pausing during an utterance rather than at the end of it. We may increase the volume of what we are saying by extending a syllable or a vowel, or we may speak over someone else's attempt to take our turn.

EXCERPT (7): AGREEING/ASSENT 061_090622_00020 (CONVERSATION AMONG FAMILY) ISA JUSTIFIES AGAINST HIS MOTHER, ZEY’S CRITICISM WITH EXEMPLIFICATION OF HIS FRIENDS’ BEHAVIOUR. (E 7)

TURN TAKING A speaker may also use overlap as a strategy for taking a turn, as well as to prevent someone else from taking the turn. When speakers pause at the end of a turn, it is not always the case, however, that the next speaker will necessarily take it up. In this case, the pause and the length of the pause become significant at least in English.

ADJACENCY PAIR Adjacency pairs are utterances produced by two successive speakers in a way that the second utterance is identified as related to the first one as an expected follow-up to that utterance.

ADJACENCY PAIR Announcer: Sharon Stone's on the phone. (. ) how are yo: : : u. Caller: very good. Announcer: I bet you get hassled about your surname. Caller: yes I do: : Announcer: and what do you want to tell Patrick. Caller: umm that I love him very much (. 5) and I wish him a very happy birthday for today.

ADJACENCY PAIR 002 OME 000349: buyrun. 003 ? hoş gel[diniz. ] 1(FPP of first adjacency pair) 004 MEH 000328: [merhaba. ] 1(SPP 1 of first adjacency pair) 005 GIZ 000332: merhaba. 1(SPP 2 of first adjacency pair) 006 MEH 000328: biz ee kursa kayıt olacağız. 2(presequence of second adjacency pair) 007 ((0. 1)) ama (hani) ya bilgi (alacağım). 2(FPP 1 of second adjacency pair) 008 GIZ 000332: bilgi alacaktık önc[e. ] 2(FPP 2 of second adjacency pair)

ADJACENCY PAIRS ACROSS CULTURES It is important to point out that what is an expected followup to a seemingly everyday utterance in one language and culture might be quite different in another. Beal's (1992) study of communication problems in a workplace setting between French and English speakers provides an example of this. Beal found that the French workers often responded to the everyday greeting 'Did you have a good weekend? ' by stopping and telling the Englishspeaking workers all about their weekend.

ADJACENCY PAIRS AND STAGE OF THE CONVERSATION The particular context and stage of the conversation are especially important for assigning an utterance the status of a particular pair part. For example: An utterance such as 'thanks' equally can be a response to a compliment, a congratulation or a response to an offer of service. An utterance, thus, may play more than one role in a conversation.

PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION The basic rule for adjacency pairs is that when a speaker produces a first pair part they should stop talking and allow the other speaker to produce a second pair part. There is, however, a certain amount of freedom in responding to some first pair parts. For example a compliment can be followed be an 'accept' or a 'reject'. Thus, some second pair parts may be preferred and others may be dispreferred.

PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION A: Are you going out with anyone at the moment? (Question) B: Uhhh. . . (Delay) Well, kind of. . . (Preface) There is someone I met a while back. . . (Account) Actually, I'm getting married at the end of the year (Unexpected answer)

PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION Common adjacency pairs and typical preferred and dispreferred second pair parts (Levinson 1983) Second pair parts First pair parts Preferred Dispreferred Request acceptance refusal offer/ invite acceptance refusal assessment agreement disagreement Question expected answer unexpected answer non-answer blame denial admission