Conversation: Understanding Language Use in Dialogues

Conversation Introduction

• Situating naturally occurring conversation
• Conversation Analysis (CA) attends to the various
  mechanisms determining people's use of
  language in conversation:
• Who speaks first?
• Who holds the floor?
• What are the rules for turn-taking?

. How do we know when to interrupt, relinquish the floor?Intro (2)
CA looks at the context of spoken
utterances.
Societal aspects of conversation have no
place in the analysis of conversational
context.
However, we must look further than the
interaction to get a full sense of language
use in conversation.

Conversation analysts study conversations - of all kinds. They
are happy to put under the microscope anything from diagnosing
schizophrenia to answering questions in court, and from talking over
family matters at dinner to guiding a pilot through fog. All are done
through talk.
So the 'conversations' studied are perhaps not just the ones that you
might first think of - casual chat among friends - though the
conversation analyst is interested in those too. Social life, business
life, healthcare, education, leisure, politics - in all of these, talk
makes things happen, and the conversation analyst has something
to say about how.
CA is now a settled discipline, developed since the pioneering work
in the sixties by the sociologist Harvey Sacks. What it has
accumulated as insights and findings can be brought to bear on any
set of data where language is used in interaction. Its cross-light
shows up subtleties in the terrain which are invisible from a more
common-sensical', straight-down perspective ((Source:
https://learn.Iboro.ac.uk/ludata/cx/ca-tutorials/

Analyzing Conversation

Analyzing Content

How can we analyze conversation?
. By analyzing CONTENT
Topics discussed
How topics are managed (the topical
organization of conversation)
Function of conversation (how meaningful it
is: chit-chat; small talk.

Analyzing Formal Aspects

By analyzing formal aspects
How conversation works
What rules are observed
How sequencing is achieved
Gaining and giving up the floor
Turn-taking; pausing; interrupting, among
other.

How Conversation Works

How
does conversation work?
Floor
Turn-taking
Local management system
Transition Relevance Place (TRP)
Overlaps, pauses and backchannels
Adjacency pairs
Sequences

Discussion Question

Discussion Question
Why does Wilkinson and Kitzinger refer to
the building blocks of social life to analyze
talk-in-interaction? (p. 24)

Definitions

Definitions
Floor: the right to speak
Turn: having control of the floor
Turn-taking: attempt to get control
Local management system:
conventionally accepted turn-taking
system by members of a social group
(who gets the turn, who keeps it, who
gives it away?)

Transition Relevance Place

Transition Relevance Place (TRP): the
change-of-turn point accepted by a social
group
So CA is interested in knowing how
participants engage in turn-taking control
to facilitate (or not) interaction and
negotiate the topic at turn.

Transitions in Conversation

Transitions
Overlaps: speakers trying to speak at the same
time (how smooth transitions are can reveal that
more is communicated than is said)
Pauses: suspension of talk at the turn
Attributable silence: when one speaker turns over the
floor to another and the other does not speak, the
silence is attributable to the second speaker and
becomes significant.
◼
Backchannels or backchannel signals: cues
to indicate that someone is listening, provide
feedback that the message is being received.
Overlaps, pauses, and backchannel signals
are significant in conversation and should not be
taken for granted. They matter for the local
management system of talk.

Transcription Systems

Gumperz Transcription System

• Transcription system of Gumperz
  M: S: == um so, i think may be just post
  traumatic/
• Lower
  case
  letters
  S:
  == because it's - {[f] it's been about
  three months/}
  (,)

indicates a
slight rise
M:
but the pain's been redu- {didc] has
been reducing/}
S:
EE it's not- definitely not *increased/
More fortis tone
Truncation
normal
prominence or
accent
Deceleration of the
segment in curly
brackets

• Standard orthography

Jefferson Transcription System

Jefferson Transcription 101: How conversation
analysts transcribe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1LpiID
Kp2I

• The Jeffersonian transcription system
• (-) indicates light stress.
• (:)indicates that the immediately preceding sound is prolonged
• (,) indicates a slight rise in intonation
• (0.6) indicates silent pause time in tenths of a second
• (.) indicates a tiny gap.
• 
  indicates an utterance that the author has referred into the text.
  Mr F:
  Got them sorted out the: tent's:
  the tent's up and everything,
  Jessie:
  Ye:s,
  Mr F:
  A:nd uh:m (0.6) uh I've just given
  them a mea :. I so: (.) they're gonna be uh it'll
  keep them warm for a while,

Modified Jefferson-type CA

• Modified Jefferson-type CA
  Spelling (to represent pronunciation variation)-> avoided.
  The wide availability of speech software > possible to
  attend in great detail to phonemic realization.
  Turns
  overlap
  B: what'd he say
  A: (m but) he sent you a le:tter too
  >yeah< he's lookin' forward to it
  (.)
  A: he'[s got eighteen days t]otal
  Pause length in
  seconds
  B: [well I am ]
  (0.6)
  B: huh
  (.)
  Intakes of
  breath (.hh)
  A: he's only got eighteen days total
  but
  B: yeah
  (0.7)
  B: does he play mostly soprano or
  what
  A: he plays everything he plays alto

Explaining CA Transcript Notation

Explaining the notation in a
CA transcript
https://learn.lboro.ac.uk/ludata/cx/ca-
tutorials/notation.htm

Greetings in Action

Greetings in action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtOG5PK8xDA
Dr. Elisabeth Stokoe (minute 3.44-11.29)

• What is the importance of CA?
• Why do the way we construct our openings in telephone calls
  matter?

Conversation Analysis Resources

What is CA?
A tutorial by Charles Antaki (Loughborough University)
http://ca-tutorials.lboro.ac.uk/sitemenu.htm
Emanuel A. Schegloff's Home Page (UCLA)
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/schegloff/
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/schegloff/new-
clips/turn-taking.html (Sound data for turn-taking)
Transcription in Action (University of California, Santa
Barbara )
http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/projects/transcription/projec
ts.html

Adjacency Pairs

Adjacency pairs: automatic patterns in the
structure of conversation
FIRST PART
SECOND PART
An answer
An acceptance
An invitation
An acceptance
An assessment
An agreement
A proposal
An agreement
A greeting
A greeting
An apology
A complaint
A blame
A denial
A question
An offer

Preferred and Dispreferred Structures

Preferred and dispreferred structures in
adjancency pairs
Preferred structure is the structurally
expected next act
. Dispreferred structure is the structurally
unexpected next act

Assessment
Invitation
Offer
Proposal
Request
Agree (P)/disagree (D)
Accept (P)/refuse (D)
Accept (P)/decline (D)
Agree (P)/disagree (D)
Accept (P)/refuse (D)
*** SILENCE in the second
part indicates a
dispreferred response

Sequences in Conversation

Sequences
Stretches of utterances or turns that
emerge in conversation and that speakers
are mutually constructing anf negotiating
PRE-SEQUENCES
INSERTION SEQUENCES
OPENING AND CLOSING

Pre-sequences

Pre-sequences
· Prepare the ground for a further sequence
and signal the type of utterance to follow:
Pre-invitations, pre-requests, pre-
announcements, etc.
A: You know The Reader is playing tonight at
Odeon' s?
B: Really?
A: You wanna go?
B: Uhm, yeah, why not?

Insertion Sequences

Insertion sequences
. They are embedded within another
adjancecy pair:
A: You know The Reader is playing tonight at
Odeon' s?
B: Really?
. A: You wanna go?
B: What time does it start?
A: Seven thirty
. B: Uhm, yeah, why not?

Openings and Closings

Openings and Closings
Openings are conventional structures
accepted in a social group to open the
conversation: greetings
Brenda: Hi Lee
Lee: Hi, Hi, Brenda
Brenda: How are you?
Lee: Not to bad. I'll be in in a minute (BNC: Brenda, 1991)

Closings: are conventional structures accepted in
a social group to close the conversation:
goodbyes
A: Anyway, I'm gonna have to go
B: Yeah. See you
A: See you tomorrow
B: What time is it?
A: Half three
B: Oh, I' ve left my lights on
A: Oh ciao
B: Bye

Mair's Deli Excerpt Analysis

In the excerpt below there are four adjacency pairs. Identify
the structure of the exchange (main sequence, insertion
sequences and how they are related). Then try to decipher the
nature of each part in the four pairs.
Excerpt 1: Mair's Deli
01
Archie: Can I have a sandwich to take away please?
02
Eric: What would you like?
03
Archie: What would you recommend?
04
Eric: Are you a vegetarian?
Archie: Yes.
05
06
07
Archie: Okay, I'll have one of those then!
Eric: Well the pea and walnut pate is good.
08
Eric:
Right, that'll be £2.20 please.

Excerpt 1: Mair's Deli
Archie: Can I have a sandwich to take away please?
Eric: What would you like? DP/IS
Archie: What would you recommend? IS
Eric: Are you a vegetarian? IS
Archie: Yes. PR
Eric: Well the pea and walnut pate is good. PR
Archie: Okay, I'll have one of those then! PR
Eric: Right, that'll be £2.20 please. PR
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08

Turn Construction Units (TCUs)

Turn construction units (TCUs)
TCUs are turns at talk (e.g. in sentences,
clauses, single words or phrases).

Components of the Turn-Taking Model

The two components of the turn-
taking model
1: TCUs have the property of
projectability: it is possible for participants
to project, in the course of TCU, what sort
of unit it is and at what point it is likely to
end.
2: TCUs have transition-relevance places
TRPs)
at their boundaries: at the end of
each TCU there is the possibility for
legitimate transition between speakers.

Analyzing Extract 2

-Read extract 2 analysis (Wilkinson &
Kitzinger) and answer these questions:
1. Type of adjancecy pair
2. Is line 2 a TRP? Why?
3. Are lines 2 and 3 preferred or
dispreferred responses? Why?

Overlaps and Interruptions

Overlaps and interrruptions
So ..
What happens when people disrupt
TCUs?

Interruptions (West and Zimmermann, 1983)

Interruptions (West and
Zimmermann, 1983)
have
the
potential
to
disrupt
a
speaker's
turn
and
disorganize
ongoing
construction
of
the
conversational
top
of
the
first
speaker;
a regarded as a hostile act

A second speaker begins speaking at
what could not be a TRP
na violation of the first speaker's turn
na device for exercising power and
control in a conversation
a deep intrusion & penetration of first
speaker's utterance.

Interruption (Jennifer Coates)

Interruption (Jennifer Coates)
Violation of turn-taking rules of conversation.
The next speaker begins to speak while the
current speaker is still speaking, at a point in the
current speaker's turn which could not be defined
as the last word.
Interruptions break the symmetry of the
conversational model: the interruption prevents
the first speaker from finishing his/her turn, at the
same time gaining a turn for oneself (second
speaker).