Researching Conversation: An Overview

Psychology of Language COM 370 John R. Baldwin

All the Usual Suspects

Conversation Analysis Discourse Analysis

Whats the text Level of detail? Main differences?

CA in more detail (Ten Have)

Pure CA: Concerned with the general issues, structure of talk as such, regardless of context, institution Applied CAcourtrooms, meetings, interviews, and so on

Charles Antaki on Applied CA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxTkOFxcr8&feature=player_embedded#at=11

CA: Three example studies

Sacks: Rules of conversational sequence, natural next actions versus occasionally usables (call-center study) rules for conversational sequence Schegloff: Sequences in conversational openings (summonsanswer sequence) S&S: Openings and closings: rules of adjacency pairs: closing sections (well)

Some Research Basics: CA

What are the underlying assumptions Approach is:

Top-down? [theory data]: Theory = lens Bottom-up? [data theory]: Theory = explanatory framework

Social structure can be seen: _________ What counts as data? __________________

Collecting data Transcribing data

Adjacency pairs

Two-utterance length Adjacent positioning (though later this varies) Different speakers produce each utterance (Schegloff & Sacks, in Ten Have, 1999) A close-ordering of utterances which makes their use relevant for specific purposes

Some types of adjacency pairs

Question answer Greeting greeting Offer acceptance/rejection Compliment acknowledgement (acceptance/rejection) Request grant

(Clark & Clark, Ch. 6)

Characterizing speech turns some examples

One List (Dore, 1975) labelling repeating answering requesting (action) requesting (answer) calling greeting protesting practicing

Studying Spanish? Not like this!

http://www.is.cs.cmu.edu/Clarity.Tagging. Manual/SAtags.html

CA Steps: Overall Process

(Ten Have, 1999)

(Assuming you already have transcript) 1. Locate data fragment (sequence) 2. Analyze interlocking organizations
a.
b. c. d.

Turn-taking Sequence Repair Turn construction/design

3. 4.

Take notes on transcript or notebook Try to formulate general observations

CA Steps: Interlocking Organization

(Ten Have, 1999)

1. Turn-taking:

Gaps, pauses Overlaps and Interruptions

Overlaps: Continues the previous turn of the other (Person A continues) Occurs at a TRP (Transition-Relevant Place) Interruptions: Takes turn away from other (Person B continues speaking) Occurs NOT at a TRP

TCU: Turn-Constructional Unit Indication of next turns [three rules, if naturally occurring conversation]

CA Steps: Interlocking Organization

(Ten Have, 1999) 2.

Sequence:

Adjacency pairs Relevant and accountable responses Inserts; presequences; core sequences Prefaces, summaries Glosses; [summary for possible expansion] Cycles (QA, jokes Tags that anticipate answers, etc. Recipient design!

CA Steps: Interlocking Organization

(Ten Have, 1999)
3.

Repair:

trouble sources self- and other-initiated repairs NTRI: Next-turn repair initiator: huh? What? TRPs: Transition-relevant places occasionally usable repairs continuers misalignment

CA Steps: Interlocking Organization

(Ten Have, 1999)

4.Turn construction/design: turn length Address speaker design preference organization (what would typically follow, such as an apology) turn shape:

Ex: acceptance versus rejection of an invitation Ex: How does first pair part suggest second pair part?

A Final (Possible) Step

(Pomerantz & Fehr)

Implication of identities, roles, relationships

What do turns tell you about relationship of interactants? What do you know about social structure, status (individual or group)? For example, does the text incorporate gendered identities (Note: you can only tell from the data, not from previous research on gender and communication!)

An exercise

Choose a portion (segment) of the transcript given to you in class. We will listen to a video 3 times. Use the transition notation to mark the text. Use the notes to try to locate different organization patterns. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eNF5hb6 gzk

Speech Act Theory

Grices Theory of Conversational Implicature

Maxims Conversational Implicature Locutionary (utterance), Illocutionary, and Perlocutionary forces Five types of Speech Acts

Searles Speech Act Theory

Discourse Analysis (Blum-Kulka)

Illocutionary Content

Cooperative Principle Grices Maxims

Relation Quality Quantity Manner

Grice (continued)

Implicature

Conversational/conventional (we wont distinguish)

Implied meaning of utterance: Hows it goin? Flouting (exploitation) of Grices maxims Tautology: Boys will be boys. Irony/sarcasm: You look great, today! Exaggeration: You look like death warmed over. Understatement: Its a tad cold out there. Overt lie: Ohits just something I threw on.

Is it individual or shared?

Application of Grices maximsinfluenced by:

Context Roles/status [Relationship] Culture

Speech Acts Theory

Illocutionary

Locutionary

Content

Types of linguistic force

(content) Illocutionary (intent) Perlocutionary (force or effect)

Speech Acts Theory Felicity conditions/constitutive rules

Propositional content Preparatory conditions/situational rules Sincerity conditions Essential conditions

Speech Acts Theory

Types of speech acts (p. 242)

Representative

Directive
Commissive Expressive

Declarative

Miscommunication Implicature (again!)

Indirect speech acts

Transparency

Illocutionary Propositional; Question preparatory conditions Emphasize sincerity condition Prediction of future act

Conventionality thesis

Pragmatic duality Conventional and unconventional politeness

Compare level of transcription with CA Locate adjacency pair What happens in each turn (speech acts)? Are Grices maxims observed or violated? Does conversational implicature occur?
Blum-Kulka, 1997, p. 44

Politeness!

Save this reading! We will come back to the section on politeness later! I mean

Can you save this reading? Would you mind possibly saving this reading? Would you be able to save this reading? Would you be kind enough to save this reading? Perhaps it would be better to This section is not relevant now, but will be important later WOULD YOU JUST SAVE THIS FRIGGIN READING!?

Other Approaches (Tracy, 1991)

Assumptions
Ethnomethodology (CA)

Method nuances

Example Topics

Naturally occurring Atheoretical

Formal/Structural Culturally Focused Discourse Processing Discourse & Identity

Two Examples

Evasions Apologies

Evasions

Types of evasions?

Type of research? (how do you know?( Applications?

Apologies

Form and function

Unambiguous: Im sorry for eating your hamster (responsibility, regret, intention not to do it again) Regret: Im sorry about your hamster Redirected responsibility: Well, someone left the hamster in the refrigerator No wrongdoing: Well, thats what hamsters are for, right?

Apologies

When would you want a full, canonical apology? When would you not? When can the following not really be apologies?

Public official apologies Legal court apologies Im sorry, Mr. Smith is out of town until Monday

1. 2.

Nonverbal behavior and apologies Lexical semantics: The Function of Apologies

Apologies, Excuses, Justifications, and Explanations The parts of an apology (p. 205) One-ups and one-downs What are some ways we distance ourselves from apologies?

3.

Syntax and the apology:

4. Pragmatics: Speech acts: What are the felicity conditions of an apology? (pp. 207208) 5. Speech Event: How is an apology situated within a larger conversational event?

Register: Genre: Key: Maxims? Speech Acts? Implicature?

6. 7. 8.

CA: Preferred 2nd-pair parts, etc. Narrative analysis (rhetoric) Apologies and sociolinguistics

Culture Gender/sex

9. Textual analysis: Apology as document (more rhetoric)

Apologies

Kanye West: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYqYB1UpAQQ Tiger Wood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs8nseNP4s0 The apology song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZctK51RwK8A Another apology song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjyr90S1DmQ&feature=related I didnt mean it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5TKUonQLns

Conversation Analysis:

Apologies in adjacency pairs

http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adtWCU20030626.150323/unrestricted/09appe ndixAB.pdf