Conversation analysis
Definition
An approach to the analysis of (authentic, recorded) spoken discourse that examines:
a) How spoken discourse is organized.
b) How conversations develop as people carry out everyday interactions.
c) Sequence and structure: Opening and closing, turn taking, adjacency pairs.
Conversation analysis is the study of recorded, naturally occurring talk-ininteraction. But what is the aim of studying these interactions? Principally, it is to
discover how participants understand and respond to one another in their turns at talk,
with a central focus on how sequences of action are generated."
CA is an approach to the study of natural conversation, especially with a view to
determining the following :
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Participants’ methods of turn-taking
constructing sequences of utterances across turns
identifying and repairing problems, and employing gaze and movement
How conversation works in different conventional settings.
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1. Adjacency pairs in conversational exchanges
• Speech acts are clearly related to what conversation analysts have called adjacency
pairs or pairs of utterances that usually occur together (an ordered pair of adjacent utterances
spoken by two different speakers. Once the first utterance is spoken, the second is required) .
They are utterances produced by two speakers in a way that the second utterance is
identified as related to the first one and expected to follow-up to it. The two utterances
form a pair. Adjacency pairs are the basic structural unit in a conversation.
The production of a speech act such as an offer will normally be accompanied by a
response. And this response may be a preferred one, that is, acceptance, or a dispreferred
one or refusal . Other examples of expected pairings are greeting and greeting,
information and acknowledgement, etc.
When a speaker produces the first pair part, an appropriate second pair part is expected.
• The most often used adjacency pair is question answer but there are others such as:
a.greeting-greeting;
b. congratulations-thanks;
c. apology-acceptance;
d. inform-acknowledge;
e. leave taking-leave taking
1. Greeting - Greeting
-Hello
-Hi
2. Summons - answer
-Jimmy!
-Coming mother
3. Complaint – Denial
-The room is a mess!
-I was out!!
4. Complaint - apology
-It’s ten minutes past the hour?
-My car broke down.
5. Request - grant
-Can I have some sugar?
-Sure
6. Request for information - grant
-When is the bus arriving
-After ten minutes
7. Offer -accept
-Do you need help with that ?
-Definitely!
8. Offer - reject
-Chocolate?
-I’m on a diet, thanks .
9.congratulations-thanks
10. apology-acceptance
11. leave taking-leave taking
- ".Well, I have some stuff to do
Now.
- Oh, before you go, what time
do you want to meet tomorrow?
2. OPENINGS & CLOSINGS:
Conversations do not simply begin and end. The opening and closing of conversations
are organized.
1. Speakers use adjacency pairs to open a conversation such as (greeting/greeting)
A: What’s up
B: Not much, what’s up with you?
1. The (first topic) is held back until the conversation develops from opening to a
point where it can be introduced.
A: I’m fine, I’m just upset because of this new manager at the office…
— Opening of telephone conversations follows a certain sequence:
— 1. Summons/Answer.
— 2. Identification/recognition.
— 3. Greeting.
— 4. How are you.
— 5. Reason for call.
The stage of the conversation
—The context and stage of conversation are very important for assigning a particular
adjacency pair.
—‘Hello’ can be a summons in a phone call or a response, It can also be a way of
greeting someone on the street.
—Any more examples?
Different openings in different cultures
— Australia: The caller self-identified in their first turn after recognizing the
speaker rather than second turn.
— China: They go straight from summons identification to the topic without
greeting.
— Egypt: The caller starts with demanding identification of the identity of the
answerer. The reason is that many calls result in wrong numbers.
CLOSING CONVERSATIONS
— -Pre-closing:
Two-turn units ‘Ok’ or ‘alright’ and falling intonation:e.g.
— It's been nice talking to you.
— It's been great talking with you.
— I really enjoyed meeting you.
— It was nice meeting you, Mr. Brown.
— I'm sorry, but I have to go now.
-Closing:
Two-turn units ‘bye bye’, ‘bye bye’.
.I look forward to seeing you again
.We'll see you on Friday
.See you next week
.Let me give you my business card
.Here's my e-mail/office number
.Let's keep in touch by e-mail
We'll be in touch.
3. TURN TAKING
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.
End of turn & Holding on to a turn
— Signalling end of turn:
— 1. completion of syntactic unit.
— 2. Use of falling intonation.
— 3. Pausing
— 4. Fillers (mm) (anyway)
5. Eye contact, body language and movement
— Holding on to a turn:
— 1. Not pausing too long at the end of an utterance, and starting straight away.
— 2. Pausing during an utterance not at the end.
— 3. Increase the volume by extending a syllable or a vowel.
— 4. Speak over someone else’s attempt to take our turn.
Turn taking varies according to….
— The situation, in a classroom for example a teacher nominates who can take a
turn, a student may or may not respond….
— The topic : people take a turn when they have something to say, or when they
want to change the topic.
— Relationship a child may be instructed not to speak with adult guests unless
spoken to…
— Rank: To some degree, turn taking is by rank, the right to talk is an indicator of the
status of the speaker and the degree to which all participants are from the same
rank.
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Back-channelling is a way of showing a speaker that you are following what they
are saying and understand, often through interjections like I see, yes, OK and uhu