Note: this PPT uses some slides from a session “Talk at Work” given by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beneke on

04.11.2003

interchange through speech of information, ideas etc.

an informal talk in which people exchange news, feelings and thoughts

Related terms:

discourse serious speech or piece of writing on a particular subject

differences: more formal, less interactive

communicationprocess of creation, transmission and receiving of messages

conversation is a part of communication

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Conversation is not a structural product in the same way that a sentence is – it is rather the outcome of two or more independent, goal-directed individuals, with often divergent interests.

Stephen C Levinson

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social process verbal exchange between two or more

persons bound to a conventional system of usage bound to a shared vocabulary takes place constantly in social

interaction verbal and non-verbal components

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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

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discover phenomena of conversation and its organization

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How do participants of a social action structure, order and coordinate their action, the action of others and the actual situation

formal principles and mechanism of social organization and verbal and non-verbal interaction

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analyze naturally occurring material inductive way of research

audio/video recording and transcription

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sequence analysis

no analysis of singular sentences

problem of categorization: no analysis taken out of the sequence will bring the correct resultsentences are context-bound

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A: Do you have a cigarette?B: Yes I do.

question as a linguistic form ≠ question as a conversational object

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opening and closing conversation topic-organization turn-taking adjacency pairs next speaker selection

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Describes what people are saying as…- transmission of news- requesting - invitation - compliments- denial- complaints- arguments etc.

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Studies on structural characteristics of interaction in judicial, educational, medical and psychological institutions....

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Current speaker Next speaker

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Current speaker may select next speaker

Next speaker may self-select himself

Current speaker may continue speaking

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Question - answer Greeting - greeting Offer – acceptance Request - acceptance Complaint – excuse

Fundamental unit to conversational organization

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A sequence of two utterances Adjacent Produced by different speakers Ordered as a first pair part (FPP) and a

second pair part (SPP) An FPP requires a SPP Given a first, not anything goes as a

second

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Eg. “Do you know how to get to Building 117?”

Answer Assurance of ignorance Suggestion for asking someone else (re-

routing) Postponement Refusal to provide an answer

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starting and closing a conversation

moves in conversations

First utterance has the function of selecting next speaker

Components can be used to build longer sequences

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Adjacency pairs embedded in adjacency pairs(Insert expansions)

Clarifying

Delay of expected response

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A: Can I borrow your car? questionB: When?A: This afternoon. insertionB: For how long? sequencesA: A couple of hours.B: Okay. answer

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Sometimes, an adjacency pair is inserted before another (related) adjacency pair, in order to: Set the stage

E.g. Pre-announcement A: Did you hear the news? FPP B: No, what? SPP A : I’m engaged! FPP (core:

announcement) B: WOW! SPP

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Protect the speaker E.g. Pre- invitation A: Are you busy tomorrow night? FPP B: No, no plans. SPP A: Shall we go to the movies? FPP (core:

invite) B: Sure! SPP

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Protect the listener E.g. Asking something delicate A: Can I ask you something kind of personal

FPP B: Yeah, go ahead

SPP A: Exactly how do you feel about Norman?

FPP (core: delicate question)

B: I like him a lot, but there’s nothing between us, if that’s what you mean. SPP

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Post-expansions are (related)APs that occur after another (core) AP. They may also be used for clarification.

E.g. A: Who was it said you couldn’t go FPP

(core) B: Steve SPP A: Who’s he? FPP B: He’s in charge of registration, he said they

were full up SPP

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Sometimes, an adjacency pair will have a third part to it.

This is called the Sequence Closing Third (SC3)

E.g. A: Could you do this for me? FPP B: Sure! SPP A: Great! SC3

SC3s are a type of post-expansion.

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