Researching Conversation:An Overview

Psychology of Language

COM 370

John R. Baldwin

All the Usual Suspects

Conversation Analysis Discourse Analysis

– What’s 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” CA—courtrooms, meetings, interviews, and so on– Charles Antaki on Applied CA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxTkOF-xcr8&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. Turn-takingb. Sequencec. Repaird. Turn construction/design

3. Take notes on transcript or notebook4. 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=1eNF5hb6gzk

Speech Act Theory

Grice’s Theory of Conversational Implicature– Maxims– Conversational Implicature

Searle’s Speech Act Theory– Locutionary (utterance), Illocutionary, and

Perlocutionary forces– Five types of Speech Acts

Illocutionary Content– Cooperative Principle– Grice’s Maxims

RelationQualityQuantityManner

Discourse Analysis (Blum-Kulka)

Grice (continued)

Implicature– Conversational/conventional (we won’t distinguish)

Implied meaning of utterance: “How’s it goin’?” Flouting (“exploitation”) of Grice’s maxims

– Tautology: “Boys will be boys.”– Irony/sarcasm: “You look great, today!”– Exaggeration: “You look like death warmed over.”– Understatement: “It’s a tad cold out there.”– Overt lie: “Oh—it’s just something I threw on.”

– Is it individual or shared?

Application of Grice’s maxims—influenced by:– Context– Roles/status– [Relationship]– Culture

Illocutionary Content– Types of linguistic “force”

Locutionary (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)RepresentativeDirectiveCommissiveExpressiveDeclarative

– Miscommunication– Implicature (again!)

Speech Acts Theory

Indirect speech acts

Transparency– Illocutionary– Propositional;

Conventionality thesis– Question preparatory conditions– Emphasize sincerity condition– Prediction of future act

Pragmatic duality Conventional and unconventional politeness

Compare level of transcription with CA… Locate adjacency pair What happens in each turn (speech acts)? Are Grice’s 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 Method

nuancesExample Topics

Ethnomethodology (CA)

Naturally occurringAtheoretical

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: I’m sorry for eating your hamster

(responsibility, regret, intention not to do it again)– Regret: I’m sorry about your hamster– Redirected responsibility: Well, someone left the

hamster in the refrigerator– No wrongdoing: Well, that’s 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– “I’m sorry, Mr. Smith is out of town until Monday”

1. Nonverbal behavior and apologies

2. Lexical semantics: The Function of Apologies– Apologies, Excuses, Justifications, and

Explanations– The parts of an apology (p. 205)– One-ups and one-downs

3. Syntax and the apology: – What are some ways we distance ourselves from

apologies?

4. Pragmatics: Speech acts: What are the “felicity conditions” of an apology? (pp. 207-208)

5. Speech Event: How is an apology situated within a larger conversational event?– Register: – Genre: – Key: – Maxims? Speech Acts? Implicature?

6. CA: Preferred 2nd-pair parts, etc.

7. Narrative analysis (rhetoric)

8. 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 didn’t mean it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5TKUonQLns

Conversation Analysis: – Apologies in adjacency pairs

http://adt.curtin.edu.au/theses/available/adt-WCU20030626.150323/unrestricted/09appendixAB.pdf