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
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?
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
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
Top Related