Visiting a Tudor house

Transcript

Collected on 29th April 2010, Liverpool. The speakers are all female and aged 50+.

Visitor 1: (at the threshold of the room) oh I didnt see this room before

Guide 2: well you probably walked straight past it people do

Guide 1: no Ive only just opened it thats why it wasnt open before
(to visitor 1) we have to close this room if there are not enough guides

(visitor 1 looks around)

Guide 1: youre meant to look at the wallpaper (.) the wallpaper is the thing to
notice in here (.) see that bit over there (.) well it was all like that (.)
two students we had here on work placement they cleaned it I saw
them do it(.) they did it with two India rubbers it was a labour of love it
took them weeks

Visitor 1: its William Morris isnt it (.) its amazing

Guide 1: yes and its original

Visitor 1: did they leave that bit to show what it was like

Guide 1: thats right, and that bits damaged (.) the owner used to smoke and
thats what discoloured it but that bits dirty from the fire as well

Visitor 1: lovely tiles though

Guide 1: the owner was friends with William Morris (.) its not like the paper in the
blue drawing room thats only a copy (.) you can buy it you know

Visitor 1: yes I know I have it in my hall at home

Guide 1: do you (.) Ive got some in my house

Visitor 1: I was dead lucky well unlucky really cos we had a flood but they said
we could have paper of the same quality as what we had up already
(.) it was Laura Ashley but we got it in a sale (.) discontinued (.) then
theyd stopped doing it so we got William Morris instead (.) it was in
similar colours but I love it even more

Guide 1: Oh

Visitor 1: (flicking through a book of designs) I love that pattern its Daisy isnt it

Guide 1: (overlapping) Daisy

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Visiting a Tudor house

Guide 1: I had a woman in here she was telling me there shouldnt be any
wallpaper in this house because its a Tudor house and they didnt
have wallpaper then

Visitor 1: but thats one of the things I love about this house (.) its like a home
and you can see erm all the different times reflected in it (.) cos people
make improvements and redecorate and that dont they

Guide 1: thats right (.) but this woman was going mad about it

Visitor 1: what a purist

(Two more visitors come into the room.)

Visitor 2: (To guide 1) youre in the wrong clothes to sit in that chair

Guide 1: what

Visitor 2: I said youre not in costume.

Guide 1: Im a guide (.) thats why I am sitting here

Visitor 2: oh I didnt realise (.) I thought you were just tired and having a rest

(Guide 1 gets her pass out from under her coat)

Guide 1: theres my pass (5) look at the wallpaper (.) it was all dirty (.) cleaned
by two students on work placement (.) I watched them do it (.) you can
look at all the things on this table (.) over there theres a book that was
signed by the all the estate workers and given to (name) when she
came of age (.) you cant look at the book but you can look at a copy
of it in the file next to it (.)

The two visitors look through the book. Visitor 1 looks on.

Visitor 1: thank you (leaves the room)

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Visiting a Tudor house

Discussion points for group work

At what point in the conversation

How does the room guide show do you think the guide and the
that she is an expert? visitor go beyond their
conversational roles?

How do the guide and visitor 1 How does the guide regain her
show that they agree about the standing after visitor 2 fails to
house? recognise her role?

How
does the guides
Are there any points in the
conversation differ between the
transcript where politeness
first visitor and the others? Why
principles are not followed?
might this be?

To what extent do you think the
What shared values are
guide adds to the pleasure of the
expressed in the conversation?
visitors?

H
ow typical is this conversation of
ones you have experienced in
historic houses or other tourist
attractions you have visited?
What do you notice about the
language used by guides and
visitors? How do they differ?

Visit an historic house or tourist

attraction and listen in on some
conversations.

Independent investigation
Using the notes made as a result of the group work, write your own
commentary on this transcript, making close reference to it.
Then read the commentary provided and evaluate your own in the light of it.

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Visiting a Tudor house

Commentary

The context of this conversation is a visit to a Tudor house. The talk is between a
visitor and a guide. It is interesting that the guide and the visitor seem to bond
quickly, perhaps because the interruption from another guide who is passing was
slightly inappropriate as the visitor was not speaking to them but more to herself.
The guide within the room defends the visitor from the implied criticism by the other
guide, by validating the reason for the visitor missing the room previously.

The visitor is alone with the guide, and perhaps this also encourages the
conversation to open up, as neither of them has anyone else to talk to. The guide
responds to the visitor looking round with a gentle prompt about the wallpaper.
The guide reveals her attitude of admiration towards the two students who
cleaned the wallpaper as she uses expressions like labour of love and it took
them weeks which shows their patience and carefulness. It is clearly a fond
memory for her as she will have their company while they were there. The guide
fulfils her role by giving information about the owners of the house and how the
wallpaper came to be so dirty. This shows that she is well informed and in a
position of authority, also that she is an expert in that rooms history.

The conversation develops when the speakers discover a shared interest in the
wallpapers of William Morris. The topic shifts to a personal recollection by the
visitor, encouraged by the admission that the guide has the wallpaper in her
house. This part of the transcript shows that the visitor is becoming more relaxed
and is enjoying talking, as she dominates the turns for a moment, whereas it would
be expected that the guide would dominate. The overlap of the identification of
the Daisy pattern shows shared interest and knowledge.

The next topic shift leads to the guide recounting another memory, a more
unpleasant one which involved an encounter with a hostile visitor who criticised
the house. The visitor sympathises with the word purist which perhaps reveals that
this speaker is highly educated. The visitors hesitation erm is perhaps because
she was struggling to sum up a sufficiently strong way to express her disgust at the
hostile visitor. The lexical choices of love and home illustrate her strong feelings.

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Visiting a Tudor house

At this point the conversation, which was flourishing, is interrupted by two more
visitors who are friends. One of them makes a slightly inappropriate comment as
she has not realised that the woman in the chair is in fact a guide. She attempts to
make a joke, but it falls flat because she has addressed the guide as though she is
another visitor, without giving any deference to her role and expertise. This error
makes an uncomfortable moment, especially as the visitor does not read the clues
and repeats her joke a second time using different words. She further asserts her
role by returning to the function of guide very emphatically by launching into a list
of facts and instructions identical to the ones she gave the first visitor. She has
returned to her professional role and the conversation with the first speaker is over.
However, although the information given is the same, it is in a far less friendly tone,
with more imperative verbs. This could be because she is slightly annoyed with the
recent visitors because of the gaffe made, or that she is determined to
demonstrate the fact that she is a guide. She could also be hiding her
embarrassment of not being given her correct status. There are two new visitors so
she is less likely to engage them in conversation. She dominates the turns, giving
them no further chance to talk to her unless they ask a question about the room.

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