CONVERSATION ANALYISIS

(Semantics & Pragmatics)

Group 13
IRVINK FACHRUL PRATAMA de NALDI (18018133)
KHAIRYAH NADHIFA. AR (18018135)
Definition
A conversation occurs when people cooperate with each other in order to introduce and sustain a
single focus of attention by taking turns with each other.

Conversation analysis is an analysis of natural conversation to reveal what the linguistic

feature of conversation is, and how conversation is used in ordinary life.

It studies the methods of conversation which people use to organize a social talk.

It investigates rules and practices from an interactional perspective and studies them by examining recordings of
real-life interactions.

Although the foundational work in CA focuses on talk in conversations, the framework has
gradually been extended to research of other types of talk such as medical and clinical interaction,
lessons, or news interviews. This is why the more general characterization ‘talk in interaction’
nowadays is often preferred over ‘conversation.’
The Objectives of Conversation Analysis

• to uncover the shared norms or cultural conventions

governing who can say what, when in particular
communicative situations.
• to describe and explicate of the competences that ordinary speakers
use and rely on in participating in intelligible socially organized
interaction
• to describe the procedures and expectancies by which
conversationalists produce their own behavior and understand
that of others.
• to search for patterns, ‘objective’ patterns or in Garfinkel’s term
(natural facts or routine grounds of every day activities)
• to study the organization and the order of social actions in
interaction
Central Aspects of
Conversation Analysis
1. The techniques that the speaker uses during a
conversation, such as the rules of turn-taking.
2. The ways in which some speakers’ utterances are related, for
instance, conversational maxims, adjacency pair, and inserted
sequence.
3. The different functions that the conversation is used for, for example,
establishing roles, or communicating politeness.
The Main Concepts &
Findings in Conversation Analysis

Types of or aspects interactional organization :

• Turn-taking organization
• Organization of action/sequence organization
• Preference organization
• Repair
• Topic
• Story telling
• Opening and closing in telephone calls
 Two Major Types of
Conversation Styles

High-
High-Involvement
Considerateness
Style
Style
High-Involvement Style

Some individuals expect that participation in a conversation will be

very active, that speaking rate will be relatively fast, with almost no
pausing between turns, and with some overlap or even competition
between turn
High-Considerateness Style

Such speakers use a slower rate, expect longer pauses between turns,
do not overlap and avoid interruption or completion of the other’s turn

• The faster speaker may think the slower one doesn’t have much to
say, is shy, perhaps boring or stupid
• The slower speaker may view the leader one noisy, pushy,
domineering, selfish and tiresome.
Turn-Taking
Turn-taking refers to the changing of roles of the speaker and the listener when they are
in conversations. In turn-taking there are TRP and TCU.

• TRP or Transition Relevance Place refers to the point in the ongoing conversation
where a turn at talk from on participant to another occurs.
• TCU or Turn construction unit is the basic segment of speech in a conversation.

Example:
A: Would you like to go picnic tomorrow?
B: Sure.
A: Right (…) well, don’t forget to bring the picnic basket because the last time we went
picnic you forgot to bring it and we did not eat for the whole day. Remember?
B: Yeah. Okay.
Two example of Female & Male Conversational Style
Adjacency Pairs

Almost automatic patterns in the structure of conversation, in gr

eetings and good-byes are called adjacency pairs.
Examples:

Anna: Hello! Bill: Hi!

Anna: How are you? Bill: Fine.
Anna: See ya! Bill: Bye!
Adjacency Pairs (Cont.)

These automatic sequences are called adjacency pairs

• They always consist of a first and second part produced by different
speakers.
• The utterance of the first part immediately creates an expectation of
the utterance of a second part of the pair.
• Failure to produce the second part will be treated as a significant an
d hence meaningful.
A lot of internal variation is possible:
For example: opening of conversation.

Second Part
First Part
B: Nothin' much
A: What's up?
A: How's it goin'? B: Jus' hangin' in there
A: How are things?
A: How ya doin' B: The usual
B: Can't complain
Example: question - answer sequence in [1]
Example: thanking - response sequence in [2]
Example: request - accept sequence in [3]
First Part Second Part

A: What time is it? B: About eight-thirty

A: Thanks. B: You're welcome
A: Could you help me with this? B: Sure
Opening Sections (Summons-Answer Sequences):
First utterance is a summons, the second utterance an answer to the summons,
establishing an open channel for talk (three part structure).

Examples:
Child: Mommy? (Summons)
Mum: Yes,dear. (Answer)
Child: Can I have chocolate? (Reason for summons)
Closing Sections: The closure of any topic after the first one makes the
introduction of a closing section imminent
• Closing placed in such a way that no party is to forced exit while still having
compelling things to say
• Hasty or slow terminations carry unwelcome inferences about the
relationships between the speakers
Examples:
B: Okay, so that would be in St. Jude’s wouldn’t it?
A: Yes
B: Okay so …
A: One o’clock in the bar closing implicative topic (arrangement)
B: Okay
A: Okay? one or more pairs of passing turns with
B: Okay then thanks very much indeed George – pre-closing items (okay, alright, so …)
A: - Alright
B: //See you there
A: //See you there
B: Okay
A: Okay // bye terminal elements
B: // bye
Organization ofAction
/Sequence Organization

• This focuses on how actions are ordered in conversation

• analysis involves attention to both: the actions being accomplished by a turn
and the practices of speaking which make the actions to happen through
linguistic forms within some context.
• adjacency pairs is a basic form of action sequencing. We replace the strict criteria
of adjacency pair with the notion of conditional relevance: the criterion for
adjacency pair that given the first pair part the second is relevant and expectable.
If the second fails to occur, it is noticeably absent and accountable. What binds the
parts of adjacency pair is not the formation of a rule that specify that a question
must be answered but the expectation should be attended to.
26
Ruleswhichseem to governthe turn-taking process were
identified (Sacks et al, 1974):
Rule 1(a) If the current speaker has identified, or selected, a particularnext
speaker,thenthatspeakershouldtakea turn at that place.

Rule1(b) If no such selectionhas beenmade, thenany next speaker

may (but neednot)self-selectat thatpoint.If self- selectionoccurs,then
first speakerhas the rightto the turn.

Rule1(c) If no nextspeakerhas beenselected,thenalternatively the current speak

er may, but need not, continue talking with anotherturnconstructionalunit,unless
anotherspeakerhas self- selected,in whichcasethatspeakergainsthe rightto the
turn.27
Rule2 Whicheveroptionhas operated,thenrules 1(a)–(c)come
intoplayagainfor the nexttransitionrelevanceplace.
Thequestionis not answered but an account is offered.

Thoughthereis no immediateanswer,butthe response is

relevant.