Conversation and Preference

Structure

8th Group Presentation

Eko Ridho Alreza

M. Yusri Puadi
Ryanshan Gunawan
Conversation Analysis

Conversation analysis is a popular approach to the study of

discourse. Conversation analysis (CA) is a method for
investigating the structure and process of social interaction
between humans. It is a way of thinking about and analyzing
the pragmatics of ordinary conversation, focusing on the
interactive, practical construction of everyday interchanges.
"Conversation is a process in which people interact on a moment-by-
moment, turn-by-turn basis. During a sequence of turns participants
exchange talk with each other, but, more important, they exchange
social or communicative actions. These actions are the moves of
conversation considered as a collection of games. Indeed, conversational
actions are some of the most important moves of the broader game of
everyday life." (Nofsinger, p. 10)

"Conversation may be taken to be that familiar predominant kind of talk

in which two or more participants freely alternate in speaking, which
generally occurs outside specific institutional settings like religious
services, law courts, classrooms and the like" (Levinson, 1983, p. 284)
• Turn

• Turn-taking

• Local management system

• Transition Relevance Place (TRP)

• Turn-Constructional Unit (TCU)

A: so would you like to learn to be able

to write letters to him?

B: I would

A: right—well you've learnt such

a lot of words reading them that all

we have to practice now is putting

them together into a letter, isn't it?

B: yeah
A: [so would you like to learn to be able

to write letters to him? TCU] [TRP]

B: [I would TCU] [TRP]

A: [right TCU] [TRP] [well you've learnt such

a lot of words reading them that all

we have to practice now is putting

them together into a letter, isn't it? TCU] [TRP]

B: [yeah TCU]
Pauses, overlaps, and backchannels

Overlap
• Smooth transitions from one speaker to the next
seem to be valued. Transitions with a long silence
between turns or with substantial Overlap (both
speakers trying to speak at the same time) are
felt to be awkward.
• For example you can see on page 73 number 1.
The type of overlap shown in conversation
between Mr. Strait and Dave is simply part of
difficult first conversation with an unfamiliar
person
 Attributable Silence
• Attributable silence is if one speaker actually
turns over the floor to another and the other
does not speak, then the silence is attributed
to the second speaker and becomes
significant. Example: on page 73 number 2
 Overlap Communicate Closeness
• overlapped talk appears to function like an
expression of solidarity or closeness in
expressing similar opinions or values. the
effect of the overlapping talk creates a feeling
of two voices collaborating as one, in
harmony.
• You can see the example on page 74 number 3
 Overlap Communicate Competition
• For example you can open page 74 number 4
• the speakers may appear to be having a
discussion, but they are, in fact, competing for
the floor. The point at overlap occurs is
treated as an interruption and the first
speaker actually has to make a comment
about procedure with a louder voice, shown
by the capital letters in ‘wait CAN I FINISH?’
 Backchannels

Caller: if you use your long distance service a lot then you’ll

Mary : uh-uh

Caller: be interested in the discount I’m talking about because

Mary : Yeah

Caller: it can only save you money to switch to a cheaper service

Mary : mmm
• These type of signal (‘uh-uh’, ’yeah’, ’mmm’)
provide feedback to the current speaker that
the message is being received. They normally
indicate that the listener is following, and not
objecting to, what speaker is saying.
Conversational Style

• High involvement style

• High considerateness style

Adjacency Pairs

An adjacency pair is a unit of conversation that

contains an exchange of one turn each by two
speakers. The turns are functionally related to each
other in such a fashion that the first turn requires a
certain type or range of types of second turn.
question → answer

"What does this big red button do?" → "It causes two-thirds of the
universe to implode"

complaint → excuse/remedy

"It's awfully cold in here" → "Oh, sorry, I'll close the window"

inform → acknowledge

"Your phone is over there" → "I know"

Automatic Pattern
greeting → response

“Assalamu’alaikum” → “Wa’alaikumsalam”

Variation
“What's up?” → “Nothin' much”
Insertion Sequence (Q1—Q2—A2—A1)
Form Q1 - Q2 - A2 - A1 (one adjacency pair within another):
Agent: Do you want the early flight? (Q1)
Client: What time does it arrive? (Q2)
Agent: Nine forty-five (A2)
Client: Yeah - that's great (A1)

Mix of different sequences possible:

Jean: Could you mail this letter for me? (Request)
Fred: Does it have a stamp on? (Q2)
Jean: Yeah. (A2)
Fred: Okay (Acceptance)

Also with temporary interactional exit:

A: Uhm, what’s the price now with VAT? (Q1)
B: Er, I’ll just work that out for you (Hold)
A: Thanks (Acceptance)
(10.0 s)
B: Three Dollars nineteen a tube, Sir (A1)
Opening Sections (Summons-Answer Sequences)

Child : Mommy? summons

Mum: Yes, dear. answer
Child : Can I have chocolate? reason for summons

In telephone conversations the ringing of the telephone acts as the summons.

Additional potential problems are identification/recognition

A: (causes telephone to ring at B’s location) summons

B: Hello answer + display for recognition
A: Hi greeting 1 + claim that A
has recognized B +
claim that B can recognize A
B: Oh hi! greeting 2 + claim thatB has
recognized A
Closing Sections
A: Why don’t we all have lunch?
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
 Preference Structure

• Preference structure divides second parts into preferred and

dispreferred social acts

• The preferred is the structurally expected next act

• The dispreferred is the structurally unexpected next act.

• The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures are

presented in the table 8.I. (page 79)
In considering requests of offers as first parts, acceptance is the
preferred and refusal is the dispreferred second part

• Acceptance in agreement is the preferred second part

response to a request, an offer, an assessment, or a proposal.

• Look at the examples in page 79 [8.1] , [I5]

page 80 [ I6] , [I7]
page 81 [ I8]

• The patterns associated with a dispreferred second in English

in page 81 [I9]
Thank You