SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS ASSIGNMENT PAPERS

AN ANALYSIS OF PAUSES, OVERLAPS, AND

BACKCHANNELS IN THE GOING SEVENTEEN 2020 EP.40,
DON’T LIE II PART I AND 2 BY SEVENTEEN

Arranged by:
Rahma Nabila Putri
NIM. 1209619007
19SB

ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAMME

FACULITY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI JAKARTA
2021
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover ..........................................................................................................................................
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................
Chapter I. Introduction ............................................................................................................
1.1. Background of The Study ......................................................................................
Chapter II. Disscussion .............................................................................................................
2.1. Conversation Analysis ............................................................................................
2.1.1. Pause .........................................................................................................
2.1.2. Overlaps ...................................................................................................
2.1.3. Backchannel .............................................................................................
2.2. Data Analysis ..........................................................................................................
Chapter III. Conclusion ............................................................................................................
References ..................................................................................................................................
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

As a student of English Literature or English Language Study Programme, Semantics
and Pragmatics are one of the branches of linguistics, that is given to the English Literature
student, where it was learned after another branch, which is Introduction to Language,
English Phonetics and Phonology, and English Morphology and Syntax. And after that, it will
be followed with the other branches of linguistics in the next semesters that we have to learn
such as Introduction to Discourse Analysis, Comparative Linguistics, and Critical Discourse
Analysis. Semantics and Pragmatics are similar, but in reality, each of them is different. They
both dealing with the language meaning and link language to the world. The difference is that
each of them deals with meaning differently, but in many cases, both get confused, and
sometimes they are amalgamated.
So, semantics and pragmatic are concerning about the meaning of the words and
sentences. The semantic dimension is dealing with the relation of words to which they refer.
Meanwhile, the pragmatics dimension is more about the relationship between words, the
interlocutors, and the context. To be more specific, pragmatic is focusing on the person’s
ability to obtain the meaning of certain of a speaker in delivering specific messages, to
connect new information with what had happened in the past, to recognize the purpose of
speaker’s messages, to conclude or know the information from the speaker which speaker
didn’t need to express what they meant, and to interpret what is the real meaning behind the
message that was stated by the speaker based on background knowledge.
In this case, language is used as a tool of communication. By using language, people
can share their emotions, thoughts, idea, expressions, or information with anyone. When a
speaker is delivering the messages to the listener, there is an interaction between them. The
term of interaction itself could be a very large number of different social encounters in every
situation where the interpersonal exchange of talk happened. Even though the kind of talk
might be varied and different according to the different contexts of interaction, but the
structure or the basic of the talk that we often use must be ‘I speak then you speak and so on.’
That is the structure of conversation, which is one of the parts of communication that we
found in daily conversation in our social life. According to Jacob (2001:136), “conversation
is a way of using language socially, of ‘doing things with words’ together with other
persons”. To have a good conversation, both parties should have control of the conversation
as the turn flows well and smoothly. Usually, when someone speaks, then the other must
listen until the speaker stops speaking, and then the others can get to the floor. But the
speaker often meets some disturbances in a conversation, such as pauses, overlaps, and
backchannels, which is one of the studies in conversation analysis. That’s why both parties
should understand the sign of turn-taking, the basic organization of talk, to have a successful
and interactive conversation.
Not only in a social environment, but a conversation is also can be found in
entertainment through social media, newspapers, magazines, talk shows, television, or radio.
The most popular media for the entertainment industry in this day is social media, through
many modern applications in people’s smartphones, now they can access the entertainment
content efficiently. They can watch films or movies, talk shows, news, and other programs
out there. This paper aims to analyze the pauses, overlaps, and backchannels in Going
Seventeen 2020 EP.40, Don’t Lie part I and II by Seventeen. Seventeen is a self-producing
idol group from South Korea, with the members being actively involved in the songwriting,
choreographing, designing, and other aspects of their music, performance, and shows. In
those episodes of Going Seventeen, the members were playing a mafia game, where their
communication through conversations was not flowing easily. They have a good conversation
most of the time, but there were also moments where their conversations didn’t convey
smoothly. And in this paper, we will look more closely on the occurring of pauses, overlaps,
and backchannels based on the conversations from each member in English subtitle in Going
Seventeen 2020 EP.40, Don’t Lie part I and II as the object of the study. The duration of the
first part is 24:51 minutes posted on November 30, 2020. Meanwhile, the duration of the
second part is 30:09 minutes posted on December 7, 2020, on Seventeen’s YouTube account.
 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION

2.1. Conversation Analysis

What is conversation analysis? Conversation Analysis is an approach to the study of
social interaction, embracing both verbal and nonverbal elements in situations of our daily
lives. According to Heldner & Edlund (2010), conversation analysis is a set of methods and a
certain analytic mentality for studying talk-in-interaction, such as pauses, overlaps, and
backchannels in a conversation.

2.1.1. Pauses
Pauses are silently made by the speaker when having a conversation or speaking.
Pause is used to take a breath for a moment before the speaker continues the conversation
again. It can be simply a hesitation or just silences. Pauses usually takes 2,5 until 3 second.
Pause has three types, such as attributable silence (pause), gap, and lapse:

 A gap is a pause or natural pause in a conversation that has no particular meaning in

itself, and sometimes occurring within turns but sometimes between the turns. 
 Lapses are longer than gaps, but not always the case. Lapses are often known if there
is an obvious topic termination, followed by a long silence and then the initiation of
bringing a new topic or re-initiation of the same topic. 
 Attribute silence is a condition when the second speaker is failed to recognized
norms of interaction. 

2.1.2. Overlaps
Overlaps or double slash (//) are transitions with a long silence between turns or when
both speakers are trying to speak at the same time. It's a condition where the first speaker
does not finish the speaking yet, thus the listener takes the turn before the speaker finished
speaking. There are 3 types of overlaps, first is a difficult conversation with an unfamiliar
person. The second is shows closeness and solidarity and expressing a similar opinion, and
the last is when the speakers are competing for the floor.
 2.1.3. Backchannels
Backchannels are a response given while someone else is speaking, intended to show
interest, attention, and willingness to keep listening to the speaker. There are two types of
backchannels, vocal backchannels, and non-vocal backchannels. Nodding a head, smiles, or
doing body language are included as non-vocal backchannels.

2.2. Data Analysis

Pause, Overlap, or
No. Conversation
Backchannel
1. Jeonghan: The mafias have to disturb us so that we
can’t find anything, right?
S.Coups: .... (3 seconds) Pause (Gaps)
S.Coups: You must be playing the citizen. Aren’t
you?
(00:11:43 – 00:11:48)
2. Wonwoo: We can earn more time later by using this.
Backchannels
Vernon: Ahh, thats awesome.
(vocal backchannels)
(00:06:21 – 00:06:24)
3. Seungkwan: Hyung, why did some members say
’Yay ’ here few minutes ago? What was that?
DK: ....
Seungkwan: What was that? Pause (Attribute Silence)
DK: ....
(00:09:12 – 00:09:17)
4. Mingyu: Welcome, agent.
The8: .... (2 seconds)
Pause (Gaps)
The8: Huh?
Mingyu: Nice to meet you. Let‘s do this.
(00:10:22 – 00:10:26)
5. The8: Alright, one of us has to die now. Let’s just
kill Seungkwan...
Overlaps
Seungkwan: Hey! No.
(00:14:24 – 00:14:25)
6. Hoshi: I think you are..
Mingyu: Let him defend himself.
 Hoshi: Oh, sorry. Overlaps
(00:14:45 – 00:14:48)
7. S.Coups: We need to think carefully this time. We
get 100,000 KRW for each mafia..
Overlaps
Jeonghan: It’s 100,000 KRW for each, guys.
(00:15:11 – 00:15:15)
8. Seungkwan: The reason why I think it’s him is
because when he came back, he asked about the
room we were staying before the shooting...
Woozi: The chief‘s room. Overlaps
Jeonghan: Exactly.
Seungkwan: The hallway.
(00:17:16 – 00:17:25)
9. Seungkwan: Some people said, ’Yay’. Did you find
the key? Backchannels
DK: …. ‘DK just smiling suspiciously at
(non-vocal backchannels)
Seungkwan’
(00:06:21 – 00:06:24)
10. Wonwoo: You’re not the mafia, are you?
DK: ... (2 seconds)
Wonwoo: I’m the one that kept getting teased.
DK: The doctor? Pause (Gaps)
Wonwoo: I chose me, and everybody said the people
who picked themselves were idiots.
(00:01:47 – 00:01:56, in part 2)
11. S.Coups: You’re not the citizen, right?
Wonwoo: Who do you think will die?
Pause (Gaps)
S.Coups: .... (3 seconds)
S.Coups: I think it’ll depend on Dino.
(00:02:03 – 00:02:10, in part 2)
12. Mingyu: Jeonghan, look below.
Jeonghan: ... (4 seconds)
Pause (Gaps)
Jeonghan: It’s not here.
(00:02:49 – 00:02:53, in part 2)
13. Vernon: If someone puts in 1,000 won...
DK: ’DK just clapping his hands while laughing’
 Woozi: You can get this out, huh? Backchannels
Vernon: That’s so cool.
(non-vocal backchannels)
Woozi: Do we have to imagine that far?
(00:03:52 – 00:04:00, in part 2)
14. Jeonghan: I’ll keep all the handcuffs.
S.Coups: ... (2 seconds)
Pause (Gaps)
Jeonghan: I’m the broker.
(00:04:45 – 00:04:47, in part 2)
15. Jeonghan: Joshua, give your handcuffs to DK.
Joshua: ... (4 seconds)
Joshua: Of course I can. Don’t try to corner me like Pause (Lapses)
this.
(00:04:55 – 00:05:01, in part 2)
16. Vernon: First of all...
Woozi:, ’ laughing after seeing vernon‘
Backchannels
Mingyu: It looks like it’ll shoot lasrs.
(non-vocal backchannels)
Vernon: The first mafia was Dino.
(00:06:26 – 00:06:33, in part 2)
17. Hoshi: So now it’s one of the four. Vernon, Jun,
S.Coups, Woozi..
S.Coups: Why me, all of a sudden? You were
Overlaps
searching with me this entire time..
Hoshi: Just for now, just for now..
(00:18:14 – 00:18:22, in part 2)

CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION

After analyzing the data from the conversation in the Going Seventeen 2020 EP.40,
Don’t Lie parts I and II by Seventeen. The researcher concludes that the
conversation between each member is mostly contained gaps, one of the types of
pauses. The number of pauses is 8 and 6 of them are gaps, meanwhile, the rest is
contained both of leaps and attributable silence. This is because, each of
their conversations was under the condition of playing mafia games, so the condition
of ‘pause’ after speaking was tent to push the interlocutors to tell the truth
or it could be a way to make them believe about what the speaker said to them.
The second place is overlaps because each of them wants to want to prove themselves
that they aren’t the mafia and keep overlaps in the conversation because they
want to solve the problem that they were dealt with. Overlaps in these
conversations also contained two of overlaps type, which shows closeness and solidarity and
expressing a similar opinion, and the last is when the speakers are competing for the floor.
The last is backchannels, with only 4 data that was found by the researcher. Only one of the
backchannels is vocal backchannels, and the rest is non-vocal backchannels. 

REFERENCES

Kuswandi, Meydiana & Apsari, Yanuarti. (2019). AN ANALYSIS OF PAUSES, OVERLAPS

AND BACKCHANNELS IN CONVERSATION N VLOG BY NESSIE JUDGE. PROJECT
(Professional Journal of English Education).
Ummu Rafiqah Dinhas. (2018). An Analysis of Pauses, Overlaps, and Backchannnels in the
Zathura Movie by Jon Favreau.

Yule, George. (1996). Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Online Resources:

Going Seventeen 2020 EP.40 Don’t Lie II #1; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-

RbcrWTth4

Going Seventeen 2020 EP.40 Don’t Lie II #2; https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=YZg6Gr7PFBA

SE3: Conversation Analysis. (2014). Warwick.ac.uk.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/repository/staff/richardskeith/se3lecturenotesrichards_k/

Wikipedia Contributors. (2021, June 29). Seventeen (South Korean band). Wikipedia;

Wikimedia Foundation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_(South_Korean_band)#:~:text=Seventeen
%20(Korean%3A%20%EC%84%B8%EB%B8%90%ED%8B%B4)%2C,by%20Pledis
%20Entertainment%20in%202015.&text=Seventeen%20is%20considered%20a
%20%22self,of%20their%20music%20and%20performances.