Hajjah Zulianti, S.Pd., M.A.

Conversation Analysis
This conversation is taken from the film Pride and Prejudice adapted from Jane Austen’s
novel. In this conversation Ms. Elizabeth is talking to Mr. Bingley when she inquires her
sister. She says thank you to Mr. Bingley who has cared for her sister at his house.

Extract 1 (SCENE 6 - DRAWING ROOM - NETHERFIELD – Later that morning)

01 Elizabeth : Thank you for tending to my sister so:: diligently=

02 =She is in far better comfort here than she would have been at home.
03 Mr. Bingley : It’s pleasure
04 (2.0)
05 owh:: I mean it’s::: sorry=
06 =Not a pleasure that she’s ill, of course not
07 (3.0)
08 It’s a pleasure that she’s here (2.0) being ill.

Analysis of Conversation

1. Turn-Taking
We can notice that, this data extract consists of two turns at talk from different
speakers. Ms. Elizabeth uses falling intonation and eye contact to signal the end of the
turn. Their turns are different lengths: the first is two distinct units of talk; the second is
six distinct units.
2. Adjacency Pairs
In this brief sequence, Elizabeth utters the first pair part (FPP) Thank you for tending to
my sister so diligently in line 1. This type of utterance may be defined as thanking. It is
a thanking to Mr Bingley who has cared for Elizabeth’s sister who is being ill. In the
second line, Elizabeth is upgrading of her talk to explain why she is thanking Mr.
Bingley. In line 3 Mr. Bingley responds with the second pair part (SPP) It’s pleasure
which is interpretable of response to the expressing thanking. In this case, the SPP is
preferred response because the statement is accepted by Mr. Bingley who said “it’s
pleasure”.
3. Insertion sequences: there is no insertion sequence in this conversation.
4. Feedback
Feedback is the ways in which listeners show they are attending to what is being said.
In this conversation, Mr. Bingley gives feedback to Ms. Elizabeth’s statement by saying
Hajjah Zulianti, S.Pd., M.A.

It’s pleasure and he continues his utterance by saying I mean it’s sorry. Not a pleasure
that she’s ill, of course not. It’s a pleasure that she’s here being ill.
5. Repair
It is quite common for speakers to treat what they are saying as problematic in some
way and to stop what they are saying in order to fix the problem. In extract 1, Mr.
Bingley explained more detail about what he means about It’s pleasure. In this
conversation, Ms. Elizabeth confuses when he is saying that utterance, because she
thinks that Mr. Bingley is pleasure of her sister who is being ill. In this case, Mr.
Bingley did a self correction or self repair towards his utterance and explains it clearly
as in the utterance 04 – 08.
6. Structural Organization
Talk-in-interaction is organized into phases: most obviously, openings and closings
(Schegloff and Sacks, 1973). The conversation in extract 1 does not have an opening of
the conversation. In this case, Ms. Elizabeth tells directly about the purpose of coming
to the Netherfield, and Mr. Bingley responses her thanking and explains about his
“pleasure” with falling intonation as the signal of the end of conversation.