WEEK 11 UNIT 4 LANGUAGE MEANING AND USE.
CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS
PhD.Alina Martinez Hernandez
❑ Definition
❑ Origins and development
❑ Turn-taking ( definition, contents, and components)
❑ Adjacency pairs (features, varieties, and functions)
❑ Insertion sequences
❑ Opening cnversations
❑ Closing conversations
To characterize conversational analysis as an
effective approach to understanding the
spoken discourse, by means of participating in
class debates and teamwork.
Read the following conversations and choose the correct answer
Apply the SPEAKING grid to the analysis of this conversation. Fassold and
Connor pp.190.191
Activity 2.
❑ Provide an example of a narrative . Follow the structure
presented on page 184 Fassold and Connor. An
Introduction to Language and Linguistics.
❑ Create your own narrative based on a personal experience.
Conversation Analysis (CA)
● A major area of study in the analysis of discourse
● Conversational analysis looks at ordinary everyday spoken
discourse and aims to understand, from a fine-grained
analysis of the conversation, how people manage their
interactions.
● It also looks at how social relations are developed through
the use of spoken discourse (Paltridge,2006:106).
Definition
● Conversation Analysis (CA) is an approach to the study of
social interaction, embracing both verbal and non-verbal
conduct, in situations of everyday life.
● CA began with a focus on casual interactions but its
methods were subsequently adapted to embrace more
task-and-institution-centered interactions, such as those
occurring in doctors' offices, courts, law enforcement,
educational settings, and the mass media.
ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF CA
● CA was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s
principally by the sociologist Harvey Sacks and his close
associates Emanuel Schegloff & Gail Jefferson.
● Today CA is an established method used in
sociology, anthropology, linguistics, speech-
communication and psychology.
● It is particularly influential in interactional
sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and discursive
psychology.
SACKS, SCHEGLOFF, AND JEFFERSON (1974)
(SSJ) ANALYSIS
● SSJ argue for the existence of a turn “taking
mechanism”.
● They have handled three problems :
1. How people take turns in conversation
2. How to open a conversation
3. How to close a conversation
● Their model accounts for the speaker’s role as well as for
what is said and done during the time for which the
speaker role is continuously held by one individual.
WHAT IS TURN –TAKING?
● It is a highly skilled activity.
● It involves many kinds of behaviour in addition
to speech (e.g. eye-contact , head movement ),
which are initiated by precise timing and
reacted to with great accuracy by other
participants .
What is a Turn?
● Ochs( 1979 : 63) defines a turn as “an utterance
bounded by significant pause or by utterance of other
participants’’.
● In other words , a turn is the speech of one person
continued until another takes the floor.
The Components
1. The turn constructional components
2. The turn Allocational Components
The Turn Constructional Components
● This component simply shows that a turn is
constructed of various syntactic unit-types such
as sentences, clauses, phrases, and single words
through which a speaker may set out to construct
a turn.
The Turn Allocational Components
This component includes techniques that could be
classified into:
● Those in which the next turn is allocated by a
current speaker selecting a next speaker;
● Those in which a next turn is allocated by self-
selection.
A Set of Facts
Sacks et al. offer a set of facts whose validity and verification
determine the organization of the discourse:
1. Speaker change recurs, or at least occurs.
2. Overwhelmingly, one party talks at a time.
3. Occurrences of more than one speaker at a time are common, but
brief.
4. Transitions from one turn to a next with no gap and no overlap
between them are common.Together with transitions having
slight gap or slight overlap, they make the vast majority of
transitions.
5. Turn order is not fixed, but varies.
6. Turn size is not fixed, but varies.
4.Transitions from one turn to a next with no gap and no overlap
between them are common.
Together with transitions having slight gap or slight overlap, they
make the vast majority of transitions.
5. Turn order is not fixed, but varies.
6. Turn size is not fixed, but varies.
More Facts
7. Length of conversation is not fixed, nor specified in advance.
8. What the parties say is not fixed, nor specified in advance.
9. Relative distribution of turns is not fixed, nor specified in
advance.
10. Number of parties can change.
11. Talk can be continuous or discontinuous.
12. Turn-allocation techniques are obviously used. A current-
speaker may select a next speaker (as when a current speaker
addresses a question to another party); parties may self-select
in starting to talk.
13. Various turn-constructional units are employed. Turns can be
projected one-word-long, or, for example, sentential in length.
14. Repair mechanisms for dealing with turn-taking errors and
violations are obviously available for use. For example, if two
parties find themselves talking at the same time, one of them
will stop prematurely to repair the overlap.
Adjacency Pairs
● It is a particular type of turn taking structure.
● An adjacency pair is a sequence of two related utterances
by two different speakers . The second utterance is a
response to the first.
Features of Adjacency Pairs
The features were indicated by Sacks, Schegloff , and
Jefferson (SSJ), as follows :
1. They are two utterances long.
2. The utterances are produced successively by different
speakers.
3. The utterances are ordered – the first must belong to the
class of first pair parts , the second to the class .of second
pair parts.
4. The utterances are related , not any second pair can
follow any first pair part , but only appropriate one
5. The first pair part often selects next speaker and always
selects next action – it thus sets up expectation which
the next speaker fulfills , in other words the first part of a
pair predicts the occurrence of the second.
Varieties of Adjacency Pairs
● Prototypical examples of adjacency pairs would be the following:
● 1) greeting-greeting: A: Hello.
B: Hello.
● 2) offer-acceptance: A: Would you care for more tea? B:
Yes, please.
● 3) apology-minimization: A: I’m sorry.
B: Oh, don’t worry. That’s O.K.
● There is a class of first pair parts which includes
questions, greetings, challenges, offers, requests,
complaints, invitations, announcements.
● For some first pair parts, the second pair part is reciprocal
(Greeting-Greeting)
● For some, there is only one appropriate second
(Question-Answer),.
● For some more than one (Complaint-
Apology/Justification) (Coulthard,1985:69).
● Sacks suggests that a current speaker can exercise three
degree of control over the next turn.
● First, they can select which participant will speak next, either
by naming him or by alluding to him with a descriptive
phrase, ‘the Right Honorable Member for Bexley South’.
● If the current speaker selects the next speaker, he usually
also selects the type of next utterance by producing the
first part of an adjacency pair.
For example a question or a greeting which constrains the
selected speaker to produce an appropriate answer or
return greeting.
● DOCTOR: Hello Mrs. Jones
● PATIENT: Hello Doctor
● DOCTOR: Hello Catherine
● CHILD: Hello
● The current speaker’s second option is simply to constrain
the next utterance, but not select the next speaker.
● The third option is to select neither and leave it to one of
the participants to continue the conversation by selecting
himself (Coulthard,1985:60).
The Functions of Adjacency Pairs
● Coordinate turns
● Opening and closing a conversation
● Negotiate deals
● Change topics
Repair
An important strategy speakers use in spoken discourse is
what is termed repair, that is, the way speakers correct things
they or someone else has said, and check what they have
understood in a conversation. Repair is often done through
self repair and other repair (Paltridge, 2006:119).
Self-initiated repair is differentiated from other- initiated repair.
Self-repair within a turn may be signaled by phenomena such
as glottal stops, lengthened vowels, etc. Repair initiated by a
participant other than the speaker may be achieved by the
use of echo-questions, repetitions of problematic items with
stress on problem syllables, or by using expressions such as
What?, Pardon?, Excuse me?, etc.( Alba-Juez,2009).
Opening Conversations
● One area where conversational openings have been
examined in detail is telephone conversation.
● Schegloff (1986) analyzed a large data set of
phone openings to come up with this
‘canonical opening’ for American private
telephone conversations:
● Summons/answer sequence
● Identification/recognition sequence
● Greeting sequence
● How are you sequence
● Reason for call sequence
Closing Conversations
Schegloff & Sacks (1973) have looked at
conversational closings, and this work has been
continued by Button (1987).
Button points out that telephone closings usually go over 4
turns of talk (archetype closing), made up of:
Pre-closing: ‘OK’ & ‘all right’ with falling intonation.
The closing: ‘bye bye’ & ‘goodbye’
❑ In the closing turn, both speakers mutually
negotiate the end of the conversation.
❑ Insertion sequence can be introduced between the two
units which make up these turns, before the closing
finally takes place.
❑ The closing may also be preceded by a number of pre-
sequences e.g. making of an arrangement, referring back
to something previously said, a new topic (which may not
be responded to), good wished, restatement of the
reason of calling, thanks for calling.
● Closing may be extended by continued by repetition of
pre-closing & closing items such as:
● ‘bye’, ‘bye’
● ‘love you’, ‘love you’
● ‘sleep well’, ‘you too’
● Closing are complex interactional units which are sensitive
to the speaker’s orientation to continuing, closing (or not
wanting to close) the conversation (Paltridge, 2006:110-
113).
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY
Adjacency pairs, exercises. Identify the type of adjacency
pairs
1. " I really like your new haircut!"
→ " Oh, thanks “
___________________
2. "I really like your new hair color!"
→ "Oh, you’re just saying that... I don’t believe you. “
__________________________________
3. "Your phone is over there."
→ “Oh, yes “
___________________________
4. "Hiya!"
→ "Oh, hi! “
_____________________________________
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY
5. "Would you like to visit the museum with me
this evening?"
→ " I'd love to! “
____________________________________
6. "Would you like to visit the museum with me
this evening?"
→ “Sorry, I can’t make it “
____________________________________
7. " What does this big red button do?"
→ " It causes two thirds of the universe to implode “
________________________________________
8. "Is it OK if I borrow this book?"
→ "I'd rather you didn't, it's due back at the library
tomorrow. “
________________________________________
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY
9.” Joe!”
→ "Joe: Sir?”
_______________________________________
10.” Look! Look what you made me do!”
→ “I made you do? I made you do? I wasn’t near you. “
__________________________________________
11.” You scared her when you yelled. It was funny.”
→ “It was not yelling. I was warming up my voice. It
was a voice exercise. “
______________________
References
1.Alba-Juez, L. (2009) Perspectives on Discourse Analysis:
Theory and Practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2.Chapman, S. (2011) Pragmatics. Palgrave
Macmillan.
3.Coulthard, M. (1985) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis.
Routledge.
4.Paltridge, B. (2006) Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum.
S
NP VP
Pro V Pro
I thank you
PSA
WEEK 9. UNIT 4 SEMANTICS
LEXICAL SEMANTICS
PhD.Alina Martinez Hernandez
❑ Semantics. Definition
❑ Types of semantics
❑ Lexical semantics
❑ Word relations
❑ Compositional semantics
To understand the nature and characteristics of
word and sentence meaning through the
analysis of lexical and compositional
semantics, working in groups and individually.
Read Fassold & Connor An Introduction to languge and
Lingistics pages 138- 143.and define:
Sematic meaning vs speaker meaning
What is Semantics?
Semantics vs pragmátics.
Fundamental semantic concepts (synonymy, antonymy,
hyponymy, hypernymy, ambiguity, entailment, tautology,
contradicts, contradiction)
What is compositionality?
Get ready for discussion
Can you think of other examples ?
S
NP VP
Pro V Pro
I thank you
WEEK 10. UNIT 4 MEANING
PRAGMATICS
PhD.Alina Martinez Hernandez
❑ Pragmatics.Definition
❑ Types of contexts
❑ Axioms of conversation
❑ Cooperative principle
❑ Speech acts
❑ Types os Speech acts
To discuss the different way people use
language in context, working in groups and
individually.
Julio Franco
a parent
a roommate
What is Language Used For?
I. Underline deictics in the following sentences:
1. I’m going to eat lunch
2. You look nice today
3. He was late for class
4. We are busy tonight
5. They have a new car
II. Add a sentence to make the referent clear.
EX. My name is Rose. I’m going to eat lunch.
What are the semantic properties of the words?
Woman – girl ( human,female)
Mother father ( Human, parents)
Sister –brother ( humn, child, sibling
Car-bicycle-motorcycle-bus-truck
Cat-dog- hamster-parakeet-goldfish
Identify hyponyms for the following categories of words
Appliance
Fruit
Wildlife
Furniture
Flowers
Countries
Birds
Identify hypernym for the following groups of words
Sedan, Mercedes, coupe, convertible,SUV, minivan
_____________
Daisy,primrose, carnation, rose, tulip____________
Hammer, screwdriver, drill, pliers_________________
Angola, Albany, Spain, Sweeden, South Africa____________
Richard Carapaz, Leo Messi, Jefferson Perez,Usain Bolt
_____________
Explain the difference between each synonym.Usea
dictionary if needed.
Student . Pupil
Carry – Tote
Child . Kid
Deeply – soundly
Bed -cot
Complete homonym pairs. Use a dictionary if needed
Bear ( animal) –
Lean (thin) –
Lap (to drink with tongue) –
Miss ) unmarried woman)-
Bank ( a financial institution) -
Classify the following pairs of antonyms in
gradable or complementary
Bright /dark
Over/under
Married/single
Doctor /patient
Stop/go
Tall/short
Hot/cold
True/false
Make uocomplementary pairs using the following
prefixes: in, un, non
Washable
Existent
Curable
Decent
Stoppable
Valuable
polite
a) What are the three basic sentence types
found in many languages?
b) To which illocutionary acts are these sentence
types conventionally associated, respectively?
c) What is an indirect speech act?
d) One analysis of indirect speech acts
claims that they are frequently
conventionalized. How can indirect requests
be tested for conventionality?
Which of the following sentences would normally be
considered indirect speech acts?
1. Open the window!
2. Can you shut the door when you leave?
3. (At a fitness club): Please shower before entering the pool.
Please observe pool rules located at poolside. You are advised
against swimming alone.
4. Why don't we go to the nice Italian restaurant near the
museum?
5. Once again, we respectfully request that you return your
verified sketch by June 27.
6. I hereby apologize sincerely for my rude behavour last night.
7. Sorry
S
NP VP
Pro V Pro
I thank you
PSA
WEEK 10. UNIT 4 MEANING
PRAGMATICS
PhD.Alina Martinez Hernandez
❑ Pragmatics.Definition
❑ Types of contexts
❑ Axioms of conversation
❑ Cooperative principle
❑ Speech acts
❑ Types os Speech acts
To discuss the different way people use
language in context, working in groups and
individually.
Julio Franco
a parent
a roommate
What is Language Used For?
I. Underline deictics in the following sentences:
1. I’m going to eat lunch
2. You look nice today
3. He was late for class
4. We are busy tonight
5. They have a new car
II. Add a sentence to make the referent clear.
EX. My name is Rose. I’m going to eat lunch.
What are the semantic properties of the words?
Woman – girl ( human,female)
Mother father ( Human, parents)
Sister –brother ( humn, child, sibling
Car-bicycle-motorcycle-bus-truck
Cat-dog- hamster-parakeet-goldfish
Identify hyponyms for the following categories of words
Appliance
Fruit
Wildlife
Furniture
Flowers
Countries
Birds
Identify hypernym for the following groups of words
Sedan, Mercedes, coupe, convertible,SUV, minivan
_____________
Daisy,primrose, carnation, rose, tulip____________
Hammer, screwdriver, drill, pliers_________________
Angola, Albany, Spain, Sweeden, South Africa____________
Richard Carapaz, Leo Messi, Jefferson Perez,Usain Bolt
_____________
Explain the difference between each synonym.Usea
dictionary if needed.
Student . Pupil
Carry – Tote
Child . Kid
Deeply – soundly
Bed -cot
Complete homonym pairs. Use a dictionary if needed
Bear ( animal) –
Lean (thin) –
Lap (to drink with tongue) –
Miss ) unmarried woman)-
Bank ( a financial institution) -
Classify the following pairs of antonyms in
gradable or complementary
Bright /dark
Over/under
Married/single
Doctor /patient
Stop/go
Tall/short
Hot/cold
True/false
Make uocomplementary pairs using the following
prefixes: in, un, non
Washable
Existent
Curable
Decent
Stoppable
Valuable
polite
a) What are the three basic sentence types
found in many languages?
b) To which illocutionary acts are these sentence
types conventionally associated, respectively?
c) What is an indirect speech act?
d) One analysis of indirect speech acts
claims that they are frequently
conventionalized. How can indirect requests
be tested for conventionality?
Which of the following sentences would normally be
considered indirect speech acts?
1. Open the window!
2. Can you shut the door when you leave?
3. (At a fitness club): Please shower before entering the pool.
Please observe pool rules located at poolside. You are advised
against swimming alone.
4. Why don't we go to the nice Italian restaurant near the
museum?
5. Once again, we respectfully request that you return your
verified sketch by June 27.
6. I hereby apologize sincerely for my rude behavour last night.
7. Sorry
S
NP VP
Pro V Pro
I thank you
PSA
