Week 6

• Conversation Analysis
• Research in Pragmatics
 Conversation structure
• Many metaphors are used to describe conversation
structure.
• Conversation is like a dance with the conversation
partners coordinating their movements smoothly.
• Conversation is like traffic crossing an intersection,
involving lots of alternating movement without any
crashes.
• The most widely used: conversation is like the working of
a market economy.
• In this market, there is a scarce commodity called the
floor, which can be defined as the right to speak.
• Having control of this scarce commodity at any time is
called a turn.
• In any situation where control is not fixed in advance,
anyone can attempt to get control. This is called turn-
taking.
• Because it is a form of social action, turn-taking operates
in accordance with a local management system that is
essentially a set of conventions for getting turns, keeping
them, or giving them away and is needed most when
there is a possible change in who has the turn.
• Any possible change-of-turn point is called a Transition
Relevance Place, or TRP.
 Pauses and overlaps
• Most of the time, conversation consists of two, or more,
participants taking turns, and only one participant
speaking at any time.
• Participants must tacitly agree on who should speak when
and normally we take turns at holding the floor and do so
without overt negotiation.
• Transitions with a long silence between turns (pauses) or
with substantial overlap (i.e. both speakers trying to speak
at the same time) are felt to be awkward. It usually means
that much more is being communicated than is said.
There is a sence of distance, an absence of familiarity or
ease.
• Mr. Strait: What’s your major Dave?
• Dave: English – well I haven’t really decided yet. (3”)
• Mr. Strait: So – you want to be a teacher?
• Dave: No – not really – well not if I can help it (2.5”)
• Mr. Strait: Wha – // Where do you – go ahead
• Dave: I mean it’s a – oh sorry // I em –
• The silence in the conversation above are not attributable
to either speaker because each has completed his turn.
• 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. It’s an
attributable silence.
• Jan: Dave, I’m going to the store ( 2’’)
• Jan: Dave? (2”)
• Jan: Dave – is something wrong?
• Dave: What? What’s wrong?
• Jan: Never mind.
• When two people attempt to speak simultaneously, there is
an overlap.
• A: After John’s party we went to Ed’s house.
• B: So you – // so you – you –
• C: What – what – // time did you get there?
• Both silences/pauses and simultaneous speaking/overlap
are serious problems in conversation and the turn-taking
norms are designed to minimize them.
 Turn taking
• Each potential speaker is expected to wait until the
current speaker reaches a TRP. The most obvious
markers of a TRP are at the end of a structural unit (a
phrase, a clause) and a pause.
• Those holding floor in a competitive environment will
avoid providing TRPs by avoiding an open pause at the
end of a syntactic unit or filling his pauses with ‘um’ or ‘uh’
• Another device to hold floor is to indicate that there is a
larger structure to your turn by beginning with expressions
like: There are three points I’d like to make – first … or
There are more than one way to do this – one example
would be …
• Speaker holding the floor may signal that their turn is
about to end with verbal or non-verbal cues. As turns
commonly end in a complete sentence, the completion of
a sentence may signal the end of a turn. A sentence
ending in a tag question (isn’t it? Are you?) explicitly
invites an interlocutor to take the floor.
• A: Pretty windy out today, isn’t it?
• B: Sure is.
• The end of a turn may also be signaled by sharply raising
or lowering the pitch of your voice.
• Other expressoins that cansignal the completion of a turn
are y’know, kinda, I don’t know, I dunno
• Eye gaze can alsohelp control foor holidng and turn taking.
• In multiparty conversation, the speaker holding the floor can
select who will speak next by addressing the next speaker
by name (What’ve you been up to these days, John?) or by
turning toward the selected next speaker
• When the floor holder does not select the next speaker,
competition can arise, resulting in overlaps.
• A: Who’s gonna be at Jake’s party Saturday night? (Pause)
• B: Todd to – C: I don’t kn – (pause)
• B: Todd told me – C: I don’t know who’s – .
• B to C: Go ahead!
• C: I don’t know who’s going to be there, but I know it will be
crowded.
• B: Todd told me a lotta people would be there.
 Backchannels
• Within an extended turn, the speakers holding the floor
expect their conversation partners to indicate that they are
listening. There are many different ways of doing this,
including head nods, smiles, and other facial experessions
and gestures, but the most common vocal indications are
called backchannels signals or simply backchannels.
• A: If you use long distance service a lot then you’ll
• B: uh-uh
• A: be interested in teh discount I am talking about because
• B: uh-uh
• A: it can only save you money to switch to a cheaper service
• B: mmm
 Conversational style
1. High involvment style: participation in a conversation is
very active, speaking rate is relatively fast with almost
no pauses between turns and with some overlap or
even completion of the other’s turn.
2. High considerateness style: the speakers use a slower
rate, expect longer pauses between turns, do not
overlap, and avoid interruption or completion of other’s
turn.
• When a speaker of one style gets into a conversation
with a speaker of the other style, the talk tends to be
one sided and misunderstandings may occur.
 Adjacency pairs
• What do you think the replies to the following utterances
are?
• A: Hello. B:
• A: How are you? B:
• A: See ya. B:
• Certain sequences of turns go together and form
adjacency pairs.
• Each adjacency pair consists of two turns, one of which
(the first part) directly precedes the other (the second
part). E.g. question-answer, thanking-response, request-
acceptance/refusal, apology-acceptance ...
 Structural characteristics of AP
1. They are contiguous: The two parts of an AP are
contiguous (consecutive) and are uttered by different
speakers. Where’s the milk I bought this morning?
They said on the radio the weather would clear up by
noon. It’s on the counter.
2. They are ordered: The two parts of an AP are ordered. The
answer to a question cannot precede the question. One
cannot accept an invitation before it has been offered.
3. They are matched: The first and the second part of an AP
must be appropriately matched. Otherwise, the exchange
would be odd.
Do you want more coffee? The sun is rising
 Insertion sequences
• An insertion sequence is one AP within another.
• A: Where’s the milk I bought this morning?
• B: The skim milk?
• A Yeah.
• B: On the counter.

• A: Can I speak to Mr. Higgins?

• B: May I ask who’s calling?
• A: Arthur Willcox
• B: Please hold.
 Preference structure
• Certain kinds of adjacency pairs are marked by a
preference for a particular type of second part. This is
called preference structure. The term ‘preference’ is used
to indicate a socially determined structural pattern and
does not refer to any individual’s mental or emotional
desires. In this technical use of the word, preference is an
observed pattern in talk and not a personal wish.
• Preference structure divides second parts into preferred
and dispreferred responses. The preferred is the
structurally expected next act and the dispreferred is the
structurally unexpected next act.
The general patterns of preferred and
dispreferred structures (Levinson’s,
1983)
Second part
First part Preferred Dispreferred
Assessment Agree Disagree
Invitation Accept Refuse
Offer Accept Decline
Proposal Agree Disagree
Request Accept Refuse
 Preference structure
• Preferred second parts tend to follow the first part without a
pause and to consist of structurally simple utterances.
• Wanna meet for lunch tomorrow?
• Sure.
• Dispreferred second parts tend to be preceded by a pause
and to begin with a hesitation particle such as well or uh
• Would you like to meet for lunch tomorrow?
• Well, um ... Tomorrow’s the 24th right? I told Lori I’d have
lunch with her tomorrow. And it’s her birthday, so I can’t
cancel. How’bout Wednesday?
• In any AP, silence in the second part is always an indication
of a dispreferred response.
 How to do a dispreferred
a. Delay / hesitate: pause, er, em, ah
b. Preface: well, oh
c. Express doubt: I’m not sure, I don’t know.
d. Token Yes: that’s great, I’d love to.
e. Apology: I’m sorry, what a pity.
f. Mention obligation: I must do X, I’m expected in Y.
g. Appeal for understanding: you see, you know.
h. Make it non-personal: everybody else, out there.
i. Give an account: too much work, no time left.
j. Use mitigators: really, mostly, sort of, kinda.
k. Hedge the negative: I guess not, not possible.
 Research in Pragmatics

Cross-cultural
Interlanguage
Pragmatics Research
Pragmatics Research
(Comparative Research)

Comparative study Acquisitional study

Cross-sectional study Longitudinal study

 Research in Pragmatics
1. Cross-cultural pragmatic research: compares the
pragmatics of speakers from differnt cultures or who
speak different languages.
2. Interlanguage pragmatic research:
a. Comparative studies: compare the pragmatics of
NNSs of a language and that of NSs of that language or
the pragmatic of NNSs of the same language who
speak different L1.
b. Acquisitional studies: investigate learners’ acquisition
of pragmatic norms in the target language.
 Research in Pragmatics
• Cross-sectional studies: compare the pragmatics of
NNSs at different levels of proficiency and lengths of
residence in the target country. i.e. Investigate the effects
of proficiency levels and lengths of residence on learners’
pragmatic development.
• Longitudinal studies: investigate the pragmatic
development of a learner or a group of learners over time.
 An example
“The effects of proficiency levels and
lengths of residence on requests by
Vietnamese speakers of English”
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Methodology
4. Results and Discussion
5. Conclusion
 Literature Review
1. Interlanguage requests
a. Request strategies
b. Internal modification
c. External modification
2. Proficiency and pragmatic competence
3. Length of residence and pragmatic competence
4. Power and the choice of request strategy
 Methodology
1. The aims and research questions
2. Data collection
a. Data collection instrument
b. Data collection method
c. Data collection procedures
d. Subjects of the study
3. The coding framework
4. Data analysis
 Results and discussion
1. The choice of strategies
2. The use of internal modification
a. The use of syntactic downgraders
b. The use of lexical/phrasal downgraders
3. The use of external modification
 Conclusion
1. Major findings
a. Request strategies
b. Internal modification
c. External modification
2. Implications
a. Theoretical implications
b. Practical/pedagogical implications
3. Limitations of the study
4. Suggestions for further research