ppt on Conversation Analysis. Text taken from YULE (Pragmatics). Preference and Non-preference structures. Video: Jurgen Handke 2012. in “The Virtual Linguistic Campus” from www.linguisticsonline.com Turn Taking in Conversation

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CONVERSATION,
PREFERENCE STRUCTURE
DISCOURSE AND
CULTURE.
LINGUISTICS.
TEACHER: VALERIA GRAZIANO.
GROUP MEMBERS:
Nadya Tolaba.
Agustina Giacinty.
Adela Pérez del Viso.

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Interaction and Conversation
Interaction and Conversation.
Metaphors: a dance; traffic
crossing an interaction.
Best Metaphor: MARKET
ECONOMY.
A SCARCE COMMODITY: the
FLOOR. The right to speak.

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Turn, Turn-taking, TRP
Turn: to have control of the right
to speak. To hold the floor.
When control is not fixed in
advance: anyone can try to get
control: TURN-TAKING.
Turn-taking depends on every local
management system (convention)
TRP: Transition Relevance Place:
possible-change-of-turn point.

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How Conversation is viewed
Speakers are viewed as taking
turns at holding the floor.
They accomplish change of turn
smoothly: aware of the local
management system for taking turns.
Speakers may cooperate and share
the floor equally.
Speakers could be in competition,
fighting to keep the floor.
Patterns: according to social groups.

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VIDEO.
Jurgen Handke 2012.
“The Virtual Linguistic Campus”
www.linguisticsonline.com
Turn Taking in Conversation.

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VIDEO. JURGEN HANDKE.

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PAUSES and OVERLAPS
• Pauses: silence between turns.
• Pauses can be: simple hesitations or
Silences.
• Overlaps: both speakers trying to
speak at the same time.
• With pauses and Overlaps: NO
FLOW, no SMOOTH RHYTHM to
their transitions, SENSE of
DISTANCE, ABSENCE OF
FAMILIARITY or ease.

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PAUSES, OVERLAPS,
BACKCHANNELS
• Pauses: silence between turns.
• Pauses can be: simple hesitations or
Silences.
• Overlaps: both speakers trying to
speak at the same time.
• With pauses and Overlaps: NO FLOW,
no SMOOTH RHYTHM to their
transitions, SENSE of DISTANCE,
ABSENCE OF FAMILIARITY or ease.

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Silences
• One “silence” could be NOT
attributable to one speaker (Ex. P.73).
• If the silence is attributed to the
second speaker and becomes
significant: ATTRIBUTABLE SILENCE.
In that case Speaker A turns over the
floor to Speaker B and S.B. does not
talk. That silence is communicating
something.

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OVERLAP
• The normal expectation: one speaker
at a time.
• Overlap: a problem for the local
management system.
• Typically: when both speakers attempt
to initiate talk.
• May be due to: a) unfamiliar
conversation b) expression of
solidarity or closeness.
• It solves: 1 speaker draws attention to
be allowed to finish.

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TRP
• Transition Relevance Place.
• Normally Speaker B will wait for a
possible TRP before jumping in.
• Dominant people will avoid providing
TRPs.
• Avoid TRPs: avoid an open pause at
the end of a syntactic unit. The
speaker PROTECTS HIS TURN.
• Extended turn: S A. indicates at first
there is a larger structure to your turn.
(Ex. P.75). Discussions/ Storytelling.

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BACKCHANNELS
• Ways of indicating we are listening.
• Head nods, smiles, other facial
expressions, gestures.
• Backchannels: one way of signalling
we are listening. (uh,uh; mm)
• They indicate the listener is following
and not objecting to what the speaker
says.
• Normal expectation: backchannel. No
backchannel is significant.

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• Even within a community of speakers:
sufficient variation to cause potential
misunderstanding.
• The expectation to lead a conversation
very active and at a speed rate (or
not): CONVERSATIONAL STYLE.
• High involvement style.
• High considerateness style. (non
interrupting, not impossing style)
CONVERSATIONAL
STYLE.

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• AUTOMATIC PATTERNS in the
structure of conversations.
• They consist of a FIRST PART and a
SECOND PART. (by different
speakers)
• S. A creates the expectation of the
2nd utterance in S.B.(of the same pair)
• Greetings and Goodbyes/
Question/answer sequences/ Ex: P.77
ADJACENCY PAIRS

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• Insertion sequence: one adjacency
pair within another. (Ex p.78).
• The delay in answering or accepting:
the S.B is not uttering the expected
response: represents distance
between what is expected. Delay is
MEANINGFUL.
ADJACENCY PAIRS

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• Yule, G, Pragmatics, Oxford U.P. Hong
Kong, 1996. Units 8 to 10.
• www.linguisticsonline.com The
Virtual Linguistics Classroom.
SOURCES.