Conversational Theory

1. Conversational Theory An introduction to how people talk to each other.

2. What is conversation? • Analysing conversation is part of what linguists call ‘discourse analysis.’ • Can you explain the (obvious) difference between a monologue and a dialogue? • Make a list of all the features you expect to see in a conversation.

3. Simple definition Conversation is: Any interactive spoken exchange between two or more people. • Face to face interactions (private or public (in the classroom or Prime Minister’s QT) • Non-face to face interactions eg: ‘Phone • Broadcasts such as radio phone-ins/tv chat shows.

4. ‘Ingredients’ of a conversation • You came up with a list of what conversation includes but what do linguists call these things and how do they work in practice?

5. Key ideas about conversation • Conversation is (usually) spontaneous • Speech is temporary (unlike writing) • Conversation is about more than words (unlike writing usually is): • Prosody: Communication through facets other than words such as intonation, speed, stress, volume, laughter or even silence.

6. Features: 1. Turn-taking • Basic rule of conversation – people take it in turns. Levison: ‘Less than 5% of speech stream is delivered in overlap.’ • There are conversational ‘rules’ that mean there are appropriate behaviours – when to talk, when not to. • The expected pairing of utterance and then response is known as adjacency pairs.

7. Expected responses – adjacency pairs in practice. What might be the response to the following: • Your tea is ready • That’s a nice jacket • I heard it might snow • Hello there! • Are you coming later? Notice that they are not all questions! However the most often used adjacency pairs are in a Question/Answer format.

8. Politeness and Negotiation • Conversation is a subtle process and is about cooperation. • Getting somebody to do something for you can be done via an IMPERATIVE (telling somebody what to do) or via an INTERROGATIVE (asking somebody to do something). • There might be a ‘half way house’ for this via the use of ‘please.’ Which indicates forethought and encourages smooth conversation.We use politeness so we are not attacked.

9. Consider the following: • Sit down and shut up • Please can I have some of those over there • Please quieten down • Give me that Who do you think is speaking? Why? What is the context of the utterance? Can number 1 and 4 ever be polite?

10. Content and Conditioning • There are certain topics in conversation that are acceptable as much as there are certain words that are acceptable/unacceptable. • Can you think of any topics that are seen as taboo? Are there certain people/contexts that change what you consider to be taboo? Explain you answer.

11. Purpose and Context • A speech act refers to the idea that there is always a purpose to speech. Speech act theory refers to what is being done when something is said. It might not always be obvious just from the words chosen. • Consider ‘I do’ at a wedding or ‘Can you pass me the ketchup?’ • GO through your day and chose 5 conversations you have had. Outline what they were about, what was their purpose?

12. Halliday’s 7 functions of language. • Instrumental – Expresses needs • Regulatory – Language used to tell others what to do • Interactional – language used to form and maintain relationships • Personal – language used to express feelings, opinions and identity • Heuristic – language used to gain knowledge about world • Imaginative – language used to tell stories and jokes and to create an imaginary environment. • Representational – to convey facts and information.

13. What else is happening:Conversational structure & analysis • What are adjacency pairs? • Brown and Yule (1983) state language is either: Interactional or Transactional • Interactional: expresses social relations & personal attitudes • Transactional: conveys factual information & is message oriented

14. When adjacency pairs are (apparently) broken • The following examples break expectations. Can you suggest a context in which this might happen: A: Hello B: Goodbye A: What do you think of this? B: Is that the time? I must go A: Did you go out with Jon last night? B: Why are you asking? A: Why do you think?

15. Discourse Markers • Conversation is also dependent on discourse markers. These are the words and phrases that open, close and make links between and across utterances. • Discourse markers (aka utterance indicator) are like signposts in the conversation. • Discourse markers show that conversations are analysable into chunks larger than sentences.

16. Discourse markers • 'the little words like 'well', 'oh', ‘right' and OK' that break our speech up into parts and can show the relation between parts. • Their ‘meanings’ can be quite variable, and sometimes people have quite idiosyncratic discourse markers (think of your teachers), but there are some tendencies in discourse marker use: • 'Oh' can prepare the hearer for a surprising or just remembered item • ‘Right’ can indicate the beginning of a new stretch of discourse, or that a discourse topic has been completed and a new one is about to start

17. What do you call it when… • Somebody starts talking? • This is known as taking the floor. • Somebody lets somebody else talk? • This is known as yielding the floor • Somebody continues to talk? • This is known as holding the floor. • This term ‘the floor’ has its origins in debating

18. What else is going on in conversation? • BACK-CHANNELING: • If the hearer doesn’t want to speak he/she signals that the speaker can continue. This is done through sounds and gestures as well as words. • These sounds might be things like uh-huh, mmmm, yeh, • Or gestures such as head nodding • They are an important way the listener shows interest in the speaker. • They show the involvement of both parties. • Back channel feedback is very important in phone conversations. Why?

19. What else is going on? • PRE-SEQUENCING: • Used when a turn in TURN TAKING is really problematic – for example due to a difficult subject matter. • A speaker prepares for the difficulty with a pre-sequence. E.g: A: I have something terrible to tell you B: How bad can it be? A: As bad as you can imagine. B: Yeah? A: Bennie just got run over.

20. What else is going on? • PHATIC TALK: • A usual pre-sequence is phatic talk; utterances that have no real purpose. • Phatic talk is often used to open a conversation – a good example is the British obsession with the weather!? Are we really interested or is it to serve a purely interactional/social function? • Sp phatic talk will often ‘open the ground.’ • Very important social tool – small talk.

21. What else is going on? • REPAIRS: • The speaker can correct himself/herself • The hearer can correct the speaker • The Hearer can prompt the speaker, perhaps by repeating back the last utterance • The hearer doesn’t respond indicating a ‘mistake’

22. Repairs • There is a preference in speech to allow the speaker to repair their mistake. • If a speaker is not allowed to repair a mistake it is seen as not a normative response and can cause conversational trouble or conflict. • Repair is very frequent – talk is a spontaneous, noisy medium

23. What else is going on? • NON-FLUENCY FEATURES: • These are normal characteristics of speech that interrupt the flow of talk. • Hesitations: Fill a gap to prevent a turn/allow thought • False starts – Speaker begins and then again • Repetitions – Natural though can be used for emphasis • Interruptions or Insertions – when the adjacency pair is disrupted • Overlaps – A kind of interruption; can be co-operative or an attempt to take the floor. • Fillers are also non-fluency features but…I think they come…

24. What else is going on? • (here) FILLERS, HEDGES & TAG QUESTONS: • Fillers: • Sounds that ‘fill up’ speech such as urm ,um, er. • Allow thinking time and prevent interruption. Linked to ideas of voiced pauses (noises used to keep the turn in the conversation) • Hedge: • A means of being non-commital, not sounding too direct • ‘Sort of’ ‘kind of’ • Tag Questions: • (Unnecessary) questions at the end of utterances – less confrontational or confident. Prompt back channel feedback, but can be aggressive. You know what I mean, don’t you? • Vague Language: • Softens the impact of an utterance • E.g She said you smelt or something OR Whenever it was you said whatever it was you said

25. What else is going on? • PARALINGUISTIC FEATURES: • Related to body language (whereas prosody is about the non-verbal aspects of speech!) • Gestures, facial expressions. • Laughter or smiling might come under this category (poss prosody depending on context) • Paralinguistic features help add meaning in addition to the meaning of the words used.

26. Anything else?! Surely that’s it?! • Not quite – there are certain ways we can say things… • Elision: When you slur one of more sounds or syllables (like in ‘gonna’ (Going to). This is very very common! • Ellipsis: When part of a grammatical construction is missing ‘You out tonight?’ • Accent: We all know about this one!! The distinctive way words are pronounced (like my ‘oooo’ sounds as opposed to your oow sounds in words like ‘home’) • Dialect: The grammar and lexis of a regional area (Tha’ll end up like a boolie = Cumbrian for ‘You will get a bad back’!!) • Idiolect: How an individual speaks; a distinctive style. • Sociolect: How a social group talk – eg upper or working class.

27. The Cooperative Principle • Having identified the structural features that characterise speech, we also need to understand the pragmatic rules that govern how we choose and interpret those features • A key pragmatic framework is known as the ‘Cooperative Principle’, most associated with the work of Paul Grice • Grice came up with a well-known model for analysing conversation according to this principle:

28. Grice’s Maxims: Basic Rules of Conversation • QUALITY: Be truthful • QUANTITY: Don’t talk too much or too little • RELEVANCE: Keep to the point! • MANNER: Be clear and orderly. • These cooperative principles allow conversation to ‘work’ and allow us to follow the meaning of a conversation. • You can flout the maxims – usually to create a particular effect.

29. Maxims in action • “How do I get to Sainsbury’s, mate?” • “Go straight ahead, turn right at the school, then left at the bus stop on the hill.” Speaker A assumes that: • B believes his directions to be genuine – the maxim of quality; • B believes the information to be sufficient – the maxim of quantity; • B believes the information to be clear – the maxim of manner; • B believes his directions are to Sainsbury’s – the maxim of relation (or relevance).

30. Relevance • Sperber and Wilson went on to suggest that it is Relevance that is the key to understanding how we interpret utterances. It is our assumption of relevance that allows us to explain the many ways in which we use language in ways that cannot be explained simply by lexical, semantic and grammatical knowledge (and which might otherwise flout Grice’s maxims): • A. How do I get to Sainsbury’s mate?B. It’s twenty past twelve.B. There’s a petrol station just round the corner.B. You’re not going anywhere. Etc…