Lecture: Spoken English

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Lecture Spoken English
Universität des Saarlandes Department 4.3 English
Linguistics Professor Dr. N. R. Norrick SS
2008 Tuesday 4-6 pm
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Why study talk Conversation as
natural Conversation as exemplary Conversation as
special register
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Conversation as natural Commonest register
Most general unmarked style of talk In all
settings Used by all groups Least monitored
most fluent Most consistent for region group
individual
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Conversation as exemplary Richest data
source High percentage of core
vocabulary Idioms turns of phrase clichés
proverbs
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Conversation as exemplary 2 Full range of
paralanguage Intonation stress drawl
stutter whisper creaky voice ingressive
sounds sing-song
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Conversation as exemplary 3 Wide range of
functions descriptive narrative emotive
appellative dialogue figures
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Conversation as exemplary 4 Face-to-face Real-ti
me processing and production Locally bound me
you this here now Context-specific
participants interaction goals topics
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Conversation as exemplary 5 Feedback
mechanisms Understanding checks yknow
right Attention signals m-hm uh-huh oh
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Conversation as exemplary 6 Repair
mechanisms Self-repair See you Tuesday- I
mean Wednesday. Other-repair A See you
Tuesday. B You mean Wednesday. A Right
Wednesday. Co-productions A She was wearing
one of these old uh- B Bonnets A Yeah.
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Conversation as exemplary 7 Full range of vocal
production Imitations buzz splat wham
kerplop Non-words tsk whoa whew uh-uh m-hm
m-m-m Expressive intonation angry
aspiration ironic lengthening riiiight
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Representative of community behavior Power and
solidarity how we show respect deference and
distance friendship and closeness names forms
of address choice of verb forms etc. Good
morning Sir vs. Yo dude Could you please pass
the salt vs. Hey salt! politeness strategies
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Membership asking directions presupposes
membership as local giving directions
presupposes membership in group car owners bus
users locals etc. get on bus 19 drive out
through gate turn left take Meerwiesertalweg
toward town
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Alignment we (both) versus we (not you) 2nd
versus 3rd person you versus Bob here wants to go
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World View use of man for humankind use of he
for everybody except traditionally female
rolese.g. the flight attendant/stewardess . . .
she Good evening ladies and gentlemen
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Common Sense me-centered human local big
tall bigger taller than me hot cold
hotter colder than usual here old weird from
my perspective
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Folk Logic I cant hardly stand it same
difference no head injury is too small to ignore
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Interaction 1 turn-taking sequences A Hey
Judy B Yeah A Can you help me here B
Sure. A Thanks. B No problem.
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reasons to study conversation 1 for students of
English language and literature and
cultures Conversation reveals patterns of
usage for individuals for groups for the
linguistic community role of talk in human
understanding and interaction language in social
relations not as abstract structure
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reasons to study conversation 2 everyday
conversation has a central place in
linguistics includes all of descriptive
linguistics phonology morphology phraseology
syntax semantics pragmatics all contained in
conversation analysis all tools for studying
discourse all apply to adjacent areas with
organic connections together they contribute to
view of language as dynamic interaction
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Talk in Language 1 Talk and speech language
and system Saussure on parole langage
langue Saussures dichotomies privileging langue
over parole
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Talk in Language 2 Conversation vs dialogue
(reported talk) spoken prose reading aloud
reciting from memory professional reporting
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Talk versus Text 1 Biological factors determine
features of talk gtlt Cultural
conventions govern the form of text
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Talk versus Text 2 Talk produced by lungs vocal
chords tongue lips (breath group intonation
group) for the ear stress-timing (vs.
syllable-timing) Intonation (contours and
stresses) prosody (tempo volume rhythm voice
quality) Text produced by hand for the eye
left to right in lines with
spaces paragraphs sentences words letters
caps/lower case diacritics punctuation
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Talk versus Text 3 Talk is for current local
listeners (ephemeral) bound to
context/participants markers of relationship
(terms of Address pronouns you we
lets) Text is for any present or future reader
even removed spatially (permanent) relatively
context free generally accessible impersonal
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Talk versus Text 4 Talk is produced in real
time hesitations false starts repetitions
clarifications elisions omissions reduced
forms abbreviations speech rate is not just
limited by natural factors speakers adjust their
speech rate to listeners and contexts Text is
produced at leisure time to edit full sentences
eliminate false starts hesitations and time
to spell everything out in detail no time
constraints on reading individual readers
determine their own reading rate they can
re-read as often as they wish
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tempo of talk slow talk goes about 3 words per
second or 180 words per minute fast talk can go 5
words per second or almost 300 words per
minute Stories go faster than topical talk and
women talk faster than men some women tell
practiced stories at about 260 words per
minute upper limit about 400 words per minute or
about 6.5 words per second when reciting a
practiced text for a short period
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Written representation versus interactional
speech 1 written planned edited pre-modified
phrases definite descriptions sentential marked
relationships between clauses
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Written representation versus interactional
speech 2 spoken face-to-face with eye contact
gesture spatial orientation voice quality
(volume pitch timbre) accent prosody (tempo
rhythm) Only these three heard on phone but
we can still identify callers we know and even
tell how theyre feeling
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Written representation vs interactional speech
3 writing is organized around sentences speech
is organized around intonation units Intonation
units about 5 words long one or two
intonation peaks single chunk of
information first Given then New
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intonation units so I wént I went ín and I hád
the báll and I just like túrned around and I
shót it- didnt even lóok and it like hít off
the báckboard só hárd. it was só bád
intonation units may also be sentences but
significant for speech in real time
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talk in interaction Talk in interaction is
unplanned hesitations pauses fillers
digression dynamic topic development
generalized vocabulary repetition formulaic
speech
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editing talk on-line restarts self-correction li
ttle pre-modification concrete contextual
reference no sentential orientation paratactic
relationships between short intonation
units theres this guy and hes really old and
hes got this dog like a really ugly dog and he
walks in here For written text we prefer A
rather old gentleman with a terribly ugly dog
entered.
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face-to-face talk Besides information conveyed
visually and through the voice talk is full of
cues to the listener Jack hey have you seen
Al and Judy Jill well I saw Judy. Jack Al
was with her though right Jill theyve kind
of been like fighting yknow readers must cue
on neutral lexical meaning Jack asked Jill if
shed seen Al and Judy. Jill said shed seen
Judy. Jack asked if Al had been with her and Jill
said theyd been fighting.
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listener activities Listeners do not inertly
and silently receive talk by speakers They
actively demonstrate listenership uptake
understanding agreement or disagreement
emotional involvement activities in the
back-channel (Yngve 1970)
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back-channel activities 1 Visual back-channel
activities nods smiles grimaces furrowed
brows gestures Audible back-channel signals
nonlinguistic sounds sighs inhalations
laughs
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back-channel activities 2 linguistic
signals discourse markers like yeah and
okay interjections like wow and damn attention
signals such as m-hm and uh-huh
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listener activities listener activities signal
recipiency emotional involvement in foregoing
talk changes in information states certain
items specialized for signaling
recipiency uh-huh m-hm Related notions
continuer response token
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signaling recipiency 1 Brianne its midnight
blue I mean thats nice. Addie uh-huh.
Brianne okay but its got like these puffy
sleeves. Brianne I came on Wednesday night.
Addie m-hm. Brianne oh I tried something
different this time
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signaling involvement Assessments FRANK no
bigger than that. RON mhm. MELISSA wow. FRANK
we- -- and we got out to ...
Earth lt2836gt didnt give the people enough
time to get off the train. Elizabeth and
about four or five other people. lt2834gt gosh. lt28
36gt couldnt get off . . .
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signaling involvement 2 Assessments marking
increasing involvement lt1gt yeah but then
thats it. it never rains in the summer.
lt2gt weird. lt1gt it is weird. lt2429gt
but anyway then what what did it register
lt2432gt about three. lt2429gt about three.
anyway. lt2425gt holy shit. lt2432gt and
when you shower its fifty to sixty times higher
than that.
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signaling changes in information states lt3gt she
was going down Liberty Street and a tree fell
that way if it had a gone this way it would
have hit her car. lt2gt oh. lt1gt I mean right
next to her right next to her. lt1gt and then
you just put them in Mason jars and sterilize
Mason jars lt2gt I dont sterilize them. lt1gt
oh. lt2gt well I wash them
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Deixis in speech vs writing face-to-face speech
deictic expressions refer to position place
time of speaker here over there right now
yesterday or hearer on your left just behind
you
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Deixis in written text writer specifies some
character or object as deictic reference
point to the left of the house just behind
Judy later the same day
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Speech and Writing as Registers spoken written
language as separate media for different
functions in different settings with different
stylistic tendencies (Biber) 1st and 2nd person
personal pronouns contraction passive
nominalization characteristic structures and
different frequencies in spoken and written
discourse
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Personal Pronouns speech contains more 1st and
2nd person personal pronouns I you
we since we generally talk about ourselves and
each other in face-to-face interaction while
writing concerns public and fictional persons
unfamiliar to readers
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Contractions Speech contains more
contractions forms institutionalized in both
speech and writing cant wont shell
theyll Im weve youre hes compound
contractions in talk theyllve left by now she
cantve gone far wedve seen them if they
were here
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reduction or ellision in everyday speech some
people from townll be there too I hope tove
finished by noon the one she wanteds already
gone compare standardized spellings of
pronunciation patterns gotcha for got you wanna
for want to
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Passive The passive is typical of writing and
rare in everyday speech Passive includes
(according to Biber) Sue was greeted formally by
the mayor. Sue was greeted formally at town
hall. The woman (who was) greeted formally left
early.
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Nominalization Nominalization is characteristic
of and more frequent in writing Biber defines
Nominalization to include words ending with the
suffixes -tion -ness -ity -ment This does
not cover all nominalizations the short list
makes counting easier covers too much e.g.
moment covers too little e.g. comparison
abhorence but provides a good measure of
writtenness versus spokenness
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Historical background For most of history even
for most of the history of linguistics language
has been taken to mean the written form of
language first languages studied (Sanskrit
Latin) were dead languages known only through
written records Historical linguists sought to
relate extent written forms of languages like
Latin and English or various stages of a
language like Old English and Middle English
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Recorded talk Till very recent advent of audio
and video recording writing was the only method
of preserving spoken language first recordings
of spoken language seemed incoherent and
laughable listeners accustomed to written
texts performances by trained readers
carefully planned speeches by professional
speakers
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Firth 1935 conversation as key to understanding
language and meaning but only offered
impressionistic remarks Birdwhistle from
1952 micro-analysis of kinesics complex coding
and transcription of body movement
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Fries 1952 The structure of English Fries
recorded phone conversations first grammar
based on recorded data a large body of actual
English speech observed and recorded in a
community with advent of audio recording no
excuse for intuition-based grammars corpus
over 50 hours of surreptitiously recorded
telephone talk participants were unaware that
their speech was being recorded Fries simply
requested and received permission to tap into
phone lines no moral question of intrusion
into privacy no question of Fries integrity
as a disinterested scholar no tapes they
recorded on discs! defends everyday usage at
length upholds school standard but insists on
authentic data
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Goffman from 1955 describing everyday
behavior found regular patterns in everyday
behavior below level of consciousness or barely
noticed by participants Hymes 1962 Ethnography
of Speaking speech act speech event speech
situation
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Abercrombie 1965 characteristics of
conversation impressionistic account Sacks
Schegloff from 1967 conversation as data for
sociology focus on interaction rather than
grammar pronunciation lexis rigorous analysis
of everyday conversation openings closings
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Labov and associates from 1967 Oral narratives
as sociolinguistic data Personal narrative as
most consistent register especially in highly
emotional stories Sinclair from 1972
classroom talk preferred orderly classroom
interaction because everyday talk was too
complicated Crystal Davy 1973 conversation
as basic style disfluencies like pauses
repetition uh and yknow positive
characteristics of conversation geared to
face-to-face real-time interaction
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Svartvik Quirk 1980 London-Lund
Corpus Large-scale corpus of conversation Henne
Rehbock from 1980 Gesprächsanalyse Quasthof
f from 1980 Erzählen im Gespräch
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Chomsky from 1968 negative influence talk as
too messy and ungrammatical for systematic
description abstract mental competence as
goal intuitions about grammaticality as
evidence
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Toward a linguistics of talk Everyday talk as
messy and ungrammatical If everyday talk is
messy and ungrammatical its up to linguists
to explain why to show how apparent messiness
and ungrammaticality facilitate talk We should
determine where and when so-called ungrammatical
structures occur We should describe recurrent
sorts of apparent messiness to discover their
distribution and functions If we want to get at
real competence we need to show how speakers
and listeners interact to create the sorts of
talk we observe
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Tony hey man. Joe hey. Tony how goes
it Joe not too shabby. How about you Tony
just got back from town. Joe really Tony
yeah bummer. Joe want a beer Tony
sure. School Grammar doesnt help us
here conversationalists need a ready repertoire
of interactional chunks to maintain a fluid
give-and-take
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system of everyday conversation developed in
human interaction the sort of language native
speaker children are surrounded with and they
somehow recognize systems within it kids dont
just acquire grammar they must learn to
distribute disfluencies in appropriate places so
what appears messy must serve our interactional
needs and contribute to the system of everyday
talk in various ways
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Disfluencies 1 false starts and
self-corrections stutters and filled pauses
like um and ah and yknow make conversational
appear less linear and fluent than the edited
paragraphs of a short story less orderly than
artificially discrete speeches of successive
characters in a play script. but these features
are not random or without function
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Disfluencies 2 play a prominent role in the
organization of conversation facilitate
verbalization and remembering enhance coherence
contribute to coordinated interaction In
stories disfluencies routinely mark
openings repetition usually accompanies closings
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Disfluencies 3 speakers and listeners must
apportion limited cognitive resources to
constructing and understanding talk
respectively they rely on disfluencies and
repetition gain planning time focus
attention mark transitions reinforce
evaluations
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Audience participation Disfluencies give the
listeners a chance to atune themselves to ongoing
talk encourage audience attention and
participation. Listeners in turn signal
attention and understanding with back-channels
like m-hm and oh with evaluative feedback like
wow and no way even interruptions leading to
simultaneous talk
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Acquiring competence for talk-in-interaction kids
dont acquire simple grammar they dont just
learn to talk-- They also learn to listen
actively participate co-produce co-narrate T
hey even learn to listen inattentively
interrupt where appropriate audience
participation correlates with switches from
serious turn-by-turn conversation to wordplay or
storytelling.
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conversational interaction well be interested
in particulars of conversational
interaction transcription as a means of
recording conversation details of talk
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Recording conversational data 1 natural
conversation ubiquitous but hard to
collect Field notes Equipment audio and
video Settings Lab Craig and Tracy (1983)
surreptitious in lab Media radio and
TV Professional public speakers But also talk
show guests radio call-in shows natural home
work recreation send students out with
recording equipment
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Recording conversational data 2 Ethical
considerations Informing subjects Getting
permission Hiding identities Observers
paradox How can we observe the way unobserved
talk works All speech monitored Study
recording effects Speakers ignore and
forget Observer as participant Supplementing
recordings with interview data
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Transcription Representing talk makes it appear
unnatural Transcription as theory no single
correct transcription different transcriptions
for different purposes Transcription as
descriptive phonetics IPA and other phonetic
alphabets Broad/phonemic vs narrow/phonetic
(emic vs etic) Transcription in
dialectology Dialect features Distinctive
features and isoglosses
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Transcription in psycholinguistics Acquisition
and loss variance from model Parallel
processing Slips pauses stutters
blends Transcription in Language
teaching Features which differ for L1 and
L2 Interference patterns Transcription in
narrative analysis Regularize to standard
orthography Eye dialect he wuz goin tuh town
awright bei dem mußtesse ECHT vorsichtich san
nich
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Transcription in Conversation Analysis
Jefferson Sacks CA Gail Jefferson works out
typewriter system for Sacks Popularized among
linguistics by articles in Language 1974
1977 Comic book type eye dialect laugh tokens
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Crystal London-Lund Corpus Crystal works out
system for London-Lund Corpus (Svartvik Quirk
1980) Comments on accent voice quality prosody
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SCOSE My original transcriptions partly based
on Jefferson CA system partly baed on
Interactional Sociolinguistics (Tannen
Schiffrin) later influenced by Chafe one
intonation unit per line Dropped initial
capitals as marks of sentences transcribing one
intonation unit per line brings out rhythm of
talk highlights frequency of units beginning
with and uh well shows importance of initial
and final discourse markers
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(No Transcript)
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German transcription systems Generally represent
some but not all features of dialect
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Quasthoff (1980) Berlinerisch
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Schu (1984) Saarländisch
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Conversation in Pragmatics and Anthropology Speec
h Acts Austins (1962) How to do things with
words language to accomplish actions not just
to make true or false statements. various sorts
of speech acts performative analysis of
particular verbs and sentences
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Searle (1969 1975) developed Austins
insights Locutionary acts referring
predicating negating subordinating Illocutionar
y acts naming promising apologizing
congratulating Perlocutionary acts persuading
intimidating incriminating
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speech act theory and real talk many of the most
familiar utterances dont fit into simple
classes Greetings hi hello Leave-takings
bye goodbye Pause fillers well lets
see Transitions first off anyway Back-channels
uh-huh m-hm most utterances in real talk are
polyfunctional George Would you like to fly to
Chicago with me Sarah Id love to! Sarahs
Id love to! expressive of her
emotion commissive in committing her to fly to
Chicago with George answer to a
question response to an invitation
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The real problem for speech act theory is
sequence For many speech acts function depends
on sequential position A Is the earth flat B
Yes. --states what the speaker believes A Will
you marry me B Yes. --commits speaker to a
course of action A Must I leave B Yes!
--gets someone else to do something A You won
the lottery. B Yes! --statement of joy Whats
missing from speech act theory is
listeners Speakers dont mean alone but only
with hearers in contexts
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Speech Events 1 Ethnography of Speaking Hymes
1962 situations functions patterns and uses
of talk in societies communicative competence
(versus grammatical) appropriateness in context
(versus grammaticality)
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Speech Events 2 For any linguistic
community characteristic speech events sales
talk storytelling gossip weather
report sermon typical written
forms recipe personal and business letters
newspaper column short story
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Speech events 3 Speech event encompasses
multiple speech acts culturally defined Speech
situation scene (cultural) and setting
(physical) Speech event within Speech
situation composed of Speech acts Speech act
minimal unit of speech event Speech situation -
speech event - speech act market place
transaction - offer conversation - story -
preface ceremony - prayer - invocation
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Components defining speech events Participants
Addressor Addressee Audience Ends purpose
of event goals of participants Key mock vs
serious perfunctory vs painstaking etc Form
dialect variety register etc Genre poem
proverb lecture advertisement etc Norms no
gap no overlap in conversation speak only
when youre spoken to for children These
categories apply to written texts as well as
speech events as such but there are important
differences in the ways they apply
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Presupposition Stalnakers (1974) definition of
pragmatic presupposition A proposition B is a
pragmatic presupposition of a speaker in a given
context just in case the speaker assumes or
believes that B assumes that his audience
assumes or believes B and assumes or believes
that his audience recognizes that he is making
these assumptions. Note particularly the
reflexive assumptions in this definition
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Existential presupposition Any name or definite
description refers to an identifiable
individual Judy gave the red ball to the boy
with freckles Theres a girl named Judy a red
ball and a boy with freckles Negation test
Marys car is fast Mary has a car Marys
car is not fast Mary has a car Factive (with
factive predicates) Bill regrets/resents that
Suzy won the game Suzy won the game Suzy is
happy/sad that she won the game
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Politeness 1 Politeness as a historical
phenomenon Politeness as in-group
behavior Politeness as code of
civility Political Correctness as enforced
politeness
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Pronouns of power and solidarity 1 Brown
Gilman (1960) semantics of power and solidarity
in use of 2nd person pronouns In clearly
stratified society power semantic
developed non-reciprocal V to mark
deference then reciprocal V spread among nobility
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Pronouns of power and solidarity 2 In more
mobile society solidarity semantic
developed reciprocal non-solidary V even among
common people reciprocal solidary T even among
powerful people Also reciprocal T to mark
shared fate power semantic still determines
who initiates T shared fate only works when
fate is lack of power pronoun use interacts with
other systems like honorifics in
Japanese English lost 2nd person pronoun
distinction
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Politeness in Linguistic Pragmatics 1 Lakoff
Be friendly Dont impose Give
options Brown and Levinson Positive and
negative face face wants and face
threats Goffman face as image/reputation/pe
rsonality self presented by individual for
ratification by group we seek to maintain face
in interaction
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Politeness in Linguistic Pragmatics 2 Negative
Politeness 1 Maintain distance (respect) 2 Give
options (deference) Positive Politeness Be
friendly (solidarity) Face threatening
acts Requests invitations
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Avoiding face threatening acts
pre-sequences pre-sequences also contribute to
coherence in conversation Pre-request Ann
would you do me a favor Bob sure. Ann are
you going to be needing your car this
weekend Bob uh not really. Ann great.
Could I borrow it Saturday night Bob I guess
so. Ann Id have it back early Sunday. Bob
okay no problem.
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Pre-invitation Ed so are you busy Saturday
night Judy not really. Ed have you seen the
new Star Wars movie Judy no. Ed do you
want to go with me Saturday Judy Id love
to. Of course the recipient may anticipate the
invitation Ed so are you busy Saturday
night Judy what do you have in mind Ed do
you like Chinese food Judy at which
restaurant Ed Kung Foo on Elm Street. Judy
Id love to.
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Conversation in Discourse Analysis Conversation
as Style (Register) Describe characteristics of
conversation by comparison with other styles or
registers classroom talk scientific
writing dramatic dialogue
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Style in conversation Describe characteristics
of individual speakers talk by comparison with
other speakers or from one context to another Or
describe teenagers talk by comparison with
adults or womens talk by comparison with mens
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Cohesion and coherence Conversation has its own
systems of Cohesion and Coherence Keys and Cues
in conversation keying (Hymes) contextualizatio
n cues (Gumperz)
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Keying Conversationalists cooperate to negotiate
interactional parameters they adopt a
particular key for their interaction chatty
business-like solemn playful
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Contextualization Cues 1 conversationalists have
a wide range of strategies for creating
coherence and maintaining involvement they
coordinate their talk and secure understanding
body language paralinguistic
features intonation volume tempo
interactional cues
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Contextualization Cues 2 Understanding
checks yknow right huh Attention
signals mhm uh-huh wow really Discourse
markers well Im not sure anyway she finally
quit it doesnt matter though they all left
early yknow Hedges kind of sort of a
little (bit) well lets say
102
Contextualization Cues 3 Evidentials as far as
I know I guess clearly obviously
probably Tags canonical tags auxiliary
reversed negative polarity personal
pronoun Its cold isnt it Its not cold is
it Judy will win wont she Judy didnt win
did she uninflected tags right okay huh
see also dialectal innit It was Judy right
Ill do it okay So Judy won huh They lost
again innit
103
Conversational structure starting points
Schiffrin (1987) discourse markers as left
brackets Hymes (1974) initial position defines
mood of speech event Rühlemann (2007) initial
discourse markers as discourse management
phenomena Chafe (1994) subjects as starting
points for clauses Schegloff (1987) turn
beginnings as resource for the projection of the
turn-shape McCarthys (2003) turn-initial
position as locus of choice
104
starting points in spontaneous conversation
frequent initial discourse markers lt2gt and that
came through the mail. lt1gt well isnt that
nice lt2gt yeah. oh shes a but
like you said shes cute as you know Kaliber.
lt1gt yeah Keely will love this.
shes just really yeah lt2gt but Im trying
to get things that you can move you
know. lt1gt well
Im hoping. yeah I would like to move back to
Chicago or some place around here. lt2gt
uh-huh well now in the area some way. lt1gt
yeah I dont know. Mark doesnt want to leave
California. lt2gt yeah yeah it is. well
you get settled someplace sometimes you know.
lt1gt well hes doing a lot of acting and
thats really the I guess its the place. lt2gt
yeah uh huh. lt1gt but he can do that in
lt2gt but this is all experience too.
105
Yeah as a turn initiator 1 yeah is by far the
most frequent turn initiator in spoken American
English The most frequent use of yeah is to
acknowledge the receipt of information that is
new to the discourse but consistent with current
active information (Jucker and Smith
1998) yeah can stand alone as a response token
BRAD our blue book usually shows the
Uhers. TAMMY yeah. BRAD our older Uhers.
106
Yeah as a turn initiator 2 yeah may function as
a direct positive response to a question lt1375gt
youre at U C S B lt1308gt yeah Im a uh
graduate student in Anthropology lt1375gt
uh-huh. yeah may signal agreement with a
statement in the foregoing turn lt1625gt
someones playing the trumpet over there. lt1626gt
yeah he plays that. he plays tuba and uh
all the brass.
107
Yeah as a turn initiator 3 yeah also occurs as
an initial transition word lt1388gt do you have
any more complaints for the evening. lt1380gt I
just feel sick. lt1321gt yeah its something you
ate ((laugh)) lt1321gt does anyone want any
dessert lt2gt well I think thats so wonderful
shes interested in that. and you know like I
said Id like to foster it some way you know.
lt1gt uh-huh. lt2gt thats why I sent that
picture of mother. lt1gt yeah shes just
fascinated by that. lt2gt yeah uh-huh.
108
Yeah as a turn initiator 4 yeah but to raise an
objection lt1388gt how come how come I
thought I thought you all gave it to her gave
her the piece. lt1380gt yeah but theres still a
little piece left. lt1387gt but everyones was
almost the same price. lt1321gt well how much
what price is that lt1388gt yeah but you guys
Im really poor. lt1387gt I mean almost the same
price I mean
109
Yeah as a turn initiator 5 yeah right ironically
signals disagreement lt1373gt theyre about
between seventy and ninety percent fat ...
calories from fat ... pretty high. lt1308gt
yeah lt1375gt people fool themselves into
thinking the dry roasted are any
different lt1308gt yeah right. lt1375gt
((laugh))
110
Assessments in initial position 1 Discourse
markers are fairly neutral Initial assessments
show increasing degrees of emotion Brandon
with two bodyguards to protect him. Lydia
wow to think of it. Brandon to see a
person in that position. lt1491gt couple of
months. but he was seriously
injured in the accident. lt1488gt man he
should stay off the roads. lt1486gt where did
you find a fork
111
Assessments in initial position 2 Initial
assessments expressing high degrees of
emotion lt1gt he tried to set fire to the
cabinets thank god it didnt take you know .
lt2gt jesus youre kidding me lt1gt no. and
uh finally it turns out what happens was . .
. BHgt I was just going oh wow congratulations
and AGgt SHIT thats great.
112
Sequence and Structure in Conversation Conversati
on has characteristic structures and
sequences move turn adjacency pair
exchange pre-sequence
113
Sue hi. greeting Jill hi.
greeting Sue so how have you been.
question Jill not so well really.
answer Sue oh Im sorry to hear that.
response Jill how about you question Sue
not too bad I guess. answer Jill yes one
muddles through. response Sue by the way Im
looking for Al. statement request Jill I
just saw him at Lous. response Sue really
who else was there response/question Jill
Fred. answer Sue wow. are you busy right
now response/question (pre-sequence) Jil
l not really. answer Sue would you do me
a favor question (pre-request) Jill sure.
answer (commitment) Sue would you call Al
for me request Jill sure. no problem
agree/comment Sue great. thanks.
comment/thank Jill no problem. comment
114
London School Firth Halliday Sinclair
Crystal/Davy Quirk/Svartvik London-Lund
Corpus exchange analysis Firth and Halliday as
functionalists
115
context of situation Halliday develops general
concepts for Firths context of situation Field
(activity subject matter) Mode (channel
genre) Tenor (social relations) Linguistic
features associated with situational
features constitute a Register (personal
narrative oral among friends) Register coupled
with context of culture determine choices in
discourse
116
3 major functional-semantic components Ideationa
l Experiential reflecting context of
culture Logical abstract Interpersonal
social expressive appellative Textual
coherence in text and context every clause
divides into theme-rheme every spoken tone group
divides into given-new Hallidayan Systemics
naturally applies to texts and supplies special
category for spoken discourse
117
Exchange analysis 1 The Birmingham School
Sinclair Coulthard Burton Brazil Ranks act
move exchange transaction Exchange as two
three or more moves in length I(nitiation)
R(esponse) F(eedback) teacher-pupil I Whats
the capital of France Judy. R Uh Paris F
Yes right. I Whats the capital of France
Judy. R Uh Berlin. F/I No. Somebody else
Sally R Paris. F Of course.
118
Exchange analysis 2 General conversation I
So how have you been. R Not so well
lately. F Sorry to hear that. I So how have
you been. R/I Fine. And you R Not so well
lately. F Sorry to hear that. I So how have
you been. R Not so well lately. F Sorry to hear
that. R Well it cant be helped I guess.
119
Exchange analysis 3 at some point its all just
R R R I So how have you been. R Not so well
lately. F Sorry to hear that. R Well it cant
be helped I guess. R I suppose not. R One just
muddles on. R Thats for sure. I R F provide
very little analysis no distinction of
directness no indication of power politeness
etc. I Would you mind closing that window
please R Not at all (closing window). F Much
obliged. R My pleasure. I Close the window. R
Close it your bloody self. F Imbecile. R Same
to you.
120
Conversation Analysis 1 CA Sacks Schegloff
Jefferson Sociolinguistcs using conversation as
data following Goffman Garfinkle Turn
move Adjacency pair Insertion
sequence Preference Pre-sequence
121
Conversation Analysis 2 A hi. B hi. A
whats happening. B not much. whats happening
with you. A not much. Im looking for Judy. B
I just saw her at Lous. A really who else
was there B Fred. A wow. do you have a
minute B yeah. A would you do me a favor B
sure. A would you go to Lous and tell Judy to
call me B sure. no problem. A great.
thanks. B no problem.
122
Insertion sequences A are you coming to the
party Thursday B will Harry be there A
sure. B then yes. Double insertion
sequence A where can I catch the Saarbahn B
do you know where Landwehrplatz is A is it
just over on the Mainzer Strasse B yeah. A
then I know how to get there. B well thats
where you catch the Saarbahn. Limits on
insertion sequences A where can I catch the
Saarbahn B do you know where Landwehrplatz
is A is it just over on the Mainzer-Strasse B
do you mean Großherzog-Friedrich-Straße A I
guess so. B yeah. A then I know how to get
there. B well thats where you catch the
Saarbahn.
123
Pre-sequences 1 Pre-announcement Ann oh
guess who I saw last night. Bob who Ann
Judy. Bob really Ann yeah. she was at the
movies with George. Bob wow. Compare Ann
oh guess who I saw last night. Bob
Harry Ann no Judy. Bob oh.
124
Also Ann do you know who I saw at the movies
last night Bob who Ann Judy. Bob
wow. Compare Ann do you know who I saw at
the movies last night Bob no. Ann Judy. Bob
oh. Conclusion If you can hear a question as a
pre-sequence do so Theoretical conclusion any
theory of spoken language must include sequentiali
ty
125
Repair preference for self-repair Self-repair A
I saw Judy last Tuesday- sorry
Monday. Other-initiated repair A I saw Judy
last Tuesday. B uh Tuesday A oh yeahI
saw her Monday at the party. Other-repair A
I saw Judy last Monday. B you mean Tuesday. A
yeah I saw her at Nancys.
126
Membership People who know what the Saarbahn
is People who know where Landwehrplatz
is People who know where the Mainzer-Straße is .
. . Also People in a restaurant We walked
into a restaurant and greeted the bartender and
the wine steward before the maitre d reached us.
127
Conversation openers Hi Hi Whats happening .
. . Summons as opening A Nancy B yes A
is that you B yeah. What do you want A I
just wanted to make sure it was you. B yeah
hi. A hi. Telephone ring as summons A
ring B hello. A is Bill there B who is
this A Martha. B oh hi. A hi Vera. B
yeah Ill get him. A thanks.
128
Conversation closings usually with
pre-closings A okay see you Thursday. B
yeah Thursday. A okay bye. B yeah bye. A
bye. A so come and see us if youre ever in
Boston. B you bet thanks. A good to see
you. B yeah take care. A okay bye. B
yeah bye.
129
Meaning determined by following turns 1 Brad
do you want some candy Julie sure. Brad
here (offering dish). Offer Acceptance Brad
do you want some candy Julie sure. Brad put
it on the shopping list. Request for
Information Reply
130
Meaning determined by following turns 2 Ann do
you want to come along Hal yes. Ann then
well need another car. Request for info Reply
Justification for question Ann do you want to
come along Hal yes. Ann great. Offer
Acceptance Comment Ann do you want to come
along Hal yes. Ann you better be ready in
five minutes. Hal okay. Pre-warning Reply
Warning
131
Stories in conversation Stories as turns To
initiate adjacency pair story must signal
expected response and must signal the need for
multiple moves via Tellability Tellability A
new story must be relevant and newsworthy to get
and hold the floor and escape censure at its
conclusion A familiar story may be tellable
based not on its content but on the dynamics of
the narrative event itself Story content need
not be relevant or newsworthy if co-narration
holds the promise of high involvement
132
Story Preface Preface argues tellability and
signals expected response do you remember the
time . . . oh God you wont believe what
happened . . . the first time/last time/only
time . . . it was really weird . . .
133
APARTMENT HUNTING Brianne so laughs like one
week. it was one day. it was really
weird. we were in the weirdest mood. it was
this rainy old day. Addie uh-huh. Brianne and
we were just looking through the newspaper at
apartments. and were like lets go look at
some. Addie laughs Brianne and we made
these appointments. and we went- went all over
the place and looked at several places we had
appointments for. it was fun. Addie oh
thats cool. Brianne yknow just to get some
ideas of what the prices are and what we were
looking at and that kind of thing. Addie
thats pretty neat. Note Preface Evaluation
Response Result/Resolution
134
Second Stories 1 Second story functions as the
second part of an adjacency pair tellability
based on its response to first part story second
story preface shows understanding parallel
experience etc I know just what you mean. The
same thing happened to me Also story topping oh
thats nothing. listen to this. waitll you hear
what happened to me.
135
Second Stories 2 Iris Gingers story reminded
me of well I dont know speaking of stupid
things you did in your youth. General
laughter I went to the orthodontist one
time. and they . . .
136
Second Stories 3 Brianne yeah. see this is
one of those things you just got it comes
over you and then it giggles goes back and
you forget that it ever happened at all.
laughter Addie oh. laughing I know. I
know. it happened. Brianne giggles Addie
yeah it happened to me this year with em
a different guy. em my friend Tom has a and
I have. well Toms friend Chris Brianne
mhm. Addie is a pretty cool guy and I sort
of fell for him earlier.
137
Two linked stories ACCIDENTS Mike thats
right you cant wrestle around or bad things
will happen. Jason yeah Roger got his
nose Mike you know what happened to my
one of my aunts friends out in Iowa like
when- when she was younger she had a headgear
from braces and these two girls were wrestling
around just playing around wrestling. and
one girl pulled her headgear off her mouth and
let it snap back. and it slid up her face and
stuck in her eyes and blinded her. Jason wow.
138
ACCIDENTS (cont) Mike isnt that
horrid thats horrid. Jason when
my- Mike blinded her for life. isnt that
horrid. thats just- I mean just from goofing
around Jason you know what happened to my
aunt Florence when she was a little
girl Mike ooh what happened. Jason she was
like screwing around like around Christmas
time and like she I- I guess this was like
when they had candles on trees she lit her
hair on fire. Mike oh wow. Repetition Story
Closings and Response esp. via second story
139
Models of conversational interaction Conversation
as a game conversational contribution as turn in
game turn as desired commodity in
competition Conversation as a symphony with
harmony as goal conversational contribution as
one voice in composition Conversation as a
tapestry participants weave contributions
together into whole especially Chafe insists
Conversation has no product conversation is
evanescent and unremarkable except for its
effect on the relationship between
participants and on their attitudes primarily
about each other So what about gender age
specialist knowledge Do all participants have
equal rights to turns Do all participants have
equal power in opening closing topic choice
140
Interactional Sociolinguistics 1 Gumperz
Goffman Tannen Schiffrin Involvement Communica
tion is a social activity requiring coordinated
efforts of two or more participants in an
identifiable speech event (following Hymes) to
participate in speech events to create and
maintain involvement we require knowledge and
abilities beyond grammar Communicative
competence as opposed to grammatical competence
141
Interactional Sociolinguistics 2 Even before we
can decide to take part we must infer what the
interaction is about and whats expected of
us once involved we must signal understanding
and goals either directly in words or indirectly
through prosody gesture etc. in face-to-face
interaction we convey (and must convey) far more
than we can put into words (and grammar) in order
to coordinate stategies and goals contextualizati
on cues signal contextual presuppositions allow
situated inferences about intentions and speech
event
142
Interactional Sociolinguistics 3 Interactional
Sociolinguistics focusses on everything
beyond grammar lexis and phonology
namely prosody formulaicity code-switching
style intercultural and inter-ethnic
communication effects of sociolinguistic
variables on communication male/female
old/young insider/outsider power/solidarity
143
Self and Framing Interactional Sociolinguistics
follows Goffmans notions of Self and
Framing In the presentation of self in everyday
life the individual defines a self or
personality as a social identity Individuals
present a self for ratification by others in
social interaction we adopt a stance putting
ourselves on a footing with different
groups aligning and re-aligning ourselves with
other individuals We frame our interactions in
terms of our expectations we bracket individual
acts or stretches of interaction signaling our
intentions via Gumperz contextualization
cues and aligning ourselves with certain other
participants
144
Black student to professor about to leave the
room accompanied by other black and white
students Stud could I talk to you for a minute
Im gonna apply for a fellowship and I was
wondering if I could get a recommendation Prof o
kay. come along to the office and tell me what
you want to do. As the instructor and the rest
of the group left the room turning his head to
the other students Stud ahma git me a
gig! framing utterances in different
ways contextualization cues (prosody
formulaicity lexis) aligning first with the
instructor then with the students code-switching
from Standard American to African-American
Vernacular
145
Conversational style Conversational Style
(Tannen 1984) Tannen redefines involvement as
a scalar property of interaction so that styles
of interaction are heard as high or low
involvement where low involvement equals high
considerateness For Gumperz contextualization
cues help maintain involvement but for Tannen
contextualization cues distinguish
styles High-involvement fast no pause or
overlap joint production Low-involvement
considerateness slow long pauses no
interruption
146
Involvement High vs low involvement style may
characterize a type of speaker a passage of
talk a type of discourse New Yorkers exhibit
higher involvement than Californians women
exhibit higher involvement than men talk
between friends exhibits higher involvement than
talk among strangers storytelling exhibits
higher involvement than a lab report
147
high involvement between conarrators 1 James
we were in this 2 we were in a peat bog 3
Lois uh 4 James in Ire- in Ireland. 5 eh
no it wasnt in Ireland 6 it was on the Isle
of Skye 7 Lucy no we were on the Isle of
Skye 8 James sorry on the Isle of Skye 9
Lucy right next to the west coast of
Scotland 10 James we were right on the
north- 11 right in the north 12 Lucy new
years eve 13 James new years eve 14 Lucy
freezing cold 15 James freezing cold 16 Lucy
in the middle of nowhere 17 just nothing
148
18 James and we got stuck in this terrible
bog. 19 laughs and jus- 20 as far as the
eye could see 21 it was just bog 22 and we
were like walking through it 23 and it was
quite late 24 Lucy and it was late 25 and
it was becoming dark 26 about five oclock 27
Emma aw 28 Lucy and it was really really
cold 29 and we were on our way home 30 after
a long walk . . . overlap joint production
speaker change repetition
149
Involvement 2 Tannen observed differences in
womens and mens styles of involvement claims
men and women engage in cross-cultural
communication Women higher involvement -
closer together - more eye contact - more
understanding checks - more attention signals -
shorter gaps - more overlap - shorter turns -
more frequent speaker change - more egalitarian -
less appeal to expert knowledge
150
Involvement 3 Men lower involvement -farther
apart - less eye contact - fewer understanding
checks - fewer attention signals - longer gaps -
less overlap - longer turns - less frequent
speaker change - less egalitarian - more appeal
to expert knowledge Mens and womens
conversational styles clash causing systematic
misunderstandings in everyday interaction attenti
on to stylistic differences and realization of
their effects reframing and meta-talk about
differences can smooth interaction
151
Power and Solidarity Defining Power Power as a
transitive feature of relationships though power
is ultimately reciprocal (Foucault) Power as
socially constructed through language/discourse n
ot given a priori in nature Power is encoded in
the discourses of a community Power is excercised
through and negotiated in Language Contextualizat
ion cues are keys to power in interaction
152
Power and Solidarity two related axes Power
superior equal inferior Solidarity solidary
vs unsolidary Solidary implies closeness
unsolidary implies distance Closeness also
implies control (power) while distance renders
power differences irrelevant
153
dominance and subordination Tannen proposes
interrelated axes dominance and subordination
closeness and distance only those
approximately equal in power negotiate dominance
from one situation to the next
154
Ambiguity and paradox in power and solidarity
1 Making a request seems to signal dependence
(one-down status) but it may signal expectation
of fulfillment (one-up status) Sharing
possessions seems to signal solidarity (equal
status) but it may signal an attempt to control
(one-up status)
155
Paradox of Power and Solidarity
(Tannen) Simultaneous speech co-production
(solidarity) interruption (power) A woman
overlaps to help a man find a word but he
feels she has interrupted him. Al so we went
down to the- the- Betty Safeway Al just
give me a minute okay
156
Ambiguity and paradox in power and solidarity
2 formulaic speech Sue says to Fred Make
yourself at home while she finishes dressing
for a party intending to be friendly
(solidarity). Fred helps himself to a drink from
the fridge turns on the TV and sits with his
feet propped up on the coffee table. When Sue
comes out and sees him shes irate because she
feels Fred took advantage of her (power). Fred
says You told me to make myself at
home. Tannen found systematic differences
between mens and womens speech Womens higher
involvement style is more geared to
solidarity Mens lower involvement style is more
geared to power
157
Contextualization Cues Prosody repetition
formulaicity code-switching simultaneous speech
etc characterize speech styles degrees of
involvement/considerateness signal power
solidarity dominance and subordination closene
ss and distance
158
contextualization cues mark personal
style distinguish different types of
discourse foreground the form of speech
itself Tannen describes contextualization cues
as Poetics of Speech particularly repetition
and formulaicity as expressive devices
159
Repetition 1 repeats which perform a specific
operation on their original repetition which
only contributes to cohesion repetition to
ensure coherence I gave up my permanent coughs
my permanent job here. H through Bittman in the
form of legal fees for distribution to these
people. then youve got it. P in the form of
legal fees. I see.
160
Repetition 2 repeats spotlight their originals
and perform some operation on them Ste one
two three four five six eleven eight nine
ten. Sue eleven eight nine ten Ste
eleven eight nine ten. Sue eleven Ste
seven eight nine ten. Sue thats
better. P he has turned it over to the Grand
Jury. E turned it over to the Justice
Department. A repeat can signal appreciation of
its original often called savoring. Rog
hes a politician. Al yes. Im a politician. I
think Im greater than all of you. Rog I beg to
differ with you. Al hehh heh hhh I beg to
differ with you. Note so-called laugh tokens
characteristic of Jeffersons transcription
style.
161
Repetition 3 A repeat can affirm its original
say after a collaborative reference A she
bought a chest of drawers from um whats that
gals name just went back to Michigan. Helen
um B oh I know who you mean Brady Brady. A
yeah Helen Brady. B m-hm. Repeat can go on
to expand and amplify the original. E and this
was in a stone castle you see. Bloody cold. F
a stone castle and excessively bloody
cold. Repeat with negation serves to deny the
original. G they go in the tavern. You cant
go in there an- H you can go in there
too. Repeat a phrase or sentence to highlight
it P he wanted the operation to fail. and he
admitted it. Admitted it.
162
Repetition 4 Mark you know what happened to my
one of my aunts friends out in Iowa like
when- when she was younger she had a headgear
from braces and these two girls were wrestling
around just playing around wrestling. and one
girl pulled her headgear off her mouth and let
it snap back. and it slid up her face and stuck
in her eyes and blinded her. Jacob wow. Mark
Isnt that horrid thats horrid. Jacob when
my- Mark blinded her for life. isnt that
horrid. thats just- I mean just from goofing
around just from screwing a little bit of
screwing around.
163
Repetition 5 A yeh I was in the boy scouts at
the time B and we was doing the 50-yard dash C
racing D but we was at the pier marked off E
and so we was doing the 50-yard dash F there
was about eight or ten of us you know going
down coming back G and going down the third
time I caught the cramps H and I started
yelling help! I but the fellows didnt believe
me you know J they thought I was just trying to
catch up because I was going on or slowing
down K so all of them kept going L they leave
me M and so I started going down N scoutmaster
was up there O he was watching me
164
Formulaicity Formulaicity recognizable
collocations preformed--perhaps
idiomaticphrases recurrence of patterns created
within a text or discourse (Tannens
spontaneous formulaicity). Formulaic Prefaces
and Closings Prefaces it was really funny
youll never believe what happened Closings and
I lived to tell about it and here I am
165
Spontaneous formulaicity 1 Brianne we had a
section on figure drawing. and we had a
model. Addie uh-huh. Brianne it was really
weird. we had her come Addie
chuckles Brianne it was just about two
weeks ago. and then we did some figure drawing
giggling. Addie laughs Brianne
yep. and it was really weird because um
then like just last week we went downtown
one night to see a movie. Addie uh-huh. Brianne
and we were sitting in McDonalds waiting
for our movie. and we saw her in the
McDonalds Addie laughs
166
Spontaneous formulaicity 2 Brianne and it was
like thats our model laughing Addie
laughs Brianne in clothes laughing uh
we were like Addie laughing oh my
God. Brianne oh wow. it was- Addie lau
ghs Brianne it was really weird. Addie
laughs Brianne but it was her.
laughs Addie oh no. weird. Brianne I
mean thats weird when you run into somebody
in Chicago. Addie m-hm yeah.
167
Oral Narrative Oral Narrative is