Story-telling in conversation

The interactional problem of extended turns Telling stories cannot be completed in a single TCU and must extend beyond the first Speaker need to create a space in which to undertake an action which requires an extended turn.

Stories in conversation Stories are tellings which occur as multiunit, extended turns at talk. Stories are designed for the interaction in which they occur. –they emerge from the talk which precedes them and –They are sequentially implicative for talk which follows them. Stories must be legitimate for the conversation. –A story may be legitimate if the story is unknown and of potential interest to the story recipient.

Beginning stories There are two possible trajectories through which stories are introduced into conversation: –the prior talk or context may remind a participant of a story, which may or may not be topically coherent with the turn-by-turn talk; –a story may be methodically introduced into the talk. Both devices involve indicating that the story is in some way relevant.

Beginning stories Prior talk reminds a participant of a story

Beginning stories The story is methodically introduced into the talk

Beginning stories Stories may be preceded by a type of pre-telling (story preface). Story prefaces deal with the tellability of a story and securing a space in which to tell it. Story prefaces consist of two turns at talk: –The first turn projects a forthcoming story –The second turn aligns its speaker as a story recipient (go-ahead responses) or rejects the story as already known (blocking response).

Beginning stories Story preface with a go-ahead response. Story preface with a blocking response.

Beginning stories The canonical form of a story beginning involves a three- turn structure: –a first turn which projects a forthcoming story –a second turn in which another participant aligns as the story recipient –a third turn in which the story is told

Beginning stories Story prefaces can be used to achieve a number of things relevant to the telling of a story: –to negotiate an interactional space in which the story can be told as a multiunit turn; –to negotiate issues of tellability; –to provide some indication of roughly what the story is about.

Ending stories On completion of a story, a response to the story from the recipient is relevant. The response: –displays the recipient’s understanding that the story is now over; –involves a display of how the recipient has understood the story.

Ending stories At the end of a story turn-by-turn talk is re-established. Stories have a relationship with the sorts of talk which follows them The ends of story are sequentially implicative in two ways: –they can be a source for topically coherent talk; and –speakers use a range of techniques to display a relationship between the story and the subsequent talk.

Story structure Stories have an internal structure: –Background, which sets up the story; –Climax, which tells the main point. This structure is interactionally relevant and participants align their participation to them.

Story structure

Second Stories Stories in conversation are often followed by other stories (second stories) Second stories are characterisable as next stories in that they have a shape determined by the prior story and they are about something related to the prior story. Second stories are not second simply because they occur after first stories, they are also second in that they show relationships to first stories.

Second Stories First story

Second Stories First story continued

Second Stories Scond story