Conversational Coherence COM 370--John R. Baldwin

Conversational Effectiveness (Thompson, 2003, Ch. 6)  Setting the scene: Ex: a tough discussion  Social context  Physical context  Relationship  Mood/state of mind  Speech genre  Purpose

Elements of Effectiveness (informal) (Thompson, 2003, Ch. 6)  Balance of phatic communication  Other-awareness (mindfulness)  Process versus outcome focus  Self-observation, other-observation  Acknowledge feelings (EQ)  Awareness of “face”  Assertiveness (vs. agressiveness, passiveness  Nonverbal awareness  Reframing:  E.g., complaint  request; addressing racism  Open- versus closed statements: The key

Avoiding Discrimination (Thompson, 2003, Ch. 6)  A view towards “political correctness”  Avoid language that  Excludes: “Chairman,” “the lawyer... he"  Depersonalizes : “the handicapped.” “They are affectionate, aren’t they?”  Stigmatizes : “Black sheep” “A ___ excuse.” “That’s so ____!”  Reinforces stereotypes : “So, what team do you play on?”  Legitimizes discrimination : “domestic violence”  [Is Offensive] : “Chairman,” “the lawyer... he"

Types of Coherence  Global coherence: “A goal-oriented plan that offers overall control and is functionally related to local surface connections”  Local coherence: “Relations between utterances, sentences, or propositions that are pairwise and structured as sequential continuations” (Ellis, 1999, p. 90)  Cohesion: [More below…]

Two types of rules  Constitutive: what makes it what it is?  Regulative: how does one do it? (deontic logic, p. 40) Example: Sarcasm in organizational culture

Hierarchy of Meanings TEXTCONTEXTS ContentSpeech Act Episode Relationship/Contract Self-concept Cultural Patterns

Life script/self-concept Relationship Episode Speech Act Text Ex: “Would you stop that?!” Culture

Local Coherence  “Local organization... Is concerned with the pragmatic relations among actual components of a text. At its rawest level, a text is an unbroken string of expressions—words, phrases, and speech acts. Local coherence is “from below” or “bottom up” and focuses on how meanings in a text are linked up to form and contribute to more general and complex meanings” (Ellis, p. 110)

Local Coherence  Cohesion: The interrelation between surface forms of conversation…”when one element of a message cannot be understood without referring to what presupposes it” (Ellis, p. 111).  Ex: “Bundle the papers with string. Then place them on the curb.

Types of Cohesion  Reference: Something in text refers to something else (e.g. pronouns)  Exophoric: Not within text  Endophoric: Within text (before or after)  Substitution: Replaces one word with a substitute word or similar phrase, word, or clause  Ellipsis: When a word or phrase is not said, but is understood; that is, a “meaning slot” is empty

Types of Cohesion  Conjunction: Show “how information in one part of text is related to what preceded it” (p. 114)—a “semantic” rather than structural relationship between elements: Conjunctions, compound adverbs, prepositional phrases.  Additive  Adversative  Causal  Temporal  And others (locational, etc.)  Lexical Cohesion: Most complex; achieved through vocabulary selection with words that are synonymous, near synonymous, or in superordinate relationship with one another

Cohesion and…  Effective communication: “Communicators who are adept…” (p. 116)  Speech acts: “their meaning and function are determined locally…” (p. 124) (subcodes)  Sequencing: contingency-relevance rule (p. 129).  Initiations: Recognize  Identify  Social Recognition  “Demand ticket” (p. 133)  Topic-shift markers: (p. 136): Well, Now, BTW  Preface/follow  Regulating behavior (p. 132)

Types of Discourse (The Mysterious Ch. 9) AttributesDebateCeremonyMeetingConvers. Number of people Topic Turn order Turn length

Interruptions & Overlaps  TRP: Turn-Relevant Place  TCU: Turn-constructional units. Our utterances (“turns”) may be made up of several of these  Interruption: 2 nd speaker comes in in place other than TCU (i.e., where TCU is “not projected.”  Overlap: 2 nd speaker comes in at/near TCU  “Continuer”: Overlap that continues S1’s turn  LRRM: Listener-Response Relevant Moments

Conversation issues  Participants and non-participants  Type of relationship (friends versus acquaintances)  Demographic differences (e.g., gender)  Specific genre of conversation (job interview, therapy, openings, closings)

Global Coherence  “Global coherence presupposes the existence of a general structure that is related to ideas such as topic, theme, gist, or goal of discourse. It focuses on what is most central or prominent about a discourse and acts as an overall executive manager of language, acts, and sequences” (Ellis, p. 110)

Aspects of Global Coherence  Topicality: Subject of theme of discourse or text—the element that holds an entire text or portion of text together.  The importance of topic  Determining conversational relevance  Focus (implicit, explicit)  Foregrounding

 1a: The little puppy stepped on a wasp.  1b: The puppy was very upset.  1c: It started to buzz furiously.  2a: The book was really good. It was well written.  3a: The book was really good. The author is very skilled.

Aspects of Global Coherence  Schema(ta): “higher-level data structures for representing concepts in memory”—memory structures or sets of “knowledge” we use to interpret experience  Person schema  Event schema  Self schema  Role schema  Ex: Van Dijk’s (1987) example of stereotypes

Aspects of Global Coherence  Scripts: Similar to an “event schema,” a script is a “knowledge structure that depicts a typical sequence of events for a common situation” (p. 95). We use these for situations like “getting ready for class” or “asking for date.”  What are some common scripts you can think of?  What are some ways scripts (and other schema) can differ?  Scripts assume information shared by participants.

 Ex: Claire painted the wall with a roller.  Ex: Julie polished her surfboard.  Ex: Zack ordered a steak. When it arrived, he picked up his X to eat it.  John needed money. He got a gun and walked into a liquor store. He told the owner he wanted some money. The owner gave John the money. Scripts suggest that we get much meaning from these utterances that is not present within either the semantics or syntax !

Global Coherence: Narratives  Narratives: Stories told in interaction with characters, events, time sequence. They can be true or false, but are generally assumed to be true by the speaker.  How long must a narrative be?  Preferential or Obligatory rules?  Narrative must surround a “narratable event”  Repairs can be used to fix problems in referencing, sequencing, or evaluating  Repairs can be initiated by the speaker or hearer  E.g., insertions, retracking

Narrative reportability  Teller’s involvement (if hearer knows the teller)  Culturally significant information  “Inherently and permanently reportable” versus “reportable in context”

Narrative A typical narrative has these components:  Setting  Orientation  Complication  Resolution  Evaluation  Conclusion  [How are van Dijk’s prejudiced narratives different? Why is this important?]

Narrative Rules: who & what? (Metts)  Contexting rule:  Speaker  When/how?  Relevant to the topic  At prior topic close (e.g., the “lull”)  Introduced with relevance accounted for  Off-topic, but with prefatory signal  May be similar in “theme” (e.g., embarassment, failure, joy)

 Alignment rule:  Hearer  Wait for interruption  Can express “minimal responses of attention and appreciation” at Listener Response Relevant Moments (LRRMs)

 Concision rules:  I. Unnecessary Events: Omit “subevents” not necessary for understanding.  II. Audience familiarity: Shorten narratives with which audience is familiar.

 Comprehension rules:  I. Referencing: avoid vague references to people, places, events not understood by hearer  II. Sequencing: narrative should have logical (sequential) order  III. Evaluating: For narrative to be understood, you must “evaluate” the central action, indicate meaning of narrative at that point in the conversation.

 Appropriateness rules:  I. [Formality]: Story should match appropriate level of formality for the situatuation  II. [Altercasting]: Avoid stories that cast your interaction partner (i.e., make a “role bid”) in a role that she or he would not appreciate in the context.  [might there be others?]

 Narrative Receipt Rule:  Responding rule: Assume the narrative fit within the interaction context. “At the first indication of the narrative’s completion, you must offer an implicative turn that indicates your understanding or appreciation of for the evaluative point of the narrative”  O-g2pw O-g2pw O-g2pw

Application  CMM: normative and constitutive rules  Schema  Cohesion:  Local (utterance by utterance)  Global  Effectiveness (per Thompson)  Narrative rules

The Funeral  iL8xs iL8xs iL8xs