Note: this PPT uses some slides from a session “Talk at Work” given by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beneke on

 interchange through speech of information, ideas etc.  an informal talk in which people exchange news, feelings and thoughts Related terms:  discourse serious speech or piece of writing on a particular subject  differences: more formal, less interactive  communication process of creation, transmission and receiving of messages  conversation is a part of communication 2

 Conversation is not a structural product in the same way that a sentence is – it is rather the outcome of two or more independent, goal- directed individuals, with often divergent interests. Stephen C Levinson 3

 social process  verbal exchange between two or more persons  bound to a conventional system of usage  bound to a shared vocabulary  takes place constantly in social interaction  verbal and non-verbal components 4

 talk makes things happen, and the conversation analyst has something to say about how.  CA is now a settled discipline, developed since the pioneering work in the sixties by the sociologist Harvey Sacks 5

 discover phenomena of conversation and its organization 6

 How do participants of a social action structure, order and coordinate their action, the action of others and the actual situation  formal principles and mechanism of social organization and verbal and non-verbal interaction 7

 analyze naturally occurring material  inductive way of research inductive  audio/video recording and transcription 8

 sequence analysis  no analysis of singular sentences  problem of categorization: no analysis taken out of the sequence will bring the correct result sentences are context-bound 9

A: Do you have a cigarette? B: Yes I do.  question as a linguistic form ≠ question as a conversational object 10

 opening and closing conversation  topic-organization  turn-taking  adjacency pairs  next speaker selection 11

Describes what people are saying as… - transmission of news - requesting - invitation - compliments - denial - complaints - arguments etc. 12

 Studies on structural characteristics of interaction in judicial, educational, medical and psychological institutions

 Current speaker  Next speaker 14

 Current speaker may select next speaker  Next speaker may self-select himself  Current speaker may continue speaking 15

 Question - answer  Greeting - greeting  Offer – acceptance  Request - acceptance  Complaint – excuse  Fundamental unit to conversational organization 16

 A sequence of two utterances  Adjacent  Produced by different speakers  Ordered as a first pair part (FPP) and a second pair part (SPP)  An FPP requires a SPP  Given a first, not anything goes as a second 17

Eg. “Do you know how to get to Building 117?”  Answer  Assurance of ignorance  Suggestion for asking someone else (re- routing)  Postponement  Refusal to provide an answer 18

 starting and closing a conversation  moves in conversations  First utterance has the function of selecting next speaker  Components can be used to build longer sequences 19

 Adjacency pairs embedded in adjacency pairs (Insert expansions)  Clarifying  Delay of expected response 20

A: Can I borrow your car? question B: When? A: This afternoon.insertion B: For how long?sequences A: A couple of hours. B: Okay. answer 21

 Sometimes, an adjacency pair is inserted before another (related) adjacency pair, in order to:  Set the stage  E.g. Pre-announcement  A: Did you hear the news?FPP  B: No, what?SPP  A : I’m engaged!FPP (core: announcement)  B: WOW!SPP 22

 Protect the speaker  E.g. Pre- invitation  A: Are you busy tomorrow night? FPP  B: No, no plans.SPP  A: Shall we go to the movies?FPP (core: invite)  B: Sure!SPP 23

 Protect the listener  E.g. Asking something delicate  A:Can I ask you something kind of personal FPP  B: Yeah, go ahead SPP  A:Exactly how do you feel about Norman? FPP (core: delicate question)  B:I like him a lot, but there’s nothing between us, if that’s what you mean. SPP 24

 Post-expansions are (related)APs that occur after another (core) AP. They may also be used for clarification.  E.g.  A: Who was it said you couldn’t go FPP (core)  B: Steve SPP  A: Who’s he? FPP  B: He’s in charge of registration, he said they were full up SPP 25

 Sometimes, an adjacency pair will have a third part to it.  This is called the Sequence Closing Third (SC3)  E.g.  A: Could you do this for me?FPP  B: Sure!SPP  A: Great!SC3  SC3s are a type of post-expansion. 26