Conversation analysis, conversational style and preference structure

spoken interaction (governed by two principles: speakers cooperate and take turns)

Some important terms for conversation analysis:

floor ‑ turn ‑ turn‑taking - floor-holding devices - local management system ‑ transition relevance
place - overlap (overlapping speech) ‑ simultaneous speech ‑ backchannels (backchannel
signals/backchannelling) - pause - attributable silence ‑ conversational style ‑ high involvement
style - high considerateness style ‑ adjacency pair - first part - second part - insertion sequence
‑ question‑answer sequence ‑ preference structure - preferred and dispreferred social acts -
preface - hesitation


attributable silence:
 1. Jane:    Dave I’m going to the store.

(2 seconds)

Jane:    Dave?

                        (2 seconds)

Jane:    Dave ‑ is something wrong?

Dave:   What? What's wrong?

Jane:    Never mind.


floor‑holding devices:

2a. There are three points I’d like to make ‑ first ...

  b. There’s more than one way to do this ‑ one example would be ...

  c. Did you hear about Cindy’s new car? ‑ she got it in ...


adjacency pairs:

There are many almost automatic patterns in the structure of conversation.


FIRST PART                                      SECOND PART

3.         A: What’s up?                                      B: Nothing much.

             A: How’s it going?                                B: Jus’ hangin’ in there.

             A: How are things?                               B: The usual.

             A: How ya doin’?                                 B: Can’t complain.


4.         A: What time is it?                                 B: About eight‑thirty.

             A: Thanks.                                            B: You're welcome.

             A: Could you help me with this? B: Sure.


insertion sequence:

5. Jean: Could you mail this letter for me?          (Q1 ‑ Request)

    Fred: Does it have a stamp on?                      (Q2)

    Jean: Yeah.                                                   (A2)

    Fred: Okay.                                                   (A1 ‑ Acceptance)


6.         FIRST PART             SECOND PART

                                                  PREFERRED             DISPREFERRED

            Assessment                  agree                            disagree

            Invitation                     accept                          refuse

            Offer                            accept                          decline

            Proposal                       agree                            disagree

            Request                        accept                          refuse


            FIRST PART                                      SECOND PART

7a.        Can you help me?                                 Sure.

 b.        Want some coffee?                                Yes, please.

 c.         Maybe we could go for a walk.             That’d be great.


restatement of assessment in order to avoid silence:

8. Sandy:          But I’m sure they’ll have good food there.

                         (2 seconds)

   Sandy:           Hmm ‑ I guess the food isn’t great.

   Jack:             Nah ‑ people mostly go for the music.


hesitations and prefaces in dispreferred second parts:

9. Becky:          Come over for some coffee later.

Wally:          Oh ‑ eh - I’d love to ‑ but you see ‑ I - I’m supposed to get this

finished ‑ you know.


Preference structure

Adjacency pairs represent social actions. Not all social actions are equal when they occur as
second parts of some pairs, some are preferred and some are dispreferred. For example, an
acceptance is structurally more likely than a refusal. This structural likelihood is called
preference. The term is used to indicate a socially determined structural pattern. Preference
structure divides second parts into preferred (the structurally expected next acts) and
dispreferred (the structurally unexpected next acts).

In any adjacency pair, silence in the second part is always an indication of a dispreferred
response. Silence as a response is risky since it can be regarded as non-participation in the
conversational structure.



How to do a dispreferred second                     Examples

    1. delay/hesitate                                            pause; er; em; ah,

    2. preface                                                     well; oh

    3. express doubt                                            I’m not sure; I don’t know

    4. token Yes                                                  that’s great; I’d love to

    5. apology                                                    I’m sorry; what a pity

    6. mention obligation                                    I must do X; I’m expected in Y

    7. appeal for understanding                            you see; you know

    8. make it non‑personal                                 everybody else; out there

    9. give an account                                         too much work; no time left

   10. use mitigators                                           really; mostly; sort of; kinda

   11. hedge the negative                                    I guess not; not possible


From a pragmatic perspective, the expression of a preferred act clearly represents closeness and
quick connection, while the expression of a dispreferred represents distance and lack of
connection.


Some symbols from A Corpus of English Conversation:

A,B,C               speaker identity (surreptitious speaker – doesn’t know about recording)

a,b,c                 speaker identity (non‑surreptitious speaker)

* yes *             simultaneous talk

(laughs)            contextual comment

<<yes>>             incomprehensible words

 .. ._ _ _ .          pauses