S2W7Convo Flashcards
Language as cognitive
Psychology too dominated by cognitive theories of language.
Chomsky: hardwired for language.
Pinker: located in brain, translates thought.
Tells us about capacity but not production.
Antaki where the action isn’t
When people talk they’re out to do something.
Searle (1979): speech act theory
Promises, declarations, commands as performatives - make things happen
Garfinkel: Ethnomethodology
Study of how mundane interaction has its own set of rules.
Everyday reasoning at an unconscious level.
Conversation is part of this
Sacks: Conversation analysis
Series of lectures published after death.
Argued that conversation has its own set of internal rules that can be formally analysed.
Telephone calls (Schegloff, 1986)
Traditional phonecalls open with summons-answer sequence (hello etc.)
Each step constitutes a conversational turn.
The real business of the call has to be negotiated.
Each turn allocated by previous speaker or next speaker (self selection).
Sometimes overlaps.
Breaches in the order can result in conflict (Garfinkel).
Repair
A speaker recognizes a speech error and repeats what has been said with some sort of correction
Extreme case formulation
Using extreme terms such as ‘all’ or ‘none’ to make a strong case.
Giving lots and lots of ‘evidence’ and trying to sound objective.
Delicate formulations
Pausing and saying umm and hestitating when saying something sensitive.
Stake inoculation
People deny, or down-play, the notion that they have a stake or interest in an argument.
Gustatory mmms
Saying mmm when eating food to express your pleasure.
Jefferson transcription method
More detailed than typical qualitative methods.
Complex set of symbols devised by Gail Jefferson in 1980s to indicate:
Pauses
Change in pitch/speed/volume within turn
Overlapping speech
Stretching (usually of vowels)
Paralinguistic material (breath, crying, laughter)
Overwrought utterances
Schegloff, 2002
Conversation between two students.
Charlie had offered to give Ilene a lift, but is calling to break some bad news.
Nervous conversation.
Studying other kinds of talk
Phone calls: highly structured, easy to collect
Today, much discussion takes place in the form of writing/typing online (CA has an issue with this).
Kitzinger & Jones (2007) alzheimers
Hours worth of calls between woman with alzheimer’s and her daughter.
She displays competence in answering phone/opening sequence.
By using these competencies she reveals serious memory loss, which is devastating for the relationship.
