CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS (CA)

• The study of how an utterance does its 'work'
• What it does in the conversation
• Conversation Analysis (CA) pays attention to the sequential position of utterances
• For each speaker reveals in their 'turn' what they took a previous speaker to be saying



• The major units of CA are:
• "adjacency pairs" (often with a "presequence")
• "preference structures" (with preferred and dispreferred parts)..



• Central concept: "adjacency pair"
• Works in terms of sequential expectations and commitments
• As one speaker projects or formulates a situation, another feels required to do something in response



• A "first-pair part" (FPP) sets up a "conditional relevance" which is (or can be) satisfied by the "second-pair part" (SPP):



• Here are some types of adjacency pairs that have been extensively studied:
• assertion-assent/dissent; question-answer; summons-answer; greeting- greeting; apology-acceptance/refusal; compliment-acceptance/rejection; threat-response; challenge-response; accusation-denial/confession; telling- assessment (good, awful, interesting, discouraging, etc.); boasting-appreciation/derision.



• This is how certain 'answers' with a very strange surface structures can be perfectly well understood.
• "What is 'said' is obscure; what is 'meant' is obvious and clear":
• line 12 A: Who can see whom? ('question')
• line 13 B: The man the boy. (must be an'answer')



• Many important meanings are revealed in our pauses, emphases, intakes of breath, intonation, etc., in our utterances.
• Notation (Gail Jefferson)



• Adjacency pairs (Slide 1) involve:
• (i) sometimes a presequence, (pre-offers, pre-announcements)



• (ii) but always a preference structure - a certain kind of response is expected or preferred
• Presequences (pre-requests, pre-announcements):
• Slide 2
• Is the occasion right?
• Will the utterance fit?



• Preference structures
• Slide 3
• Preferred response - simple
• Dis-preferred response - very complex

• Insertion sequences
• Slide 4
• 'Tactic' for 'checking out'
• Can be used to hold off proper completion until an appropriate moment
• Complex 'chinese box' structure



• Updating:
• Slide 5



• Occasioning:
• Slide 6



• Contrast structures:
• The making of a positive statement was made contingent upon certain conditions and contrasts
• A: If [they're willing to get on and be like us] then [I'm not anti them] but...
• if [they're just going...to use our social welfares] then [why don't they stay home]



• Contrast structures are very important: a 'descriptive statement' is preceded by an 'instruction' as to how the behavior is contrasting,
• "a) She was terrified of men getting close to her, and yet, b) she continually told us about all the men who where interested in her."
• Contrasts and differences: language works in terms of differences which normally are never made explicit; by making the contrast explicit, the fact that abnormal circumstances are meant.



• Extreme case formulations:
• ..[if] they are just going to come here, just to be able to use our social welfares and stuff like that, [then]..."



• Disclaimers: an attempt to PREEMPT negative interpretations.
• "I'm not racist, but... I think these people would be happier back home."



• If you then still go ahead and say: "I think that that is a very racialist attitude to take." They could say in an aggrieved tone: "But I said I'm not a racialist."