OrientationObservationIn-depth interviewsDocument analysis and semiologyConversation and discourse analysisSecondary Data
SurveysExperimentsEthicsResearch outcomes
Conclusion
CASE STUDY Examples of conversation analysis patterns
Adapted from A Survey of English Stylistics by Milan Ferencík (2004).
Turn-taking
Participants use a variety of turn-taking strategies to indicate that they are ready to yield the floor. Turn-yelding clues include various verbal, nonverbal and paralinguistic signals (e.g., completion of a basic turn-constructional unit (clause), (re)establishment of eye-contact, lowering the distance, termination of gestures, lowering the pitch, pause). These occur (preferably) at the transition-relevance places (i.e., borders of syntactic, intonational, functional and thematic units). Turn-beginning clues are realized, for example, by the beginning of syntactic units, overloudness, gesturing, audible inhalation, etc. Turn taking enhances the basic requirement of efficient communication, viz. that only one party talks at a time but this does not completely prevent a possible overlap of two or more turns from occurring. Latching takes place when there are no gaps in transitions between participants' turns—these are tightly timed. A difference has to be made between overlap, a by-product of turn taking occurring at or near transition-relevance places, and interruption. While overlaps are common and neutral in cooperative behaviour since they may signal interest and involvement (e.g., in heated debates), interruptions may be considered as undesired violations of the etiquette of speaking (unless motivated by urgent situations).
Adjacency pair and preference organisation Adjacency pair is a paired sequence of turns in which the second turn is conditionally relevant on the first (e.g., question-answer) and the occurrence of the second pair part is expected and its absence is marked and given some (conventional) interpretation (e.g., ignorance, bad manners). Some adjacency pairs provide two alternative options as to their second pair part, e.g., invitation-accept/decline; these options are, however, not equal as one of them is preferred (accept) while the other one is dispreferred (decline). Preferred alternatives are structurally simpler than dispreferred ones. For example, declining and invitation requires an excuse and possibly an alternative suggestion while accepting is straightforward.
Differentiating between preferred and dispreferred alternatives is known as preference organisation.
Local and Overall Organisation
Besides the features of local organisation of talk (such as turn-taking and adjacency pairs), conversation analysis also studies the overall organisation of speech events: openings, main bodies and closings. Of special significance is the summons-answer adjacency pair which forms a standard preface to many types of interactions: summons as an attention-getting device (e.g., "Anybody there?", telephone ringing, or knock on the door) requires an adjacent answer (e.g., "Yeah?") after which a summoner is obliged to fill in the first topic slot, i.e., provide the reason for the summons. A standard part of the opening section is also a reciprocal exchange of greetings; participants also have to solve the problem of mutual identification and recognition.
It should be noted that one single turn usually performs several overlapping functions, e.g., greetings normally offer sufficient clues for identification (e.g., voice signature in telephoning). The main body of the interaction is then structured around the first (i.e., privileged) topic; in the chain-like series of turns, participants collaboratively develop the coherent content of the event. New topics can be introduced via topical associations, often producing marked topic jumps. Closings are technically as well as socially delicate stages of interaction—both parties need to demonstrate their consent to close the undertaking and they do so in such a way that no-one's face is threatened. Their readiness to terminate the contact is announced via a pre-closings sequence or adjacency pairs (e.g., A:Okay? B:Okay) some time before the actual closing (i.e., exchange of greetings A:Bye, B:Bye) takes place.
Conversation analysts identify several other types of sequences. including presequences (e.g. Do you have any plans for Saturday? in advance of an invitation) repair sequences (following a slip of the tongue or error) and insertion sequences and side sequences that are embedded in other sequences.
