What is it?

The most fruitful and natural exercise of our mind is

conversation Michel de Montaigne. CONVERSATION ~ the most pervasive form of human communication. A form of oral discourse that is distinguished by the absence of explicit rules. Varies according to social settings that shapes the conversational processes.

CONVERSATION: THE INTRODUCTION AND THE STRUCTURE

LECTURE 2 AND 3

introduction
Conversation requires at least two parties two

individuals to select meanings, form syntactic outlines and so on. Conversation can be, among friends, a nearly effortless flow of topics, thoughts, and events that is attractive precisely because it does not appear to have any rules. However, it is not entirely correct to say that conversation operates without rules, rather, they have been internalized to the point that they are not thought of in order to have a conversation.

Cont.
The most fundamental rule to describe a conversation in

that of a joint action. Herbert Clark (1996, 2002) describes it as one that is carried out by an ensemble of people acting in coordination with one another. Example: think of two people waltzing, paddling a canoe or playing a piano duet ~ when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers waltz, they each move around the ballroom in a special way individually in coordination. Waltzing is the joint account of them doing their individual steps in coordination, together.

The Structure of Conversation

Conversation is the least formal of all types of oral

discourse (debate, ceremony, meeting) The number of participants, the topic, the length of a given speakers contribution and many other factors are left undecided/decided on the spot. The relaxation of formal rules is one of the prime enjoyment of a good, rich conversation. Yet, in the absence of formal rules, there are implicit communicative conventions that help organize everyday conversations.

Cont.
There are five types of conventions that are related to

conversation: Opening conversation Closing conversation Taking turns Negotiating topics Identifying participants and nonparticipants

Opening Conversations
While theoretically the number of possibilities for

opening conversations is infinite, in practice we do so in a limited number of ways. Most commonly ~ We address another person (Hey, Carl) Request information (Do you know what time it is?) Offer information (Are you looking for someone?) Or, use some form of stereotyped expression (Hello) or topic (Strange weather today, eh?) These serve to get the listeners attention and often lead to stock replies, which quickly establishes the alternation of turns that is central to conversation.

Closing Conversations
Schegloff and Sacks (1973) suggest that one way to

end a conversation is to present a preclosing statement like we-ll, so-o-o, or OK, which signals readiness to end the conversation. The listener may accept the statement with an utterance such as yeah or OK. Alternatively, he might bring up another topic and the conversation would continue. Albert and Kessler (1978) list several ways in which we end conversations.

Cont.
Including ~ Summarizing the content of the conversation Justifying ending contact at this time (I have another

meeting) Expressing pleasure about each other, making reference to the ongoing relationship and planning for future contact (See you later) Wishing each other well (Take care, have a good trip) These closing moves form a sequence where speakers were more likely to use summary statements at the beginning of the ending sequence and well-wishes at the end

Cont.
The use of sequences was reciprocal listeners tend

to respond to summaries with agreement, to positive statements with similar statements and to wellwishes with goodbye.

Taking Turns
Conversation become more complicated when there are

more than two people are present. Sacks and colleagues (1974) turn taking during conversation operates by three implicit rules. 1. The current speaker is allowed to select the next speaker, often done by directing a question to another person. 2. Self-selection; if the first rule is not used another person may speak up. 3. The current speaker can continue, although he is not obligated to do so. These rules are ordered; the first one takes priority over the second, which takes priority over the third.

Cont.
Nonverbal turn-yielding signals six behavioural cues

that appear to indicate a willingness to conclude ones turn. 1. A drop of pitch 2. A drawl on the final syllable or final stressed syllable of a final clause 3. The termination of hand-gestures 4. The use of stereotyped expressions (you knowor somethingbut, uh) 5. A drop in loudness 6. Completion of a grammatical clause

Negotiating Topics of Conversation

Be RELEVANT in conversation, this means

sticking to the topic and tying ones comments to those of the previous speaker. The rules of coherence apply to this conversational discourse. This is reflected in the observation that while some responses are clearly odd, a wide range of acceptable responses to any statement is possible. Schank (1977) the topics of conversation can be defined in terms of the intersection of propositions across sentences.

Cont.
An implication of this definition of topic is that only

conversations, not individual sentences or even speaker turns, have topics. Example: Speaker A says John bought a red car in Baltimore yesterday, numerous propositions are being advanced John bought a car, the car is red, John bought it in Baltimore, John bought it yesterday. If speaker B says I think a red car would be ugly, the intersection of these two sentences is the proposition the car is red.

Identifying Participants and Nonparticipants

Suppose Alan asks Barbara a question, Alan and

Barbara then are participants in a conversation. Suppose Connie is present during the conversation but is not directly involved in the question, she is a side participant. Others within earshot are overhearers who come in two varieties Bystanders who are openly present but do not participate in the conversation and eavesdroppers who listen in without the speakers awareness.

Different roles in conversation

Figure 1.

Speaker

Addressee

side P

bystander
eavesdropper

Cont.
Many conversational situations bring these roles into

play. We resort to a variety of strategies when dealing with overhearers including Disclosure Concealment Indifference Prevention of overhearers has never succeeded in everyday lives due to the fact that they are found everywhere, in different shapes and sizes and gender.