2do Parcial de Lingstica

Unit 5= Cooperation and Implicature

Unit 6= Speech acts and events
Unit 7= Politeness and Interaction
Unit 8= Conversation and preference structure

Unit 5
Cooperation: it is an essential factor when speakers and listeners are interacting.
Conversation is a cooperative behavior, and therefore proceeds by rules of
cooperative conduct. We have assumed that speakers and listeners involved in
conversation are generally cooperating with each other. In accepting speakers
presuppositions, listeners have to assume that a speaker who says My car really has
the car. The sense of cooperation is simply one in which people having a conversation
are normally saying the truth. Cooperation is the basis of successful conersations.

Define tautologies and Implicature

Tautologies: The sentence (A sandwich is a sandwich) reveals that it does not have a
communicative value since it expresses a tautology. If it is used in a conversation,
clearly the speaker intents to communicate more than is said. Thus, the student who
received the tautologies answer has to assume that the speaker is being cooperative
and intends to communicate something and then needs to work out the additional
conveyed meaning, called implicature.

Implicature can be considered as an additional conveyed meaning. It is attained

when a speaker intends to communicate more than just what the words mean. The
speaker communicates something via implicatures and the listener recognizes those
communicated meanings via inference.

What is the cooperative principle and the Maxims?

The cooperative principle: It is a basic assumption in conversation that each

participant will attempt to contribute appropriately, at the required time, to the
current exchange of talk. (Make your conversational contribution such as is required,
at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose of direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged.)

The cooperative principle has four sub-parts, four rules or maxims that people
involved in conversations tend to respect:

THE MAXIMS
-The Quantity (Say just as much as is necessary): makes your contribution as informative as
is required.
-Quality (Tell the truth): Try to make your contribution one that it true.
-Relation (Stick to the point): be relevant.
-Manner (Be clear): be perspicuous. Avoid obscurity of expression, ambiguity, be brief, and
be orderly.
The difference between what is said and what is meant show that people actually
do follow these maxims in conversation.
When do you use hedges? Give examples

Hedges: cautious notes. Expressions that we use to indicate that what we are
saying may not be totally accurate. Examples: Some expressions may act as hedges :

I dont know if this is important, but some of these files are missing.(Example Relation)
This may be a bit confused, but I remember being in a car.(Example manner)
Mum: Did you finish your homework?
Pat: I finished my algebra.
Mum: Well, get busy and finish your English, too! (An example on the maxim of quantity: The
child did not say that her English homework is not done, nor did she imply it. Nevertheless her
mother is entitled to draw this conclusion, based on the combination of what the child actually
said and the cooperative principle).

The speakers are not aware of the maxims, but they want to show that they are trying
to observe them. However, speakers may avoid maxim expectations by using
expressions like no comment in response to a question. They are communicating
more than is said. (The speaker knows the answer)

Define conversational Implicature and describe its types?

Conversational Implicature: Basic assumption in conversation. The participants are

adhering to the cooperative principle and the maxims.

Wife I hope you brought the bread and the cheese.

Husband: Ah, I brought the bread.

The wife has to assume that her husband is cooperating and not unaware of the
quantity maxim. But he didnt mention cheese. He conveyed more than he said via a
conversational implicature.

Types of implicatures

Implicature

Conventional
Conversational
not based on cooperative principle or maxims
encoded in the lexicon or grammar
not dependent on context for their interpretations
Ex:

George is short but brave. (contrast)

Sue and Bill are divorced (conjunction)
He jumped on his horse and rode away. (sequence)
I dropped the camera and it broke (consequence )

Generalized
Scalar Particularized
Inferred via the cooperative principle or maxims
(observed, violated or flouted)
 Ex:
A: I am out of petrol.
B: There is a garage around the corner.

Generalized Conversational Implicature: Independent of the context. When

no special knowledge is required in the context to calculate the additional
conveyed meaning. Ex.: Indefinites articles. A car ran over Johns foot. (not
Johns car / not the speakers car)the speaker is assumed to follow the maxim of
quantity, if he wanted to be more specific he would have said my car or Johns
car

Scalar Implicature: Certain information is always communicated by choosing

a word expressing a value from a scale of values.

From the highest to the lowest:

<all, most, many, some, few>
<always, often, sometimes>.

The speaker selects the word from the scale which is the most informative and
truthful. (Quantity and quality.) Im studying linguistics and Ive completed some of
the required courses (not all)

Particularized Conversational Implicature: Dependent on a specific

context. Most conversations take place in very specific contexts in which
recognized inferences are assumed. These inferences are required to work out
the conveyed meaning.

Rick: Hey, coming to the wild party tonight?

Tom: My parents are visiting. Instead of saying yes or no.

Possibilities: hyperbole (Im starving), metaphor (She devoured this book),

irony (friendly way of being offensive: I just love being woken up at 4 a.m. by a
fire alarm), sarcasm (less friendly form of irony: Why dont you leave all your
dirty clothes on the floor?), banter (offensive way of being friendly, can have a
flirtatious element: Youre nasty, mean and stingy. How can you only give me
one kiss?)

Properties of Conversational Implicatures: are deniable. Implicatures are

part of what is communicated and not said. Speakers can always deny that they
intend to communicate such meaning.
Conversational Implicatures are:
Defeasible
Non-detachable
Calculable
Non-conventional

Conditional Implicatures: are not based on the cooperative principle or the

maxims. They dont have to occur in conversation, and dont depend on special
context for their interpretation. They are associated with specific words and
result in additional conveyed meanings when those words are used. The English
conjunctions
But (contrast) Mary suggested black, but I chose white.
 Even (contrary to expectation)
Yet (expected to be true later)
And (plus, addition or after, then)

Unit 6

Speech Act: The acts speakers perform when they make an utterance (e.g.,
apology, complaint,
compliment, invitation, promise, request, command)

You're so fantastic (compliment)

Speech Events: The speaker normally expects that his or her communicative
intention will be recognized by the hearer. Both speaker and hearer are usually
helped in this process by the context/circumstances which surround the
utterance. Changing the context, the same utterance can be interpreted as two
or more kinds of speech acts. Examples of speech events include a lecture, a
phone conversation, a prayer, an interview, telling of jokes.

Types of speech acts: Locution, Illocution and Perlocution

According to Speech Act Theory, each utterance consists of three related acts:
Propositional/Locutionary act - the literal meaning of what is said Its hot
in here(the action of making the sentence) this is the basic act of
utterance, of producing a meaningful linguistic expression. Well-formed
utterances usually have a purpose.

Illocutionary act: (the social function of what is said: the intentions)

function/communicative force of the utterance, it can be a statement, offer,
explanation etc.

'It's hot in here' could be:

- an indirect request for someone to open the window

- an indirect refusal to close the window because someone is cold
- a complaint implying that someone should know better than to keep the windows closed
(expressed emphatically)

Perlocutionary act: (the effect of what is said ) the utterance should have
an effect on the listener. E.g. I've just made some cookies. If the listener
interprets the utterance as a statement he could react by appreciating the
smell. The listener could also interpret the utterance as an offer and feel
invited to try one.

'It's hot in here' could result in someone opening the

windows
Other example, if a teacher says, I have run out of chalk in the process of lecturing,
the act of saying is locutionary, the act of demanding for chalk is illocutionary, and the
effect the utterance brings about one of the students will go and get some chalk is
perlocutionary.

An Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID) is an expression with a slot for a

verb that explicitly names the illocutionary act being performed. Possible IFIDs in
English include: word order, stress, intonation, punctuation, the mood of the verb,
voice quality (lowered for warnings/threats) and performative verbs I promise/warn
you that ...)

Name and define the Felicity conditions (general, content, preparatory,

sincerity and essential condition)

Felicity conditions: Felicity conditions cover expected or appropriate circumstances for

the performance of a speech act to be recognized as intended.

I sentence you to six months in prison. The performance will be infelicitous (inappropriate)
if the speaker is not a specific person in a special context (in this case, a judge in a courtroom)

Classification of felicity conditions:

General conditions: language is understood, no play-acting, nonsense

Content conditions: e.g. for promises/warnings the content of the utterance must be
about a future event (promise: the event will be an act by the speaker)
Preparatory conditions: pre-existing conditions about the event, e.g.,
promise: event will not happen by itself, event will be beneficial
warning: it's not clear if the hearer knows that the event will occur, the event will not
have a beneficial effect
Sincerity conditions: attitude of the speaker, e.g.,
promise: speaker genuinely intends to carry out the future action
warning: speaker genuinely believes the future event will not have a beneficial effect
Essential conditions: change of state in the speaker, e.g.,
promise: change of state from non-obligation to obligation to carry out action
warning: change of state from non-information of bad future event to information

The performative hypothesis: underlying every utterance (U) there is a clause

containing a performative verb (Vp) which makes the illocutionary force explicit

I (hereby) Vp you that U

- the subject must be first person
- the adverb 'hereby' indicates that utterance counts as an action
- Vp in the present tense
- indirect object in second person singular

Implicit performatives Explicit

performatives

Clean up this mess I hereby order you to clean up this

mess(more serious impact)
 Speech act classification: the five types of general function performed by
speech act

Declarations: it changes the world through words e.g. Referee: You are out
(the speaker has to have a special institutional role, in a specific situation)

Representatives: assertions, conclusions, descriptions based on what the

speaker believes. E.g the earth is flat The state shows the speaker believe that,
the earth is flat.

Expressives: convey speaker feelings (pain, likes, pleasure, dislikes, joy or

sorrow) e.g. Im really sorry!

Directives: Speaker use to get someone else to do something (command, order,

request, suggest in a positive or negative way) For example: Gimme a cup of
coffee. Make it black!

Commissives: showing future action of the speaker. They express what the
speaker intends such as promising, threating, refusals, or pledges. For example:
Ill be back shows the speaker promising to the listeners. The meaning could be
negative or positive impact to the listener.

Representative
Directives Expressives Comissives Declaratives
s
assertions suggestions apologies promises decrees
claims requests complaint threats declarations
reports commands thanks offers

Define and explain direct and indirect speech act.

Speech acts can be direct and indirect.
There are two ways of communication (performing acts)

Direct speech act: Structure and function are correlated e.g. Close the door.
Indirect speech act: structure and function are different; statement is function
as a question sentences. e.g. Its cold in here.

An indirect request can be interpreted as question whether the necessary conditions for a
request are in place, i.e., Preparatory condition: the speaker assumes that the hearer is
able ('CAN') to perform the action. Content condition: the future action that the hearer WILL
perform the action.

Questioning a hearer-based condition for making a request results in an indirect

request.
- there is a definite difference between asking someone to do X and asking someone if
the
preconditions for doing X are in place.
- asking about preconditions technically doesn't count as making a request, but allows
the hearer to react as if the request had been made (= less of an imposition on the
hearer, smallerrisk of refusal)
 An utterance is part of a larger social situation involving people with some kind
of social relationship and particular goals

Speech Event = the set of utterances produced in such a situation

A speech event is an activity in which participants interact via language in some
conventional way to arrive at some outcome.
- may include one obvious central speech act
- may include other utterances leading up to and subsequently reacting to that central
action

Unit 7

Define politeness. How many types are there? Explain them

Politeness: Much of what we say and communicate is determined by our social

relationships. A
linguistic interaction is necessarily a social interaction. In order to make sense of what
is said in an interaction, one has to consider external as well as internal factors, which
relate to social distance and closeness.
In a common sense: being polite-showing good manners and consideration to
other people (e.g open a door for a lady, give your seat to an elderly person in a
public transport)
Linguistic politeness: the way people choose to speak and how the hearers
react to their speech

Factors:

External factors: refer to the relative status of the participants, based on social
values tied to such things as age and power
Speakers who see themselves as lower status tend to mark social distance between
themselves and higher status speakers by using address forms that include a title and a
last name, but not the first name (Mrs. Jones, Mr. Adams, Dr. Miller)

Internal factors: participants whose social relations are worked out within the
interaction. Internal factors (amount of imposition, degree of friendliness) are
negotiated during an interaction

Both types of factors (external/internal) have an influence on what we say and how we
are interpreted
interpretation includes also evaluations such as 'rude', 'considerate' or
'thoughtful' which represent an additional aspect of communication perceived in
terms of politeness

General idea of politeness:

 Fixed concept of social behavior/etiquette within a culture, involves certain general
principles as being tactful, generous, modest, sympathetic towards others

Narrower concept of politeness within an interaction:

Face = means the public self-image of a person (emotional and social sense of self that
everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize)

Politeness = in an interaction, can be defined as the means empoyed to show

awareness of another person's face. Politeness can be accomplished in situations of
social distance or closeness.
showing awareness for a socially distant person's face = respect,
deference
showing awareness for a socially close person's face = friendliness,
solidarity

Example
(Student to teacher) a. Excuse me, Mr. Buckingham, but can I talk to you for a minute?
(Respect)
(Teacher to other teacher) b. Hey, Bucky, got a minute? (Friendliness)

Different kinds of politeness are associated and marked linguistically with the
assumption of relative social distance/closeness

The Politeness Principle: Politeness maxims

Tact: minimize cost/maximize benefit to the other person

Could I interrupt you for half a second what was the website address?
Generosity: maximize cost/minimize benefit to yourself
Could I copy the web address?
Approbation: minimize dispraise/maximize praise of the other person
Mary youre always so efficient do you have copy of that web address?
Modesty: maximize dispraise/minimize praise of yourself
Oh Im so stupid I didnt make a not of that web address. Did you?
Agreement: minimize disagreement/maximize agreement between self and
other
Yes, of course youre right, but your decision might make her very unhappy
Sympathy: minimize antipathy/maximize sympathy between self and other
I was very sorry to hear about your fathers death

Additional maxim
Consideration: minimize discomfort or displeasure/maximize comfort or
pleasure of other
Visitor to patient in hospital: Youre lucky to be in here, its raining outside

How does politeness affect other people`s face wants and what is the
difference between face saving act and face threatening act?

FACE WANTS

Within everyday social interaction, people generally behave as if their expectations

concerning their face wants (i.e. public self-image) will be respected.

face threatening act: speaker says something that represents a threat to

another individual's expectations regarding self-image
 face saving act: speaker says something to lessen a possible threat

Situation: Young neighbor is playing loud music late at night. Older couple cannot
sleep.
A: I'm going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now! (FACE THREATENING ACT)
B: Perhaps you could just ask him if he's going to stop soon because it's getting a bit
late and people need to get to sleep. (FACE SAVING ACT)

CONCEPT OF FACE:
Politeness showing awareness of another persons face
Face-threatening act a threat to another persons self - image
Face-saving act saying something that lessens the possible threat to anothers
face.

FACE THREATENING ACT

A direct speech act can give the impression that you have a social power over the
other person.
Give me that!

FACE SAVING ACT

An indirect speech act in the form of a question removes the assumption of
power.
Can you give me that?

Define positive and negative face.

FACE NEEDS: NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE FACE

Negative face: need to be independent, to have freedom of action, not be

imposed on by others.
The need to be independent and free.

Im sorry to bother you.

I know youre busy.
Appeal to negative face

Positive face: need to be accepted/liked, to be treated as a member of the

same group, to know that wants are shared by others. The need to be
connected and a member of the group.

Lets do it together.
You and I have the same problems.
Appeal to positive face.

What is the difference between positive and negative politeness?

Negative politeness: A face saving act oriented to a person's negative face tends to
show deference, emphasizes the importance of the other's time or concerns and may
include an apology for the imposition
Positive politeness: A face saving act concerned with the person's positive face will
tend to show solidarity, emphasize that both speakers want the same thing and have
a common goal.

SAY SOMETHING: OFF AND ON RECORD

Off record: statements not directly addressed to another person (i.e. hints) (ex: Uh, I
forgot my pen. Where is the pen. Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen)

On record: directly address the other person to express your needs. Using imperative
forms is known as bald on record. (ex: Give me a pan, Lend me your pen)

What do we understand by the term mitigating devices?

Mitigating devices (e.g. 'please', 'would you') can be used to soften the demand.
Caution: Not all imperatives are commands. (ex: Have some more cake, Gimme that
wet umbrella)

In emergency situations, commands have no social/politeness component (ex: Don't

touch that! Get out of her!)
Generally, however, bald on record expressions are associated with speech events
where the speaker assumes he/she has power over the other - in everyday interaction
between social equals they are avoided as face threatening acts

Summary: How to get a pen from someone else

say nothing say

something

(but search in bag) off record

on record

'I forgot my pen')

Face saving act

bald on record

('Give me a pen')

Positive politeness negative

politeness

('How about letting me use your pen')

('Could you lend me a pen')

Explain the different strategies for politeness

A positive politeness strategy: leads the requester to appeal to a common goal,

even friendship (Hey, buddy, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me use your pen)

greater risk of refusal, therefore often preceded by 'getting-to-know-you-talk' to

establish common ground ( Hi, How's it going? Okay if I sit here? We must be)
A negative politeness strategy: commonly performed in face saving acts. (Could
you lend me a pen? I'm sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen?)

Features:
- Modal verbs
- Apologies for the imposition
- Hesitations
- Questions (even asking for permission to ask a question) + More indirect approach
softens refusal

Face saving acts on record are less direct, longer, less clear, with a more complex
structure, showing greater effort, concern for face (politeness)

In terms of politeness; what is the difference between solidarity strategy

and deference strategy
STRATEGIES

Solidarity strategy: use of positive politeness forms (used more by groups than
individuals)
includes personal information,
nicknames, even abusive terms (esp. among males),
shared dialect/slang expressions,
inclusive terms ('we', 'let's' etc.)

Ex: Come on, let's go to the party. Everyone will be there. We'll have fun.

Deference strategy: use of negative politeness forms

formal politeness,
more impersonal,
can include expressions that refer to neither the speaker nor the hearer,
emphasizing hearer's and speaker's independence,
no personal claims

Ex: There's going to be a party, if you can make it. It will be fun.

What are pre-sequences? Explain the different types of pre-sequences.

PRE-SEQUENCES

Avoiding risk for the other person (i.e. face threatening) can be achieved by providing
an opportunity for the other person to halt the potentially risky act.
A good way of avoiding risk is to provide an opportunity for the other to cease the
potentially dangerous act, using a pre-request, before simply making a request, for
example. After that, considering the answer provided by the hearer in the first
question, the speaker can go ahead or just stopping on that point.

Pre-request: speakers will produce a pre-request, rather than simply making a

request

A: Are you busy? (= pre-request)

B: Not really (= go ahead)
A: Check over this memo (= request)
B: Okay (= accept)

Pre-invitations:

A: What are you doing this Friday? (= pre-invitation)

B: Hmm, nothing so far. (= go ahead)
A: Come over for dinner. (= invitation)
B: Ahm I'd like that. (= accept)
A: Are you doing anything later? (= pre-invitation)
B: Oh yeah. Busy, busy, busy. (= stop)
A: Oh, okay (= stop)

Pre-announcements (often by children):

A: Mom, guess what happened? (= pre-announcement)

B: (Silence)
A: Mom, you know what? (= pre-annoucement)
B: Not right now, sweetie. I'm busy. (= stop)
(No 'go ahead', silence should be interpreted as 'stop)

Unit 8

Conversation and preference structure

Conversation is clearly the prototypical kind of language usage, the form in which we
are all first exposed to language

All major aspects of pragmatic organization are connected to usage in conversation

deixis: encoding of temporal, spatial, social, discourse parameters organized

around the assumption of co-present conversational participants
presupposition: involving constraints on the way in which information has to be
presented if it is to be introduced to particular participants with specific shared
knowledge and assumptions about the world
implicatures: deriving from specific assumptions about conversational context
speech acts: building on the assumption of a conversational matrix (e.g.,
betting requires an uptake to be effective)
Conversation Analysis

Market Economy Metaphor

Floor: the right to speak

Turn: having control of the right to speak
Turn-taking: attempt to get control of the right to speak

Define what is understood by local management system and TRP

local management system set of conventions for getting, keeping and giving
away turns
transition relevance place (TRP) possible change-of-turn point

Speakers having a conversation = taking turns at holding the floor

- speakers may cooperate and share the floor equally
- speakers may compete for keeping the floor, preventing others from getting it

CAUTION: systems of conversationational interaction vary greatly between

social/cultural groups

How do pauses, overlaps and backchannels affect a conversation?

PAUSES AND OVERLAPS

Conversations typically consist of two or more participants taking turns, and only one
participant speaking at any time. Smooth transitions from one speaker to the next are
valued.
Transitions with a long silence between turns
Transition with overlap (both speakers trying to speak at the same time)

A speaker is silence (2.5-3 seconds) at the time of speaking.

Situation: This interaction between a student and his girlfriend's father during their
first meeting

Mr. Strait: What's your major, Dave?

Dave: English - well I haven't really decided yet.
(3 seconds silence)
Mr. Strait: So - you want to be a teacher?
Dave: No - not really - well not if I can help it.
(2 seconds silence)
Mr. Strait: Wha-//Where do you-- //go ahead
Dave: I mean it's a--oh sorry //I em-

Based on the interaction above between Mr. Strait and Dave, there is short pauses
(marked with a dash) are simply hesitations, but longer pauses becomes silences.

a. = short pauses, hesitations

b. // = beginning of overlap (both speakers attempt to initiate talk)
 c. Long pauses becomes silence. Silences are not attributable to either
speaker because each has completed a turn
d. no rhythm to transitions (no flow) conveys sense of distance, absence of
familiarity/ease

Other types of overlap (apart from initial type):

3-Apart from the basic overlap, sometimes younger speakers overlapped

talk appears to function like an expression of solidarity or closeness opining
about similar things.

Min: Did you see him in the video?

Wendy: Yeah - the part on the beach
Min: Oh my God // he was so lovely
Wendy // he was just being so cool
Min: And all the waves // crashing around him!
Wendy: // yeah that was really wild

4-Overlap can also communicate competition

Joe: When they were in // power las-- wait CAN I FINISH?

Jerry: // that's my point I said

Speaker are competing for the floor

The point of overlap is treated as an interruption and the first speaker actually has to
make a comment about procedure, i.e., appeals to an unstated rule of conversation
structure, namely that each potential speaker is expected to wait until the current
speaker reaches a TRP.

Markers of TRPs: - end of a structural unit (phrase/clause)

- pause

5-A speaker who wants to keep holding the floor will avoid providing TRPs,
i.e. avoiding open pauses at the end of syntactic units and places
fillers/breaths in the middle, not at the end of those units.

There are three points I'd like to makefirst ...

a/b technical information about coming structure

c/d preludes to storytelling

BACKCHANNELS

Speakers expect their conversational partners to indicate that they are listening
(nodding, smiling, other facial expressions, gestures- but most common vocal
indications are called backchannel signals)
The purpose = giving feedback

This is very significant such as:

In face to face, the listener with:

- holding agreement
 - leading an inference of disagreement

In the telephone conversation: to determine that the listener is still there,

Caller: If you use your long distance service a lot then you'll
Mary: // uh-huh
Caller: be interested in the discount I'm talking about because
Mary: // yeah
Caller: it can only save you money to switch to a cheaper service
Mary:

The signals (uh-uh,yeah,mmm) provide feedback to the current speaker that the
message is being received. This indicates that the listener is following, and not
objeting to, what the speaker is saying.

Backchannel signals provide feedback to the speaker that the message is being
received, they indicate that the listener is following and not objecting
The absence of backchannels is interpreted as significant (in telephone
conversations the speaker is prompted to ask whether the speaker is still there).
In face-to-face conversations the absence of backchannels may be interpreted as a
way of withholding agreement.

In conversational style; what is the difference between high involvement

style and high considerateness style?

CONVERSATIONAL STYLE

There are individual and cultural differences in conversational style/turn taking

High Involvement Stylesome individuals expect that participation in a

conversation will be very active, that speaking rate will be relatively fast, with
almost no pausing between turns, and with some overlap or even competition
between turns.

High Considerateness Stylesuch speakers use a slower rate, expect longer

pauses between turns, do not overlap and avoid interruption or completion of
the other's turn.

Style clashes lead a conversation to be one-sided

the faster speaker may think the slower one doesn't have much to say, is shy,
perhaps boring or stupid
the slower speaker may view the faster one as noisy, pushy, domineering,
selfish and tiresome

Features of conversational style are often interpreted as personality traits

What are adjacency pairs?

Adjacency Pairs: Almost automatic patterns in the structure of conversation, e.g., in
greetings and good-byes
Anna: Hello!
Bill: Hi!

These automatic sequences are called adjacency pairs

They always consist of a first and second part produced by different speakers.
The utterance of the first part immediately creates an expectation of the
utterance of a second part of the pair.
Failure to produce the second part will be treated as a significant and hence
meaningful.

Lot of internal variation is possible:

Example: opening sequences of a conversation

First Part Second Part

A: What's up? B: Nothin' much

First Part Second Part

Example: question - answer sequence in A: What time is it? B: About
[1] eight-thirty
Example: thanking - response sequence A: Thanks. B: You're
in [2] welcome
Example: request - accept sequence in A: Could you help me with this? B: Sure
[3]

Insertion sequences can intervene between adjacency pairs:

Form Q1 - Q2 - A2 - A1 (one adjacency pair within another)
Mix of different sequences possible
also with temporary interactional exit

Opening Sections (Summons-Answer Sequences):

First utterance is a summons, the second utterance an answer to the summons,
establishing an open channel for talk (three part structure).

Child: Mommy? (Summons)

Mum: Yes, dear. (Answer)
Child: Can I have chocolate? (Reason for summons)

Closing Sections: The closure of any topic after the first one makes the introduction
of a closing section imminent
closings placed in such a way that no party is forced to exit while still
having compelling things to say
hasty or slow terminations carry unwelcome inferences about the
relationships between the speakers

How can we express preferred and dispreferred reference?

Preference Structures:
Adjacency pairs represent social actions, and not all social actions are equal
when they occur as second parts of some pairs, e.g., a first part request
expects an acceptance.
 acceptance is structurally more likely than refusal and Structural likelihood is
called preference

Preference structure divides second parts into PREFERRED and DISPREFERRED social
acts

First part Second part

Preferred
Dispreferred

Assessment: Isn't that really great? agree

Yes, it is disagree
Invitation: Why not join us tonight? Accept Id
love to refuse
Offer: Want some coffee? accept Yes,
please decline
Proposal: Maybe we could go for a walk agree
That'd be great disagree
Request: Can you help me? accept
Sure refuse

Silence is also always a dispreferred response, often leading to a revision of the first
part. (Non-response communicates that the speaker is not in a position to provide the
preferred response)

Sandy: But I'm sure they'll have good food there

(1.6 seconds)
Sandy: HmmI guess the food isn't great
Jack: Nahpeople mostly go for the music

Silence is risky as it may give the impression of non-participation in the conversational

Structure. Speakers often signal that they are producing the marked, dispreferred
structure

dispreferreds take more time/language/effort

More language creates more distance between first and second part
Preferred represents closeness and quick connection
Participants try to avoid creating contexts for dispreferreds e.g., by using pre-
sequences