CONVERSATION

Conversation
Lejla Zejnilović, PhD

Introduction
 Understanding concepts
 Exchange moves and IRF
 Conversation analysis
 Interactional sociolinguistics
Introduction
 BM You do you do Language Planning don’t you?
 DM Yeah. I’ve stopped doing that though. I did stop doing that
last week. SLA?
 BM I’m not doing that.
 DM Ah. We haven’t got many things in common then.
 BM Wow. We’ve parted ways.
 DM That’s right. That’s right. Yes. (2)
 BM We’ll have to go out sometime.
 DM Yeah.
 BM Before we forget each other’s faces. // (heh heh) It’s true.
 DM // (heh heh heh)
Introduction
 Two approaches to looking at the structure of
discourse:
 Exchange structure – the conventional
overall patterns that occur when people are

talking;
 Conversation analysis- the way that what
speakers say dictates the type of answer

expected, and that speakers take turns when
they interact.
Introduction
 Difference between the two approaches:
 Exchange structure starts with a model and
sees how real data fit it;
 Conversation analysis starts by observing
real data and describes what patterns emerge.
Exchange structure
 Sinclair and Coulthard (1985)
 Birmingham School of Discourse Analysis
 They studied primary school lessons and
found a regular structure.

Exchange structure
Exchange structure
Exchange structure
 Act - the lowest rank.
 Sinclair and Coulthard’s acts cover, among other things, the
following:
 ‘messiness’ of spoken discourse, including fillers as in ‘You
know’, and ‘I mean’, and backchannels as in ‘Was it?’ and ‘Oh
really?’
 expressions that mark a boundary between ideas or topics as in
‘Well’, ‘OK’ and ‘Right’
 expressions such as ‘Hands up’ and ‘Don’t call out’ which
encourage a hearer to contribute
 expressions that evaluate a hearer’s answer as in ‘Good’ and
‘Interesting’.
Exchange structure
 Fixed order of moves
 Three basic moves:
 Initiation from the teacher
 Response from the student
 Follow-up
Exchange structure
Move acts
Exchange structure
Move acts
Exchange structure
 Exchange- the combination of moves in the IRF structure.
 The exchange is the series or chain of moves in the
interaction.
 Exchanges combine to make the transaction, the next
rank up.
 Lesson- the highest rank. It is the speech event that
consists of combinations of transactions.
Exchange structure
Limitations of IRF
 As a model of classroom transactions, it does not
accommodate easily to the real-life pressures and
unruliness of the classroom.
 It reflects the traditional teacher-centered classroom.

IRF model
and other speech events
Conversation analysis
 CA - takes a ‘bottom-up approach’: starting with the
conversation itself, it lets the data dictate its own
structure.
 CA looks at conversation as a linear ongoing event,
that unfolds little by little and implies the negotiation

of cooperation between speakers along the way, thus
viewing conversation as a process.
 Conversation is discourse mutually constructed and
negotiated in time between speakers.

 It is usually informal and unplanned.
Conversation
 1. It is not primarily necessitated by a task.
 2. Any unequal power of participants is partially
suspended.
 3. The number of participants is small.
 4. Turns are quite short.
 5. Talks is primarily for the participants not for an
outside audience.
CA patterns
 Turn-taking
 Cooperation in conversation is managed by all

participants though turn-taking.
 Transition relevance place (TRP) - a point in a

conversation where a change of turn is possible.
 Interruption - when speakers do not want to wait

until the TRP.
CA patterns: Turn-taking
 Interruption
 The moment when the interruption begins is indicated

with a //.
 B yes. Tell, tell me what it // is you want
 A // umm. Um, may I first of
all request the introduction first?
CA patterns: Turn-taking
 Overlap - when hearers predict that the turn is about
to be completed, and they come in before it.
 The overlap is indicated with a =.
 Interviewee But not no more. Yeah =

 Interviewer = What happened
to them?
CA patterns:
Adjacency pairs
CA patterns: Adjacency pairs
Dispreferred response
 Wife: Do you want to test the potatoes?
 Husband: Can I just finish this sentence?
 Wife: Of course.
Sequences
 Sequences - stretches of utterances or turns that
emerge in conversation.
 Pre-sequences
 Insertion sequences
 Opening sequences
 Closing sequences
Sequences
 Pre-sequences prepare the ground for a further sequence
and signal the type of utterance to follow.
 Pre- invitations (‘I’ve got two tickets for the rugby
match…’)
 Pre-requests (‘Are you busy right now?’)
 Pre-announcements (‘You’ll never guess’)
 A You know that French film that’s on in the Odeon?

 B Yes?
 A Do you want to go and see it tonight?
 B Yeah, why not?
Sequences
 Insertion sequence
 A You know that French film that’s on in the Odeon?

 B Yes?
 A Do you want to go and see it tonight?
 B What time does it start?
 A Eight thirty five.
 B Yeah, why not?
Sequences
 Opening sequences:
 greeting, an enquiry after health and a past reference
(as in ‘How did it go last night?)
 Pre-closing and closing sequence

 A Anyway, I’m gonna have to go.
 B Yeah. See you.
 A See you tomorrow.
Limitations of CA
 Lack of systematicity
 CA sets out to be a qualitative not a quantitative
approach.
 CA does not take into account pragmatic and
sociolinguistic aspects of interaction.

 For CA analysts, text is context.
 CA sees contexts as something created in talk, rather
than talk as something created by context.

Interactional sociolinguistics
 This approach takes into account:
 pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects of interaction
 adjacency pairs, turn-taking and sequences
 situational context
 shared knowledge about speakers, their history and
their purpose in speaking

 grammar
 social structure
 cultural patterns.
Required reading
Cook, G. (1989). Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (pp. 44-58)
Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and Discourse. London and New York:
Routledge. (pp. 23-33; 66-70)
Mey, J. (1994). Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. (pp. 134
-153)
Recommended reading
 Hatch, E. (1992). Discourse and Language Education. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.
 Levinson, S.C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
 Mey, J. (1994). Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Conversation

Lejla Zejnilović, PhD

 Exchange moves and IRF

overall patterns that occur when people are

speakers say dictates the type of answer

 Sinclair and Coulthard (1985)

 Birmingham School of Discourse Analysis

 They studied primary school lessons and

found a regular structure.

 Three basic moves:

 Initiation from the teacher

 Response from the student

 As a model of classroom transactions, it does not

accommodate easily to the real-life pressures and

unruliness of the classroom.

 It reflects the traditional teacher-centered classroom.

that unfolds little by little and implies the negotiation

negotiated in time between speakers.

 Cooperation in conversation is managed by all

 Transition relevance place (TRP) - a point in a

 Interruption - when speakers do not want to wait

 The moment when the interruption begins is indicated

 The overlap is indicated with a =.

 Interviewee But not no more. Yeah =

 Wife: Do you want to test the potatoes?

 Husband: Can I just finish this sentence?

 A You know that French film that’s on in the Odeon?

 A You know that French film that’s on in the Odeon?

(as in ‘How did it go last night?)

 Pre-closing and closing sequence

sociolinguistic aspects of interaction.

 CA sees contexts as something created in talk, rather

than talk as something created by context.

their purpose in speaking

 Hatch, E. (1992). Discourse and Language Education. Cambridge:

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