Discourse and Pragmatics

Week 9

Strategic Interaction

Whos doing Whats

• When we use language we communicate• Who we are and who we think the people

we are communicating with are• What we think we are doing

Interactional Sociolinguistics

• Whos doing Whats in Talk• ‘Strategies’ of doing and being• ‘Small stuff’ matters• Even the smallest features of talk are

functional and potentially meaningful• Subtle variations in the way we talk can

create big problems in communication and in relationships

Whos and Whats

• Whos• Presentation of the Self• Conversational Style• Politeness

• Whats• Framing and Contextualization Cues

• Whos + Whats• Positioning

Whos

• Presentation of the Self

Who are you? • The is no fixed, essential ‘self’ • The idea of a consistent self is an illusion• It is also a ‘necessary fiction’ for social

interaction• It is better to talk of ‘selves’ rather than ‘self’• We perform different ‘selves’ to different

people in different situations

What is the ‘self’

• Erving Goffman: sociologist

• The presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)

• Focus on ordinary social interaction

• ‘Dramaturgical’ Approach

• Life is like a play

The self

• Can be divided into: • performer• character

• We are all actors• We are always performing• What is ‘true’ or ‘real’• Depends on how much we ‘believe’ in the

character we are portraying

Sincerity

Sincere ------------------------Cynical• We always have something to hide!• Whether we are being ‘honest’ or ‘dishonest’,

we must exercise similar ‘care’ in creating the ‘impression’ that we want to create

• Audience must believe the performance to be ‘real’ if it is to be effective

• Businessperson vs. con-man• Lover vs. gigolo

Interaction involves...

• performers

• audience

• roles

• The main risk in interaction is that your performance will be inadequate or ‘questioned’ by your audience

Controlling Information

• Information that is ‘given’

• Information that is ‘given off’

• Information ‘leakage’

Performance

• Elements of performance:

•‘Routine’•‘Front’•‘Line’ •‘Face’

Audience segregation

• We use different fronts for different people in different situations

• We usually arrange our lives so that the people towards whom we play one part are different from those towards whom we play another part

• Difficulties of performing to ‘mixed audiences’

• Regions (frontstage and backstage)

Whos

• Conversational Styles• New Yorkers and Californians• The Silent Finn

Example: ‘Valley girl talk’

• Habitual rising intonation• ‘Like’

• "I, like, didn't say anything."

• Relationship to gender• Negative evaluations• Systematic variation• Uptalk: Given and new information• Like: discourse marker, marker of social

identity

Some Functions of ‘Like’

• Inspecificity• She's like five foot five.• She's five foot five.

• Hyperbole• She's like ten feet tall.• She's ten feet tall.

• Quotation• She was like, I don't see why that's necessary.• * She was, I don't see why that's necessary.

Example: ‘Language Crimes’

• Roger Shuy• Forensic Linguistics

• Agent: You see these plans are very hard to get. • Engineer: uh-huh• A: I need to get them at night• E: uh-huh• A: It’s not done easily• E: uh-huh• A: understand?• E: uh-huh• +++++++• A: How are you?• E: uh-huh

Politeness

• How we communicate our relationship with other people in our language

Two kinds of face

• Negative face (desire for autonomy, personal space,freedom from imposition, freedom of action)

• Positive face (desire for self-image to be acknowledged and approved of)

• Each are addressed with specific formsof face work

Two Kinds of Face Strategies• Involvement• ‘Solidarity’

• Showing ‘closeness’ or solidarity• using first name, expressing interest, claiming

common point of view, using informal language

Involvement Strategies

• Use first name or nicknames• Use informal language• Use a ‘common language’ • Act interested, sympathetic• Be direct• Agree• Claim common experiences, interests, group

membership• Talk about ‘us’

Two Kinds of Face Strategy

• Independence

• Showing ‘respect’

• using titles, not making assumptions, apologizing, using formal language

Independence Strategies

• Use titles• Use formal language• Don’t make assumptions• Apologize• Be indirect• Try to minimize imposition• Hedge• Talk about things not having to do with us

Independence and Involvement

• In any interaction we usually use both independence and involvement strategies

• The problem is deciding how and when to use these strategies

• Based on• who we are talking to• why we are talking to them

Deference Face System

• -P, +D

• symmetrical (equal)

• participants see themselves as at same social level

• distant

• both would use mostly independence strategies

Solidarity Face System

• -P, -D

• symmetrical

• close

• both participants likely to use more involvement strategies

Hierarchical Face System

• +P, +/-D

• asymmetrical (unequal)

• asymmetrical face strategies• higher uses more involvement• lower uses more independence

Deference

Speaker<-----------------Independence--------------->Speaker

Solidarity

Speaker<--Involvement-->Speaker

HierarchicalSpeaker(involvement)

Speaker (independence)

But it’s really not that simple...

• There is another factor

• W

• Weight of imposition

• W+/ W-

Conflicting Strategies/Mixed up systems

• Two businessmen meeting for the first time• Mr R: (reading Mr. Wong’s business card which

says Wong Hon Fai) Hi, Hon Fai. I’m Bill Richardson. My friends call me Bill.

• Mr W: How do you do Mr. Richardson. • Mr. Wong thinks: That guy is acting too familiar,

who does he think he is? • expects deference system, hears hierarchical system

• Mr. R. thinks: This guy doesn’t want to be my friend. He’s not very nice.

• expects solidarity system, hears deference system

Frames

• The way we signal

• and interpret

• what’s going on

• what we are doing in interaction

Frames

• Interpretative Frames

• Interactive Frames

Interpretative Frames

• Participants general expectations about

• objects

• people

• settings

• ways to interact

• Restaurants, Classrooms, Karaoke Boxes, MTR, etc.

Interpretive Frames

• Schema

• ‘World knowledge’• our knowledge of the physical and

biological world, our agreement about what ‘reality’ is

• ‘Social knowledge’ • our knowledge of social conventions

around different kinds of activities

An embarrassing situation...

• Getting a taxi in Taipei

Interactive Frames

• ‘a definition of what is going on in interaction (or a any point in the interaction) without which no utterance (or movement or gesture) could be correctly interpreted.’

• Tannen and Wallat

Monkeys

• Gregory Bateson

• Observations of monkeys at play

• ‘a monkey need to know whether a bite from another monkey is intended within the frame of play or the frame of fighting.’

She knows...

• Play time• walk time• meal time• quiet time• trouble time

Interactive Frames

• Frames of activity within an interaction• We usually don’t just do one thing at once• There are• Overlapping frames

• talking on the phone and playing with my dog

• Frames within frames• Lecture--activity--Lecture• Serious--joking--Serious

What’s going on here?

• Doctor: (feeling child’s stomach) Okay, now let me see what I can find in there. Is there a peanut butter and jelly? Wait a minute...

• Child: No.• Doctor: No peanut butter and jelly in there?• Child: No.• Doctor: Now move your legs up a little..Okay? Any

peanut butter and jelly in there? • Child: No. • Doctor: No? Is your spleen palpable over there? • Child: No.

How does she know?

• Gestures• Movements• Intonation• Loudness• Voice quality

Contextualization Cues

• ‘Surface features of message form which are the means by which speakers signal and listeners interpret…

• what the activity is• what words mean• and how what they say is related to

what has been said before or what will be said after.

‘Framing’ and ‘Contextualization Cues’

• John Gumperz• Contextualization cues

• any sign which serves to construct the contextual ground for situated interpretations, and thereby affects how constituent messages are understood.

• Stress, intonation, voice quality (prosody)• Paralinguistic cues• Code choice

• ‘Nervous’

Competing Frames

• Tutorial Task

‘Discourse markers’

• Focus: as far as ... is concerned, speaking of which

• Clarification: I mean, actually• Contrast: on the other hand, mind you, whereas• Dismissal of previous discourse: anyway,

whatever• Change of subject: whatever, by the way, ok• Consequence: so, then, as a result• ‘Anyway’

Tutorial Task

• Listen for the tokens:

• ‘umm’ or ‘eh’

• ‘you know’

• ‘ok’

• What are the functions of these utterances in the conversation

Positioning

• In interaction we negotiate who we are in relation to each other (face)

• We also negotiate what we are doing/what’s ‘going on’ (frames)

• But interactions do not happen in a vacuum

• Every interaction has histories (stories) behind it

Positioning• Tries to connect the individual interaction

with the bigger picture

• Tries to show how we build up identities in interaction

• Position• military language• marketing language• Putting yourself and people you talk to in

some position in relation to other speakers and the groups that make up the culture

Positioning

• ‘Karen, what do you think about positioning?’

• Questioner/Answerer

• Teacher/Student

• Powerful/Less Powerful

Positioning

• ‘Can I see your ID?’

• ‘May I help you?

• ‘Please iron my shirts.’

Storylines

• Goffman• interaction is a performance

• Storylines are the plays that we perform

• Personal storylines

• Cultural storylines • Discourses

Personal storylines

• What happened between us before the interaction

• What we expect to happen between us after the interaction

• Who I am to you

• Who you are to me

Cultural storylines

• Personal storylines are based on cultural storylines

• Without them, we would not know how to act or interpret how other people act

• Our cultures are made up of stories

Force

• Speech Acts• Every utterance has three kinds of ‘force’

• locutionary• the meaning of the words

• illocutionay• the action of the words

• perlocutionary• the effect of the words

Kiss me!

• locutionary force• verb (imperative) + pronoun

• illocutionary foce• request?• order?

• perlocutionary force• ?

• Force depends on the positions of the people involved and the stories they are performing

Kiss me!

• Boyfriend• Stranger• Boss• Personal storyline

• new or old• just had a fight

• Cultural storyline• When does kissing usually happen in the story?

Positioning Triad

Position

Force of Speech Act Storyline

Positioning

• Self Positioning

• Other Positioning

• Challenging Positions

• Changing Positions

• Claims and impuitation of identity

• Relationship to Framing

Analyze the following conversation

• (Two strangers in a fitness centre) • A: Here, try like this. (Walks to the pull-down equipment, takes the

handlebar in this hands and demonstrates the appropriate moves. B tries to imitate A but is not successful).

• B: (Returns bar to A without saying a word)• A: You're afraid of the weights. • B: (Turns to A. Registers surprise on his face)• A: Think of a number between one and four and I'll tell you what you

have to do. • B: What?! (Bewildered, surprise reflected in his tone of voice and facial

expression)• A: I'll give each of your exercises a number. One is the overhead pull-

down. Two is the triceps pull-up. And so on. Just choose a number and I'll tell you what exercise to do and how much weight you need to put on the machine to do it.

• B: No, I don't think so. (Walks off the weight room floor)