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Lecture: SemanticsProfessor Dr. Neal R. Norrick
_____________________________________
Spoken English
Universität des SaarlandesDept. 4.3: English Linguistics
SS 2012
General information:
Tutorial with Ian Schwarz:
Mo 12-12:45 h (s.t.) in room 128, building C 5.2
� no sign-up on CLIX is necessary to attend the tutorial, I will sign you up manually in the first session so you can access course material!
� attendance may be mandatory only if you are Alte Studiengänge or ERASMUS…
� … but recommended for everyone as preparation for the final exam!
Script, Bibliography etc.:Please find course material on CLIX (if registered) orin the IB!
Website: Please check the English Linguistics homepage
(http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak4/norrick/)
regularly for important information, events etc.!
Course material will also be uploaded ASAP.
For questions concerning organization, please contactme at [email protected] !!
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Final Exam:
The final exam will take place near the end of the semester, probably on July 24, 2012.
Attendance requirements (lecture):
� don't miss more than 2 lectures!
Sign-up for the final exam:
No official registration process – you are registered if you show up for the final exam.
The lecture starts at 4 p.m. sharp this semester, please make sure you get here early enough!
Why study talk?
• Conversation as natural• Conversation as exemplary• Conversation as special register
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Conversation as natural
• commonest register
• most general, unmarked style of talk In all settings
• used by all groups
• least monitored, most fluent
• most consistent for region, group, individual
Conversation as exemplary
• richest data source
• high percentage of core vocabulary
• idioms, turns of phrase, clichés, proverbs
Conversation as exemplary 2
Full range of paralanguage:
• intonation• stress• drawl • stutter • whisper • creaky voice• ingressive sounds • sing-song
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Conversation as exemplary 3
Wide range of functions
• descriptive • narrative• emotive• appellative • dialogue • figures
Conversation as exemplary 4
• face-to-face
• real-time processing and production
• locally bound: me, you, this, here, now
• context-specific: participants, interaction, goals, topics
Conversation as exemplary 5
• feedback mechanisms:
• understanding checks
y'know, right?
• attention signals
m-hm, uh-huh, oh
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Conversation as exemplary 6
Repair mechanisms:
Self-repair
See you Tuesday- I mean Wednesday.
Other-repair
A: See you Tuesday.B: You mean Wednesday.A: Right, Wednesday.
Co-productions:
A: She was wearing one of these old uh-B: Bonnets?A: Yeah.
Conversation as exemplary 7
Full range of vocal production
Imitations: buzz, splat, wham, kerplop
Non-words: tsk, whoa, whew, uh-uh, m-hm, m-m-m
Expressive intonation:
• angry aspiration, • ironic lengthening riiiight
Representative of community behavior
• power and solidarity
• how we show respect
deference and distancefriendship and closeness
• names, forms of address, choice of verb forms, etc.
Good morning, Sir vs. Yo, dudeCould you please pass the salt? vs. Hey, salt!
• politeness strategies
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Membership
• asking directions presupposes membership as local
• giving directions presupposes membership in group
car owners, bus users, locals, etc.
get on bus 19drive out through gate, turn lefttake Meerwiesertalweg toward town
Alignment
• we (both) versus we (not you)
• 2nd versus 3rd person
• you versus Bob here wants to go
World View
• use of man for humankind
• use of he for everybody
• except traditionally ‘female’ roles,e.g.
the flight attendant/stewardess . . . she“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen”
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Common Sense
me-centered, human, local
big, tall = bigger, taller than me
hot, cold = hotter, colder than usual here
old, weird = from my perspective
Folk Logic
I can’t hardly stand it
same difference
no head injury is too small to ignore
Interaction
• turn-taking • sequences
A: Hey, Judy?B: Yeah?A: Can you help me here?B: Sure.A: Thanks.B: No problem.
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Reasons to study conversation
• for students of English language and literature, and cultures
• Conversation reveals patterns of usage:
for individuals, for groups for the linguistic community
• role of talk in human understanding and interaction
• language in social relations, not as abstract structure
Reasons to study conversation 2
• everyday conversation has a central place in linguistics
• includes all of descriptive linguistics
• phonology• morphology• phraseology• syntax• semantics• pragmatics
• all contained in conversation analysis• all tools for studying discourse• all apply to adjacent areas with organic connections
• together they contribute to view of language as dynamic interaction
Talk in Language
talk and speech language and system
Saussure on parole, langage, langue
Saussure’s dichotomiesprivileging langue over parole
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Talk in Language 2
conversation vs dialogue (reported talk) & spoken prose
• reading aloud • reciting from memory• professional reporting
Talk versus Text
Biological factors determine features of talk
Cultural conventions govern the form of text
Talk versus Text 2
talk produced by lungs, vocal chords, tongue, lips (breath group; intonation group)
• for the ear
• stress-timing (vs. syllable-timing),
• Intonation (contours and stresses)
• prosody (tempo, volume, rhythm, voice quality)
text produced by hand
• for the eye
• left to right, in lines, with spaces
• paragraphs, sentences, words, letters, caps/lower case, diacritics,
punctuation
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Talk versus Text 3
talk is for current, local listeners (ephemeral)
• bound to context/participants
• markers of relationship (terms of Address, pronouns: you, we, let’s )
text is for any present or future reader even removed spatially (permanent)
• relatively context free
• generally accessible, impersonal
Talk versus Text 4
talk is produced in real time• hesitations, false starts, repetitions, clarifications, elisions,
omissions, reduced forms, abbreviations
• speech rate is not just limited by natural factors
speakers adjust their speech rate to listeners and contexts
Text is produced at leisure• time to edit full sentences, eliminate false starts, hesitations, and
time to spell everything out in detail
• no time constraints on reading
individual readers determine their own reading rate
they can re-read as often as they wish
Tempo of talk
slow talk goes about 3 words per second or 180 words per minutefast talk can go 5 words per second or almost 300 words per minute
compare: 3-6 syllables per second, 190-350 syllables per minute
stories go faster than topical talk, and women talk faster than mensome women tell practiced stories at about 260 words per minute
upper limit about 400 words per minute or about 6.5 words per second, when reciting a practiced text for a short period
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Written representation versus interactional speech
written
• planned • edited • pre-modified phrases • definite descriptions • sentential• marked relationships between clauses
Written representation versus interactional speech 2
spoken
• face-to-face with eye contact • gesture • spatial orientation
• voice quality (volume, pitch, timbre) • accent • prosody (tempo, rhythm)
only these three heard on phone, but we can still identify callers we know and even tell how they're feeling
Written representation vs interactional speech 3
writing is organized around sentences
speech is organized around intonation units
Intonation units
• about 5 words long • one or two intonation peaks• single chunk of information• first Given then New
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Intonation units
so I wént I went ín and I hád the báll, and I just like túrned around and I shót it-didn’t even lóok and it like hít off the báckboard só hárd. it was só bád
intonation units may also be sentences,
but significant for speech in real time
Talk in interaction
talk in interaction is unplanned
• hesitations • pauses • fillers • digression• dynamic topic development • generalized vocabulary• repetition • formulaic speech
Editing talk on-line
• restarts • self-correction• little pre-modification • concrete contextual reference• no sentential orientation • paratactic relationships between short intonation units
there's this guyand he's really oldand he's got this doglike a really ugly dogand he walks in here
For written text, we prefer
A rather old gentleman with a terribly ugly dog ent ered.
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Face-to-face talk
besides information conveyed visually and through the voicetalk is full of cues to the listener
Jack: hey , have you seen Al and Judy?Jill: well , I saw Judy.Jack: Al was with her though , right ?Jill: they've kind of been like fighting, y'know ?
readers must cue on neutral lexical meaning
Jack asked Jill if she'd seen Al and Judy. Jill said she'd seen Judy. Jack asked if Al had been with her and Jill said they'd been fighting.
Listener activities
listeners do not inertly and silently receive talk by speakers
they actively demonstrate listenership, uptake, understanding, agreement
or disagreement, emotional involvement
“activities in the back-channel” (Yngve 1970)
Back-channel activities
visual back-channel activities
• nods • smiles • grimaces • furrowed brows • gestures
audible back-channel signals
• nonlinguistic sounds • sighs • inhalations • laughs
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Back-channel activities
•linguistic signals
•discourse markers like yeah and okay
•interjections like wow and damn
•attention signals such as mhm and uh-huh
Listener activities
listener activities signal
• recipiency• emotional involvement in foregoing talk • changes in information states
certain items specialized for signaling recipiency
uh-huh mhm
related notions: continuer, response token
Signaling recipiency
Brianne it's midnight blue I mean that's nice.
Addie uh-huh . Brianne okay,
but it's got like these puffy sleeves.
Brianne I came on Wednesday night. Addie mhm . Brianne oh,
I tried something different this time
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Signaling involvement
Assessments
FRANK: no bigger than that.RON: mhm .MELISSA: [wow ].FRANK: [we- --
and we got] out to ... Earth,
<2836> didn't give the people enough time to get off the train. Elizabeth and about four or five other people.
<2834> gosh .<2836> couldn't get off ...
Signaling involvement 2
Assessments marking increasing involvement
<1> yeah, but then that's it. it never rains in the summer.
<2> weird . <1> it is weird.
<2429> but anyway, then what, what did it register? <2432> about three. <2429> about three.
anyway. <2425> holy shit . <2432> and when you shower,
it's fifty to sixty times higher than that.
Signaling changes in information states
<3> she was going down Liberty Street and a tree fell that way, if it had a gone this way, it would have hit her car.
<2> oh . <1> I mean right next to her, right next to her.
<1> and then you just put them in Mason jars and sterilize Mason jars?
<2> I don't sterilize them. <1> oh . <2> well, I wash them
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Deixis in speech vs writing
face-to-face speech
deictic expressions refer to position, place, time of speaker:
here, over there, right now, yesterday
or hearer:
on your left, just behind you
Deixis in written text
writer specifies some character or object as deictic reference point
to the left of the house just behind Judylater the same day
Speech and Writing as Registers
spoken & written language as separate media for different functionsin different settings with different stylistic tendencies (Biber)
• 1st and 2nd person personal pronouns • contraction • passive • nominalization
characteristic structures and different frequencies in spoken and written discourse
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Personal Pronouns
speech contains more 1st and 2nd person personal pronouns:
I you we
since we generally talk about ourselves and each other in face-to-face interaction
while writing concerns public and fictional persons unfamiliar to readers
Contractions
speech contains more contractions,
forms institutionalized in both speech and writing
can’t, won’t; she’ll, they’ll; I’m, we’ve, you’re, he’s
compound contractions in talk
they’ll’ve left by now,she can’t’ve gone far,we’d’ve seen them, if they were here
Contractions 2
reduction or ellision in everyday speech
some people from town’ll be there tooI hope to’ve finished by noon,the one she wanted’s already gone
compare standardized spellings of pronunciation patterns
gotcha for got youwanna for want to
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Passive
The passive is typical of writing and rare in everyday speechPassive includes (according to Biber)
Sue was greeted formally by the mayor.Sue was greeted formally at town hall.The woman (who was) greeted formally left early.
Nominalization
nominalization is characteristic of and more frequent in writing
Biber defines Nominalization to include words ending with the suffixes:
-tion, -ness, -ity, -ment
this does not cover all nominalizations
the short list makes counting easiercovers too much, e.g. momentcovers too little, e.g. comparison, abhorence
but provides a good measure of “writtenness” versus “spokenness”
Historical background
for most of history, even for most of the history of linguistics,language has been taken to mean the written form of language,
first languages studied (Sanskrit, Latin) were “dead languages”known only through written records
historical linguists sought to relate extent written forms of languages like Latin and English or various stages of a language like Old English and Middle English
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Recorded talk
till very recent advent of audio and video recording,writing was the only method of preserving spoken language
first recordings of spoken language seemed incoherent and laughable
listeners accustomed to
• written texts • performances by trained readers • carefully planned speeches by professional speakers
Firth 1935
conversation as key to understanding language and meaning, but only offered impressionistic remarks
Birdwhistle, from 1952
micro-analysis of kinesicscomplex coding and transcription of body movement
Fries 1952 The structure of English
Fries recorded phone conversations, first grammar based on recorded data
“a large body of actual English speech observed and recorded in a community”
•with advent of audio recording, no excuse for intuition-based grammars•corpus: over 50 hours of surreptitiously recorded telephone talk “participants were unaware that their speech was being recorded”
•Fries simply requested and received permission to tap into phone lines• no moral question of intrusion into privacy• no question of Fries’ integrity as a disinterested scholar• no tapes: they recorded on discs• defends everyday usage at length• upholds school standard, but insists on authentic data
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Goffman, from 1955
describing everyday behaviorfound regular patterns in everyday behaviorbelow level of consciousness or barely noticed by participants
Hymes 1962
Ethnography of Speaking
• speech act • speech event • speech situation
Abercrombie 1965
characteristics of conversationimpressionistic account
Sacks, Schegloff from 1967
conversation as data for sociologyfocus on interaction, rather than grammar, pronunciation, lexis
rigorous analysis of everyday conversationopenings, closings
Labov and associates from 1967
Oral narratives as sociolinguistic dataPersonal narrative as most consistent registerespecially in highly emotional stories
Sinclair, from 1972: classroom talk
preferred orderly classroom interaction,because everyday talk was too complicated
Crystal & Davy, 1973: conversation as basic style
“disfluencies” like pauses, repetition, uh and y’know
positive characteristics of conversationgeared to face-to-face real-time interaction
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Svartvik & Quirk, 1980:
London-Lund Corpus
Large-scale corpus of conversation
Henne & Rehbock, from 1980: Gesprächsanalyse
Quasthoff, from 1980: Erzählen im Gespräch
Chomsky, from 1968: negative influence
talk as too messy and ungrammatical for systematic description
abstract mental “competence” as goal
intuitions about “grammaticality” as evidence
Toward a linguistics of talk
Everyday talk as “messy and ungrammatical”
If everyday talk is “messy and ungrammatical” it’s up to linguists to explain why,to show how apparent “messiness and ungrammaticality” facilitate talk
We should determine where and when so-called ungrammatical structures occur;We should describe recurrent sorts of apparent messinessto discover their distribution and functions
If we want to get at real “competence” we need to show how speakers and listeners interact to create the sorts of talk we observe
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Tony: hey, man.Joe: hey.Tony: how goes it?Joe: not too shabby. How about you?Tony: just got back from town.Joe: really?Tony: yeah, bummer.Joe: want a beer?Tony: sure.
School Grammar doesn’t help us hereconversationalists need a ready repertoire of interactional chunksto maintain a fluid give-and-take
System of everyday conversation
developed in human interaction;the sort of language native speaker children are surrounded with,and they somehow recognize systems within it
kids don’t just acquire grammar,they must learn to distribute disfluencies in appropriate places,so what appears messy must serve our interactional needs,and contribute to the system of everyday talk in various ways
Disfluencies
false starts and self-corrections, stutters and filled pauses like um and ah and y’know
make conversational appear less linear and fluent than the edited paragraphs of a short story
less orderly than artificially discrete speeches of successive characters in a play script.
but these features are not random or without function
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Disfluencies 2
• play a prominent role in the organization of conversation
• facilitate verbalization and remembering,
• enhance coherence
• contribute to coordinated interaction
in stories
• disfluencies routinely mark openings,• repetition usually accompanies closings
Disfluencies 3
speakers and listeners must apportion limited cognitive resourcesto constructing and understanding talk respectively,they rely on disfluencies and repetition:
• gain planning time
• focus attention
• mark transitions
• reinforce evaluations
Disfluencies 4
1 and and it happens then. 2 and I I uh uh,3 you y’know my uh, 4 uh oldest daughter's fiancé, 5 is a uh, 6 is a part part, 7 he's a college professor. 8 but he also is a reserve police officer.9 and and he uh he has all kinds of guns. 10 and he's taken her out to teach her to shoot.
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Disfluencies 5
1 Vic: oh sure he goes home and gets his gun out2 and comes back and shoot them3 there was a uh4 uh just recently here in Dallas, 5 I'm I'm trying to reconstruct it,6 somebody jumped in front of somebody in line, 7 in front of a Seven Eleven.8 and they got mad, 9 and they had a little argument over it.
Audience participation
Disfluencies
give the listeners a chance to atune themselves to ongoing talk;encourage audience attention and participation.
Listeners in turn signal attention and understanding
• with back-channels like mhm and oh
• with evaluative feedback like wow and no way
• even interruptions, leading to simultaneous talk
Acquiring competence for talk-in-interaction
kids don’t acquire simple grammar, they don’t just learn to talk--
They also learn to
• listen actively • participate • co-produce• co-narrate
They even learn to
• listen inattentively • interrupt where appropriate
audience participation correlates with switches from seriousturn-by-turn conversation to wordplay or storytelling.
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Conversational interaction
we’ll be interested in
• particulars of conversational interaction
• transcription as a means of recording conversation:
• details of talk
Recording conversational data
natural conversation ubiquitous but hard to collect
field notesequipment: audio and videosettings
labCraig and Tracy (1983) surreptitious in lab
media: radio and TVprofessional public speakers,but also talk show guests, radio call-in shows
natural: home, work, recreationsend students out with recording equipment
Recording conversational data 2
Ethical considerations• Informing subjects• Getting permission• Hiding identities
Observer’s paradox
How can we observe the way unobserved talk works?
• all speech monitored• study recording effects• speakers ignore and forget• observer as participant• supplementing recordings with interview data
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Transcription
representing talk makes it appear unnatural
transcription as theory
no single correct transcription,different transcriptions for different purposes
transcription as descriptive phoneticsIPA and other phonetic alphabetsbroad/phonemic vs narrow/phonetic (emic vs etic)
transcription in dialectologydialect featuresdistinctive features and isoglosses
Transcription in psycholinguistics
acquisition and loss: variance from modelparallel processing: Slips, pauses, stutters, blends
Transcription in language teaching
features which differ for L1 and L2interference patterns
Transcription in narrative analysis
regularize to standard orthography“eye dialect”
he wuz goin tuh town awrightbei dem mußtesse ECHT vorsichtich san, nich?
Jefferson, Sacks, CAGail Jefferson works out typewriter system for Sackspopularized among linguistics by articles in Language 1974, 1977comic book type eye dialect, laugh tokens
Transcription in Conversation Analysis
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Crystal, London-Lund Corpus
Crystal works out system for London-Lund Corpus (Svartvik & Quirk 1980)Comments on accent, voice quality, prosody
SCoSE
my original transcriptions partly based on Jefferson CA systempartly based on Interactional Sociolinguistics (Tannen, Schiffrin)later influenced by Chafe “one intonation unit per line”
dropped initial capitals as marks of sentencestranscribing one intonation unit per line brings out rhythm of talkhighlights frequency of units beginning with and, uh, wellshows importance of initial and final discourse markers
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German transcription systems
generally represent some, but not all features of dialect
Quasthoff (1980): Berlinerisch
Schu (1984): Saarländisch
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Conversation in Pragmatics and Anthropology
Speech Acts
Austin's (1962) How to do things with words
language to accomplish actions, not just to make true or false statements.
various sorts of “speech acts,”
"performative analysis" of particular verbs and sentences
Searle (1969, 1975) developed Austin’s insights
locutionary acts: referring, predicating, negating, subordinating
illocutionary acts: naming, promising, apologizing, congratulating
perlocutionary acts: persuading, intimidating, incriminating
Speech Act theory and real talkmany of the most familiar utterances don’t fit into simple classes
• greetings: hi, hello• leave-takings: bye, goodbye• pause fillers: well, let’s see• transitions: first off, anyway• back-channels: uh-huh, m-hm
most utterances in real talk are polyfunctional
George: Would you like to fly to Chicago with me?Sarah: I’d love to!
Sarah’s “I’d love to!”expressive of her emotioncommissive in committing her to fly to Chicago with Georgeanswer to a questionresponse to an invitation,
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the real problem for speech act theory is sequencefor many speech acts, function depends on sequential position
A: Is the earth flat?B: Yes. � states what the speaker believes
A: Will you marry me?B: Yes. � commits speaker to a course of action
A: Must I leave?B: Yes! � gets someone else to do something
A: You won the lottery.B: Yes! � statement of joy
what’s missing from speech act theory is listenersspeakers don’t mean alone, but only with hearers in contexts
Speech events
Ethnography of Speaking: Hymes 1962
situations, functions, patterns and uses of talk in societies
communicative competence (versus grammatical)
appropriateness in context (versus grammaticality)
Speech events 2
for any linguistic community,characteristic speech events:
• sales talk• storytelling• gossip• weather report• sermon
typical written forms:
• recipe• personal and business letters • newspaper column• short story
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Speech events 3
speech event encompasses multiple speech acts; culturally defined
speech situation : scene (cultural) and setting (physical)
speech event : within Speech situation, composed of Speech acts
speech act : minimal unit of speech event
speech situation – speech event – speech act
market place – transaction – offerconversation – story – prefaceceremony – prayer – invocation
components defining speech events:
participants: Addressor, Addressee, Audienceends : purpose of event, goals of participantskey: mock vs serious, perfunctory vs painstaking etcform: dialect, variety, register etcgenre: poem, proverb, lecture, advertisement etcnorms: "no gap, no overlap" in conversation,
"speak only when you're spoken to" for children
these categories apply to written texts as well as speech events as such, but there are important differences in the ways they apply
Presupposition
Stalnaker's (1974) definition of pragmatic presupposition:
A proposition B is a pragmatic presupposition of a speaker in agiven context just in case the speaker assumes or believes that B,assumes that his audience assumes or believes B, and assumes orbelieves that his audience recognizes that he is making theseassumptions.
note particularly the recursive feature of this definition
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• Existential presupposition:
any name or definite description refers to an identifiableindividual
Judy gave the red ball to the boy with freckles
� There’s a girl named Judy, a red ball and a boy with freckles
Negation test
Mary's car is fast ���� Mary has a carMary's car is not fast ���� Mary has a car
• Factive (with factive predicates):
Bill regrets/resents that Suzy won the game Suzy is happy/sad that she won the game���� Suzy won the game
Politeness
• Politeness as a historical phenomenon
• Politeness as in-group behavior
• Politeness as code of civility
• Political Correctness as enforced politeness
Pronouns of power and solidarity
Brown & Gilman (1960):
semantics of power and solidarity in use of 2nd person pronouns
In clearly stratified society, “power semantic” developed:
non-reciprocal V to mark deference,then reciprocal V spread among nobility
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Pronouns of power and solidarity 2
in more mobile society, “solidarity semantic” developed
reciprocal “non-solidary” V even among common peoplereciprocal “solidary” T even among powerful people
also: reciprocal T to mark “shared fate”
“power semantic” still determines who initiates T“shared fate” only works when fate is lack of power
pronoun use interacts with other systems like honorifics in Japanese
English lost 2nd person pronoun distinction
Politeness in Linguistic Pragmatics
Lakoff: be friendly; don't impose; give options
Brown and Levinson:
positive and negative face,face wants and face threats
Goffman:
“face” as image/reputation/personalityself presented by individual for ratification by groupwe seek to maintain face in interaction
Politeness in Linguistic Pragmatics 2
Negative Politeness
• maintain distance (respect)• give options (deference)
Positive Politeness
be friendly (solidarity)
face threatening acts• requests• invitations
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Avoiding face threatening acts
pre-sequences
pre-sequences also contribute to coherence in conversation
pre-request
Ann: would you do me a favor?Bob: sure.Ann: are you going to be needing your car this we ekend?Bob: uh, not really.Ann: great. Could I borrow it Saturday night?Bob: I guess so.Ann: I’d have it back early Sunday.Bob: okay, no problem.
Pre-invitation
Ed: so are you busy Saturday night?Judy: not really.Ed: have you seen the new “Star Wars” movie?Judy: no.Ed: do you want to go with me Saturday?Judy: I’d love to.
of course, the recipient may anticipate the invitation
Ed: so are you busy Saturday night?Judy: what do you have in mind?Ed: do you like Chinese food?Judy: at which restaurant?Ed: Kung Foo on Elm Street.Judy: I’d love to.
Conversation in Discourse Analysis
Conversation as Style (Register)
describe characteristics of conversation by comparison with other styles or registers,
• classroom talk• scientific writing• dramatic dialogue
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Style in conversation
describe characteristics of individual speaker’s talk by comparison with other speakers or from one context to another
or describe teenagers’ talk by comparison with adults’
or women’s talk by comparison with men’s
Cohesion and Coherence
conversation has its own systems of Cohesion and Coherence
Keys and Cues in conversation
keying (Hymes)
contextualization cues (Gumperz)
Keying
conversationalists cooperate to negotiate interactional parameters; they adopt a particular key for their interaction
• chatty • business-like • solemn• playful
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Contextualization Cues
conversationalists have a wide range of strategies for creating coherence and maintaining involvement; they coordinate their talk and secure understanding
• body language, • paralinguistic features
• intonation, • volume, • tempo,
• interactional cues
Contextualization Cues 2
understanding checks
y'know, right?, huh?
attention signals
m'hm, uh-huh, wow, really?
discourse markers
well , I’m not sureanyway , she finally quitit doesn’t matter though they all left early, y’know
hedges
kind of, sort of, a little (bit), well, let's say
Contextualization Cues 3
evidentials
as far as I know, I guess, clearly, obviously, prob ably
tags
canonical tags:
auxiliary, reversed negative polarity, personal pronoun
It’s cold, isn’t it? It’s not cold, is it?Judy will win, won’t she? Judy didn’t win, did she?
uninflected tags:
right, okay, huh ; see also dialectal innit
It was Judy, right? I’ll do it, okay?So Judy won, huh? They lost again, innit?
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Conversational structure
starting points
Schiffrin (1987): discourse markers as left brackets
Hymes (1974): initial position defines mood of speech event
Rühlemann (2007): initial discourse markers as discourse management phenomena
Chafe (1994): subjects as ‘starting points’ for clauses
Schegloff (1987): turn beginnings as resource, for the projection of the turn-shape
McCarthy’s (2003) turn-initial position as locus of choice
Starting points in spontaneous conversation frequent initial discourse markers
<2> and that came through the mail. <1> well isn't that nice? <2> yeah.
oh, she's a, but like you said, she's cute as, you know, Kaliber. <1> yeah , Keely will love this.
she's just really, yeah, <2> but I'm trying to get things,
that you can move, you know. <1> well , I'm hoping.
yeah, I would like to move back to Chicago or some place around here. <2> uh-huh, well, now , in the area some way. <1> yeah , I don't know. Mark doesn't want to leave California. <2> yeah, yeah , it is.
well, you get settled someplace sometimes, you know. <1> well , he's doing a lot of acting and that's really the,
I guess it's the place. <2> yeah , uh huh. <1> but he can do that in <2> but this is all experience, too.
Yeah as a turn initiator
yeah is by far the most frequent turn initiator in spoken American English
“The most frequent use of yeah is to acknowledge the receipt of information that is new to the discourse but consistent with current active information” (Jucker and Smith, 1998)
yeah can stand alone as a response token
BRAD: our blue book usually shows the U:hers.TAMMY: yeah .BRAD: our older Uhers.
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Yeah as a turn initiator 2
yeah may function as a direct positive response to a question
<1375> you're at U C S B?<1308> yeah , I'm a, uh, graduate student in Anthropology? <1375> uh-huh.
yeah may signal agreement with a statement in the foregoing turn
<1625> someone's playing the trumpet over there.<1626> yeah he plays that.
he plays tuba and uh all the brass.
Yeah as a turn initiator 3
yeah also occurs as an initial transition word
<1388> do you have any more complaints for the evening.<1380> I just feel sick.<1321> yeah it's something you ate ((laugh)) <1321> does anyone want any dessert?
<2> well, I think that's so wonderful she's interested in that. and you know, like I said, I'd like to foster it some way, you know.
<1> uh-huh. <2> that's why I sent that picture of mother. <1> yeah , she's just fascinated by that. <2> yeah, uh-huh.
Yeah as a turn initiator 4
yeah but to raise an objection
<1388> how come, how come, I thought, I thought you all gave it to her, gave her the piece.
<1380> yeah but there's still a little piece left.<1387> but everyone's was almost the same price.<1321> well how much, what price is that?<1388> yeah but , you guys I'm really poor.<1387> I mean almost the same price, I mean
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Yeah as a turn initiator 5
yeah right ironically signals disagreement
<1373> they're about between seventy and ninety percent fat ... calories from fat ... pretty high.
<1308> yeah<1375> people fool themselves into thinking the dry roasted are any different<1308> yeah, right .<1375> ((laugh))
Assessments in initial position
Discourse markers are fairly neutralInitial assessments show increasing degrees of emotion
Brandon: with two bodyguards to protect him.Lydia: wow, to think [of it].Brandon: [to see] a person in that position.
<1491> couple of months. but he was seriously injured in the accident.
<1488> man , he should stay off the roads.<1486> where did you find a fork?
Assessments in initial position 2
initial assessments expressing high degrees of emotion
<1> he tried to set fire to the cabinets, thank god, it didn't take, you know .
<2> jesus , you're kidding me? <1> no.
and, uh, finally it turns out what happens was ...
BH> I was just going oh wow congratulations and=AG> =SHIT that's great.
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Sequence and Structure in Conversation
conversation has characteristic structures and sequences
• move • turn • adjacency pair • exchange• pre-sequence
Sue: hi. greetingJill: hi. greetingSue: so, how have you been. questionJill: not so well really. answerSue: oh I'm sorry to hear that. responseJill: how about you? questionSue: not too bad, I guess. answerJill: yes, one muddles through. responseSue: by the way, I’m looking for Al. statement? request?Jill: I just saw him at Lou’s. responseSue: really? who else was there? response/questionJill: Fred. answerSue: wow. are you busy right now? response/question
(pre-sequence)Jill: not really. answerSue: would you do me a favor? question (pre-request)Jill: sure. answer (commitment)Sue: would you call Al for me? requestJill: sure. no problem agree/commentSue: great. thanks. comment/thankJill: no problem. comment
London School
Firth, Halliday, Sinclair, Crystal/Davy, Quirk/Svartvik,
London-Lund Corpus
exchange analysis
Firth and Halliday as functionalists
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Context of situation
Halliday develops general concepts for Firth’s context of situation
• field (activity, subject matter),
• mode (channel, genre),
• tenor (social relations)
linguistic features associated with situational featuresconstitute a Register (personal narrative, oral, among friends)
register coupled with context of culture determine choices in discourse
3 major functional-semantic components:
ideational
experiential: reflecting context of culture
logical: abstract
interpersonal: social, expressive, appellative
textual: coherence in text and context
every clause divides into theme-rheme
every spoken tone group divides into given-new
Hallidayan Systemics naturally applies to texts, and supplies special category for spoken discourse
Exchange analysis
The Birmingham School: Sinclair, Coulthard, Burton; Brazil
ranks: act, move, exchange, transaction
exchange as two, three or more moves in length
I(nitiation), R(esponse), F(eedback)
teacher-pupil
I What’s the capital of France, Judy.R Uh, Paris?F Yes, right.
I What’s the capital of France, Judy.R Uh, Berlin.F/I No. Somebody else? Sally?R Paris.F Of course.
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Exchange analysis 2
general conversation:
I So, how have you been.R Not so well lately.F Sorry to hear that.
I So, how have you been.R/I Fine. And you?R Not so well lately.F Sorry to hear that.
I So, how have you been.R Not so well lately.F Sorry to hear that.R Well, it can’t be helped, I guess.
Exchange analysis 3at some point it’s all just: R, R, R
I So, how have you been.R Not so well lately.F Sorry to hear that.R Well, it can’t be helped, I guess.R I suppose not.R One just muddles on.R That’s for sure.
I, R, F provide very little analysis,
no distinction of directness, no indication of power, politeness etc.
I Would you mind closing that window please?R Not at all (closing window).F Much obliged.R My pleasure.
I Close the window.R Close it your bloody self.F Imbecile.R Same to you.
Conversation Analysis
CA: Sacks, Schegloff, Jefferson
Sociolinguistcs using conversation as data, following Goffman, Garfinkle
• turn, move
• adjacency pair
• insertion sequence
• preference
• pre-sequence
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Conversation Analysis 2A: hi.B: hi.A: what’s happening.B: not much. what’s happening with you.A: not much. I’m looking for Judy.B: I just saw her at Lou’s.A: really? who else was there?B: Fred.A: wow. do you have a minute?B: yeah.A: would you do me a favor?B: sure.A: would you go to Lou’s and tell Judy to call me?B: sure. no problem.A: great. thanks.B: no problem.
Insertion sequences
A: are you coming to the party Thursday?B: will Harry be there?A: sure.B: then yes.
Double insertion sequence:
A: where can I catch the Saarbahn?B: do you know where Landwehrplatz is?A: is it just over on the Mainzer Strasse?B: yeah.A: then I know how to get there.B: well, that’s where you catch the Saarbahn.
Limits on insertion sequences:
A: where can I catch the Saarbahn?B: do you know where Landwehrplatz is?A: is it just over on the Mainzer-Strasse?B: do you mean Großherzog-Friedrich-Straße?A: I guess so.B: yeah.A: then I know how to get there.B: well, that’s where you catch the Saarbahn.
Pre-sequences
Pre-announcement
Ann: oh, guess who I saw last night.Bob: who?Ann: Judy.Bob: really?Ann: yeah.
she was at the movies with George.Bob: wow.
compare:
Ann: oh, guess who I saw last night.Bob: Harry?Ann: no, Judy.Bob: oh.
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also:
Ann: do you know who I saw at the movies last night?Bob: who?Ann: Judy.Bob: wow.
compare:
Ann: do you know who I saw at the movies last night?Bob: no.Ann: Judy.Bob: oh.
Conclusion: If you can hear a question as a pre-sequence, do soTheoretical conclusion: any theory of spoken language must includesequentiality
Repair
preference for self-repair
self-repair
A: I saw Judy last Tuesday- sorry, Monday.
other-initiated repair:
A: I saw Judy last Tuesday.B: uh:, Tuesday?A: oh, yeah,I saw her Monday at the party.
other-repair:
A: I saw Judy last Monday.B: you mean Tuesday.A: yeah, I saw her at Nancy’s.
Membership
people who know what the Saarbahn is,people who know where Landwehrplatz is,people who know where the Mainzer-Straße is ...
Also: people in a restaurant:
We walked into a restaurant and greeted the bartender,and the wine steward, before the maitre d' reached us.
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Conversation openers: Hi, Hi, What's happening? ...
summons as opening:
A: Nancy?B: yes?A: is that you?B: yeah. What do you want?A: I just wanted to make sure it was you.B: yeah, hi.A: hi.
telephone ring as summons:
A: ringB: hello.A: is Bill there?B: who is this?A: Martha.B: oh, hi.A: hi Vera.B: yeah, I'll get him.A: thanks.
Conversation closings
usually with pre-closings:
A: okay, see you Thursday.B: yeah, Thursday.A: okay, bye.B: yeah, bye.A: bye.
A: so, come and see us if you're ever in Boston.B: you bet, thanks.A: good to see you.B: yeah, take care.A: okay, bye.B: yeah, bye.
Meaning determined by following turns
Offer, Acceptance:
Brad: do you want some candy?Julie: sure.Brad: here (offering dish).
Request for Information, Reply:
Brad: do you want some candy?Julie: sure.Brad: put it on the shopping list.
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Meaning determined by following turns 2
Request for info, Reply, Justification for question:
Ann: do you want to come along?Hal: yes.Ann: then we'll need another car.
Offer, Acceptance, Comment:
Ann: do you want to come along?Hal: yes.Ann: great.
Pre-warning, Reply, Warning:
Ann: do you want to come along?Hal: yes.Ann: you better be ready in five minutes.Hal: okay.
Stories in conversation
stories as turns:
to initiate adjacency pair, story must signal expected response
and must signal the need for multiple moves via Tellability
tellability : A new story must be relevant and newsworthy to get and holdthe floor and escape censure at its conclusion
a familiar story may be tellable based not on its content, but on the dynamics of the narrative event itself
story content need not be relevant or newsworthy if co-narration holds the promise of high involvement
Story Preface
preface argues tellability and signals expected response
do you remember the time ...
oh God, you won't believe what happened ...
the first time/last time/only time ...
it was really weird ...
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APARTMENT HUNTING
Brianne: so, {laughs} like one week.it was one day.it was really weird.we were in the weirdest mood.it was this rainy old day.
Addie: uh-huh.Brianne: and we were just looking through the newspaper at
apartments.and we're like "let's go look at some."
Addie: {laughs}Brianne: and we made these appointments.
and we went- went all over the placeand looked at several places we had appointments for.it was fun.
Addie: oh, that’s cool.Brianne: y’know, just to get some ideas of what the prices are,
and what we were looking at, and that kind of thing.Addie: that’s pretty neat.
Note: Preface, Evaluation, Response, Result/Resolution
Second Stories
second story functions as the second part of an adjacency pair tellability based on its response to first part story
second story preface shows understanding, parallel experience etc
I know just what you mean. The same thing happened to me
also story topping
oh that’s nothing. listen to this.wait’ll you hear what happened to me.
Second Stories 2
Iris: Ginger's story reminded me of:well I don't know,speaking of stupid things you did in your youth.{General laughter}I went to the orthodontist one time.and they ...
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Second Stories 3Brianne: yeah.
see this is one of those things,you just got, it comes over youand then it {giggles} goes backand you forget that it ever [happened at all. {laughter}]
Addie: [oh. {laughing} I know.]I know.it happened.
Brianne: {giggles}Addie: yeah, it happened to me,
this year with, em, a different guy.em, my friend Tom has a,and I have.well, Tom's friend Chris,
Brianne: mhm.Addie: is a pretty cool guy
and I sort of fell for him earlier.
Two linked stories
ACCIDENTS
Mike: [that’s right]you can’t wrestle around or bad things will happen.
Jason: yeah, Roger got [his nose]Mike: [you know what] happened
to my one of my aunt’s friends out in Iowa?like when- when she was younger,she had a headgear from braces,and these two girls were wrestling aroundjust playing around, wrestling.and one girl pulled her headgear off her mouthand let it snap back.and it slid up her faceand stuck in her eyesand blinded her.
Jason: wow.
ACCIDENTS (cont.’d)
Mike: isn’t that horrid?that’s horrid.
Jason: [when my-]Mike: [blinded her for life.
isn’t that horrid.that's just- I mean just from goofing around,
Jason: you know what happened to my aunt Florencewhen she was a little girl?
Mike: ooh what happened.Jason: she was like screwing around
like around Christmas time?and like she,I- I guess this was like when they had candles on trees?she lit her hair on fire.
Mike: oh wow.
Repetition, Story Closings, and Response, esp. via second story
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Models of conversational interactionConversation as a game• conversational contribution as turn in game• turn as desired commodity in competition
Conversation as a symphony with harmony as goal• conversational contribution as one voice in composition
Conversation as a tapestry• participants weave contributions together into whole
especially Chafe insists: Conversation has no productconversation is evanescent, and unremarkable,except for its effect on the relationship between participantsand on their attitudes, primarily about each other
So, what about gender, age, specialist knowledge?Do all participants have equal rights to turns?Do all participants have equal power in opening, closing, topic choice?
Interactional Sociolinguistics
Gumperz, Goffman; Tannen, Schiffrin
Involvement
communication is a social activityrequiring coordinated efforts of two or more participantsin an identifiable speech event (following Hymes)
to participate in speech events,to create and maintain involvement,we require knowledge and abilities beyond grammar
communicative competence as opposed to grammatical competence
Interactional Sociolinguistics 2
even before we can decide to take part,we must infer what the interaction is about and what’s expected of us
once involved, we must signal understanding and goalseither directly in words or indirectly through prosody, gesture etc.
in face-to-face interaction we convey (and must convey) far more than we can put into words (and grammar) in order to coordinate stategiesand goals
contextualization cues • signal contextual presuppositions• allow situated inferences about intentions and speech event
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Interactional Sociolinguistics 3
Interactional Sociolinguistics focusses on everything beyondgrammar, lexis and phonology, namely:
• prosody, formulaicity, code-switching, style
intercultural and inter-ethnic communicationeffects of sociolinguistic variables on communication
• male/female, • old/young, • insider/outsider, • power/solidarity
Self and Framing
Interactional Sociolinguistics follows Goffman’s notions of Self and Framing
in the “presentation of self in everyday life”the individual defines a self or personality as a social identity
individuals present a self for ratification by others in social interaction
we adopt a stance putting ourselves on a footing with different groups,aligning and re-aligning ourselves with other individualswe frame our interactions in terms of our expectations
we bracket individual acts or stretches of interaction,signaling our intentions via Gumperz’ contextualization cues,and aligning ourselves with certain other participants
Black student to professor about to leave the room accompanied by other black and white students
Stud: could I talk to you for a minute? I’m gonna apply for a fellowship and I was wondering if I could get a recommendation?
Prof: okay. come along to the office and tell me what you want to do.
As the instructor and the rest of the group left the room,turning his head to the other students:
Stud: ahma git me a gig!
framing utterances in different wayscontextualization cues (prosody, formulaicity, lexis) aligning first with the instructor, then with the studentscode-switching from Standard American to African-American Vernacular
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Conversational style
Conversational Style (Tannen 1984)
Tannen redefines “involvement” as a scalar property of interaction,so that styles of interaction are heard as high or low involvement,where low involvement equals high considerateness
for Gumperz contextualization cues help maintain involvementbut for Tannen contextualization cues distinguish styles
High involvement: fast, no pause or overlap, joint production
Low involvement: considerateness: slow, long pauses, no interruption
Involvement
High vs low involvement style may characterize
• a type of speaker • a passage of talk• a type of discourse,
New Yorkers exhibit higher involvement than Californians,
women exhibit higher involvement than men,
talk between friends exhibits higher involvement than talk among strangers,
storytelling exhibits higher involvement than a lab report
High involvement between conarrators1 James: we were in this2 we were in a peat bog3 Lois: uh4 James: in Ire- in Ireland.5 eh no it wasn’t in Ireland6 [it was on the Isle of Skye]7 Lucy: [no, we were on the Isle of Skye]8 James: [sorry, on the Isle of Skye]9 Lucy: [right next to the west] coast of Scotland10 James: we were right on the north-11 [right in the north]12 Lucy: [new year’s eve]13 James: new year’s eve14 Lucy: freezing cold15 James: freezing cold16 Lucy: in the middle of nowhere17 just nothing
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18 James: and we got stuck in this terrible bog.19 {laughs} and jus-20 as far as the eye could see21 it was just bog22 and we were like walking through it23 and [it was quite late]24 Lucy: [and it was late]25 and it was becoming dark26 about five o’clock27 Emma: aw28 Lucy: and it was really really cold29 and we were on our way home30 after a long walk . . .
overlap, joint production, speaker change, repetition
Involvement 2
Tannen observed differences in women’s and men’s styles of involvement
claims men and women engage in cross-cultural communication
women: higher involvement
• closer together• more eye contact• more understanding checks• more attention signals• shorter gaps• more overlap• shorter turns• more frequent speaker change• more egalitarian• less appeal to expert knowledge
Involvement 3men: lower involvement
• farther apart• less eye contact• fewer understanding checks• fewer attention signals• longer gaps• less overlap• longer turns• less frequent speaker change• less egalitarian• more appeal to expert knowledge
men’s and women’s conversational styles clashcausing systematic misunderstandings in everyday interaction
attention to stylistic differences and realization of their effects,reframing and meta-talk about differences can smooth interaction
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Power and Solidarity
Defining Power
power as a transitive feature of relationships,though power is ultimately reciprocal (Foucault)
power as socially constructed through language/discourse,not given a priori in nature
power is encoded in the discourses of a communitypower is excercised through and negotiated in Language
contextualization cues are keys to power in interaction
Power and Solidarity
two related axes
power : superior, equal, inferior
solidarity : solidary vs unsolidary
solidary implies closeness, unsolidary implies distance
closeness also implies control (power),while distance renders power differences irrelevant
Dominance and subordination
Tannen proposes interrelated axes:
• dominance and subordination
• closeness and distance,
only those approximately equal in power negotiate dominance from one situation to the next
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Ambiguity and paradox in power and solidarity
making a request seems to signal dependence (one-down status),but it may signal expectation of fulfilment (one-up status)
sharing possessions seems to signal solidarity (equal status),but it may signal an attempt to control (one-up status)
Paradox of Power and Solidarity (Tannen)
Simultaneous speech
• co-production (solidarity) • interruption (power)
a woman overlaps to “help” a man find a word,but he feels she has interrupted him.
Al: so we went down to the- the-Betty: SafewayAl: just give me a minute, okay?
Ambiguity and paradox in power and solidarity
formulaic speech
Sue says to Fred: “Make yourself at home,” while she finishes dressing for a party, intending to be friendly (solidarity).Fred helps himself to a drink from the fridge, turns on the TV and sits with his feet propped up on the coffee table. When Sue comes out and sees him, she’s irate, because she feels Fred took advantage of her (power).Fred says, “You told me to make myself at home.”
Tannen found systematic differences between men’s and women’s speech
women’s higher involvement style is more geared to solidaritymen’s lower involvement style is more geared to power
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Contextualization cues
prosody, repetition, formulaicity, code-switching, simultaneous speech etc
characterize:
• speech styles• degrees of involvement/considerateness,
signal:
• power, solidarity;• dominance and subordination,• closeness and distance
Contextualization cues 2
• mark personal style,• distinguish different types of discourse,• foreground the form of speech itself:
Tannen describes contextualization cues as “Poetics of Speech”
particularly repetition and formulaicity as expressive devices
Repetition
repeats , which perform a specific operation on their original,repetition , which only contributes to cohesion
repetition to ensure coherence
I gave up my permanent {coughs} my permanent job here.
H through Bittman in the form of legal fees for distribution to these people.then you've got it.
P in the form of legal fees . I see.
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Repetitionrepeats spotlight their originals and perform some operation on them
Ste: one, two, three, four five six, eleven, eight, nine, ten.Sue: eleven? eight, nine, ten?Ste: eleven, eight, nine, ten.Sue: eleven?Ste: seven, eight, nine, ten.Sue: that's better.
P: he has turned it over to the Grand Jury.E: turned it over to the Justice Department.
A repeat can signal appreciation of its original: often called "savoring."
Rog: he's a politician.Al: yes. I'm a politician. I think I'm greater than all of you.Rog: I beg to differ with you.Al: hehh heh hhh "I beg to differ with you ."
Note so-called laugh tokens characteristic of Jefferson’s transcription style.
Repetition 2a repeat can affirm its original, say after a collaborative reference
A: she bought a chest of drawers from um what's that gal's name?just went back to Michigan. Helen um
B: oh I know who you mean, Brady, Brady.A: yeah, Helen Brady .B: m-hm.
repeat can go on to expand and amplify the original
E: and this was in a stone castle, you see. Bloody cold.F: a stone castle , and excessively bloody cold .
repeat with negation serves to deny the original
G: they go in the tavern. You can't go in there an-H: you can go in there too .
repeat a phrase or sentence to highlight it
P he wanted the operation to fail.and he admitted it. Admitted it .
Repetition 3Mark: you know what happened to my one of my aunt’s friends out in
Iowa?like when- when she was younger,she had a headgear from braces,and these two girls were wrestling aroundjust playing around , wrestling.and one girl pulled her headgear off her mouthand let it snap back.and it slid up her faceand stuck in her eyesand blinded her .
Jacob: wow.Mark: Isn’t that horrid ?
that’s horrid .Jacob: [when my-]Mark: [blinded her] for life.
isn’t that horrid .that's just- I mean just from goofing around,just from screwing a little bit of screwing around .
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Repetition 4
A yeh I was in the boy scouts at the timeB and we was doing the 50-yard dashC racingD but we was at the pier, marked offE and so we was doing the 50-yard dashF there was about eight or ten of us, you know,
going down , coming backG and, going down the third time, I caught the crampsH and I started yelling “help!”I but the fellows didn’t believe me, you knowJ they thought I was just trying to catch up
because I was going on or slowing downK so all of them kept goingL they leave meM and so I started going downN scoutmaster was up thereO he was watching me
Formulaicity
Formulaicity
• recognizable collocations • preformed--perhaps idiomatic—phrases• recurrence of patterns created within a text or discourse
(Tannen's "spontaneous formulaicity").
Formulaic Prefaces and Closings
Prefaces: it was really funny, you’ll never believe what happ ened
Closings: and I lived to tell about it, and here I am
Spontaneous formulaicityBrianne: we had a section on figure drawing.
and we had a model.Addie: uh-huh.Brianne: it was really weird .
we had her come,Addie: {chuckles}Brianne: it was just about two weeks ago.
and then we did some figure drawing {giggling}.Addie: {laughs}Brianne: yep.
and it was really weird ,because um, then, like, just last week,we went downtown one night to see a movie.
Addie: uh-huh.Brianne: and we were sitting in McDonald's,
waiting for our movie.and we saw her in the McDonald's,
Addie: {laughs}
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Spontaneous formulaicity 2
Brianne: and it was like, "that’s our model" {laughing}Addie: {laughs}Brianne: in clothes
[{laughing} uh we were like]Addie: [{laughing} oh my God.]Brianne: "oh wow."
[it was-]Addie: [{laughs}]Brianne: it was really weird .Addie: {laughs}Brianne: but it was her. {laughs}Addie: oh no.
weird .Brianne: I mean,
that’s weird when you run into somebody in Chicago.Addie: m-hm, yeah.
Oral Narrative
Oral Narrative is a speech event with its own characteristic structure
narrative adheres to characteristic frames in various ways
fairy tale formulas:
openings: Once upon a time, Long ago and far away
closings: And they lived happily ever after
conversational formulas:
openings: Do you remember the time, Have I told you the story ,The funniest thing that ever happened
closings: And I lived to tell about it, And so here I am,I'll never forget it
literary schemas: exposition, complication, climax, denouement
Labov on narrativenarratives as sociolinguistic data
personal narrative as most consistent register
Labov's Analysis of Spoken Personal Narrative
narrative defined as a sequence of past tense clausessequentially ordered with respect to each other,
minimal narrative at least two such clauses
he laughed at me.then I fought him.
reversing the order destroys the sequence as a narrative properor changes it into a different story:
I fought him.then he laughed at me.
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Labov on narrative
fully developed narratives
• abstract, answers the question “What was this about?”
• orientation, answers the questions “Who, what, when, where?”
• complicating action
• evaluation, answers the question “So what?”
• result/resolution, answers the question “What finally happened”
• coda, puts off further questions about what happened
ABSTRACT I remember the most embarrassing moment of my life happened then (during training at Burger King.)
ORIENTATION It was my first job, and I was nervousand there’s so much to learn.we were learning the drive-through.
EVALUATION just the thought of speaking into that microphone.I was so embarrassed.
COMPLICATING the first time I had to do it,ACTION I said: “welcome to McDonald’s.”
and everybody just laughed at me.RESULT I didn’t try to pull it off as a joke.CODA that was my very first job.
Evaluation
establishes the point of interestemphasizes its unusual characterdemonstrates the teller's involvement with the events elicits interest and belief from listenersmakes a story “tellable”
Conversational Narrative
FIRST JOB
Ellen: what was your first job?April: first job, um oh
that was at the Halsted Burger Kingin Halsted Minnesota.
Ellen: that near your house?April: about six miles away.Ellen: m-hm.April: and they- they built it brand new,
and I was one of the first employees.and because of thatwe ah- um we had a head honcho womanfrom International Burger Kingcome and train everybody in.because there was like thirty of us?
Ellen: wow. Yeah?April: and uh we had about a week of training
and I rememberthe most embarrassing moment of my lifehappened then. {laughs}
Ellen: {laughing} what does that mean? {laughing}.
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April: {laughing} um no this is just-I can’t believe I did thisbut- um I was really nerv-well it was my first job,and I was nervousand there’s so much to learn.I mean y’know there’s so many things at Burger Kingyou have to [make and uh-]
Ellen: [how old were you?]April: I was like a sophomore in high school.Ellen: okay.April: yeah, [the summer after my sophomore year.]Ellen: [you were young,] okay.April: and um we were learning the drive-through
and just the thought of speaking onintothat microphoneand y’know into outside-
Ellen: yes.
April: and you have to pretend to take ordersand, and I was so embarrassed.and the first time I had to do itI said “welcome to McDonald’s[may I take your order?”]
Ellen: [oh no {laughing}.]April: and everybody just laughed at me {laughing}.Ellen: {laughing} did you try and pull it off like a joke
like you meant to say that?April: no. {laughing}Ellen: no.
{laughing} good job.April: yeah, that was my very first job.
Conversational Narrative 2
1 Vic: oh sure he goes home and gets his gun out2 and comes back and shoot them3 there was a uh4 uh just recently here in Dallas, 5 I'm I'm trying to reconstruct it,6 somebody jumped in front of somebody in line, 7 in front of a Seven Eleven.8 and they got mad, 9 and they had a little argument over it. 10 so this one guy goes home, 11 and he is sitting talking to his his uh,12 Bob: uh-uh.13 Vic: uh brother about it. 14 and he sees the guy that jumped the line in front of him. 15 coming down the street. 16 so they got out and have more words. 17 and the second party went down to his house,
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18 several houses down the street, 19 and got a gun, 20 and come back, 21 and shot the other guy. 22 and killed him.23 Bob: oh my gosh.24 Vic: and and and when they're available like that, 25 people who normally wouldn't do things like that, 26 but momentarily fly off the trigger.27 Bob: that's right.
Conversational Conarrationfamiliar stories often entice listeners to participate and become conarrators
CHIPMUNK
Patricia: and I told the storyabout you and the little chipmunkout in the garage.
Marsha: oh. {laughing}Amy: I kept- I kept-
I was just thinking about that the other day.that thing scared the heck out of me.
Patricia: with all with all the:Amy: it was twice.Marsha: {laughs}Amy: it was twice.
and the first time,"there's a rat in there,there's a big mouse in there.I saw it."
Marsha: {laughs}
Amy: "no, there's nothing in there.""yes, I saw it."
Marsha: I wouldn't believe her.Patricia: well I went out.
remember,and set the bagit was a bag of cans.that was when we were looking for the golf ball,cause you hit the ball in the can.
Amy: yeah and then you found its little cubby holesin a box or something.
Patricia: well, what- what-Marsha: you found all the seeds, didn't you?Patricia: all the seeds.Ralph: all the seeds in a plastic bag.Patricia: right by the wood out there.
and when we moved the wood to clean itthere was the whole thing.
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it must have sat against the woodand then ate all the {laughing} [sunflowers.]
Ralph: [all the] sunflower seeds.all the shells were in [the bag.]
Patricia: [there were] shells everywhere.Amy: yeah and you guys wouldn't believe me.Marsha: well I guess there was [something there.]Patricia: [well I didn't] the first time
but the second time I did.Amy: scared me both [times.] {laughing}Marsha: {laughs}Amy: and of course it happened to me.
you know, nobody else.Patricia: little sucker was living in the garageRalph: living it up.
[and living high on the hog.]Patricia: [had it made.]
he was in out of the coldand he had something to eat.and, and by the way,we have to get a bird feeder.I'll have to talk to maand go to that Audubon place.
Frames, Schemas, ScriptsFrame theory
frames encode our typical expectations for objects and events.
frame theory has roots in work by Bartlett (1932), Bateson (1953, 1972),Goffman (1967, 1974)
Tannen (1978, 1979) showed how frame concepts could account forexpectations about interaction and storytelling
frame for conversation• two people • talk at a certain volume and tempo• taking turns speaking• sticking to a topic
breeches in frame• frantic screaming• refusal to let other person talk• constant interruption • ignoring the current topic
Framing, re-framing and meta-talk
Conversationalists frame and re-frame their interaction • with contextualization cues• with meta-talk
meta-talk - explicit statements about talk and interaction
Let’s have a little chat Why do we argue all the time?Is that a threat or a promise? I don’t mean this as a criticism
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Story frames
frames for stories
• guide tellers in what sorts of stories are appropriate • what to include in stories• suggesting to hearers what to expect • how to respond to stories
stories that fail to match our frames are hard to understand
• stories without clear causal connections• stories from other cultural contexts
Story frames 2
frame for a traditional romantic love story
• two people meet, • court, • fall in love, • experience problems, • become engaged, • finally marry, • go on honeymoon, • take up housekeeping together • have children
deletions and reversals yield new stories
Thanks for attending!Have a great break!