An Introduction to Conversation Analysis

✍ Scribed by Anthony J. Liddicoat

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 449
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Conversation is one of the most widespread uses of human language, but what is actually happening when we interact this way? How is conversation structured? How does it function?
Answering these questions and more, An Introduction to Conversation Analysis is an essential overview of this topic for students in a wide range of disciplines including sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and sociology. This is the only book you need to learn how to do conversation analysis.
Beginning by positioning conversation analysis amongst other methodologies, this book explains the advantages before guiding you step-by-step through how to do conversation analysis and what it reveals about the ways language works in communication. Chapters introduce every aspect of conversation analysis logically and clearly, covering topics such as transcription, turn-taking, sequence organisation, repair, and storytelling.
Now fully revised and expanded to take account of recent developments, this third edition includes:
- 3 new chapters, covering action formation and epistemics, multimodality and spoken interaction, and written conversation
- New topics including online and mobile technology, cross-cultural conversation, medical discourse, and gender
- A glossary of key terms, brand new exercises and updated lists of further reading
- A fully updated companion website, featuring tutorials, audio and video files, and a range of different exercises covering turn taking, organisation and repair

✦ Table of Contents

Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Chapter 1: Conversation and Conversation Analysis
Focus
Introduction
The development of Conversation Analysis
Conversation Analysis as an approach to studying interaction
Conversation Analysis and some other ways of studying language in use
Speech Act pragmatics
Discourse Analysis
Interactional Sociolinguistics
Discursive Psychology
Critical Discourse Analysis
About this book
Further reading
Chapter 2: Collecting conversational data
Focus
Introduction
Naturalistic data
Documenting conversations
Technical issues in recording
Using technologically mediated data
Ethics in data collecting
Exercises
Further reading
Chapter 3: Transcribing conversation
Focus
Introduction
Indicating information external to the talk
Transcribing words
Transcribing prosody
Transcribing other vocal sounds
Transcribing contiguous or simultaneous talk
Transcribing pauses
Dealing with problems of hearing or comprehension
Transcribing non-verbal elements of interaction
Adding transcriber’s information
Making a transcription of interactional data
Translation
Transcribing conversation: Some final comments
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 4: Analysing conversational data
Focus
A specimen perspective
The process of analysis
Identifying phenomena: Unmotivated looking
Developing an analysis
Finding patterns and making comparisons
Linking with theory
Exercise
Further Reading
Chapter 5: Turn-taking in conversation
Focus
Introduction
Some possible models of turn-taking
The turn constructional component
Turn constructional units
Possible completion and turn construction
Transition relevance places
Extending turn constructional units
Turn allocation
Current speaker can select the next speaker
Next speaker self-selects
Rules linking turn construction and turn allocation
Features of turn-taking in conversation
Speaker change recurs, or at least occurs
One person talks at a time and occurrences of more than one speaker at a time are common but brief
Transitions with no gap and no overlap are common
Turn order varies and the relative distribution of turns is not specified in advance
Turn size is not fixed, but varies
Number of parties can vary
Talk can be continuous or discontinuous
Repairing turn-taking errors and violations
Turns and TCUs
Multi-TCU turns
Multi-turn TCUs
Conclusion
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 6: Gaps and overlaps in turn-taking
Focus
Introduction
Increased transition space
Reduced transition space
Problematic overlap
The nature of overlapping talk
Resolving overlapping talk
Resources for resolving overlap
Places for deploying overlap resolution devices
The interactional logic of overlap resolution
Success in overlap management
Conclusion
Exercises
Further reading
On overlapping talk
On pauses
Chapter 7: Adjacency pairs and preference organization
Focus
Sequence organization
Adjacency pairs
Counters
Types of second pair parts
Preference organization
Preference for agreement
Preference for contiguity
Preference organization and turn shape
Invitations
Assessments
Dispreferred first pair parts
Conclusion
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 8: Expanding sequences
Focus
Sequence expansion
Pre-expansion
A generic pre-sequence: summons-answer
Type-specific pre-expansions
Pre-invitations
Pre-requests
Pre-offers
Pre-tellings
Preliminaries to preliminaries
Multiple pre-expansions
Conclusion
Insert expansion
Post-first insert expansion
Pre-second insert expansion
Multiple insert expansions
Conclusion
Post-expansion
Introduction
Minimal post-expansion: Sequence closing thirds
Oh
Okay
Assessments
Composite SCTs
Non-minimal post-expansion
Post-second repair
Rejecting SPPs
FPP reworkings
Post-completion musings
Post-expansion and preference
Topicalization
Sequence-closing sequences
Conclusion
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 9: Repair
Focus
Repair in conversation
Types and positions of repair
Same-turn repair
Transition space repair
Second position repair
Third position repair
Fourth position repair
The multiple repair space
The preference for self-repair
Conclusion
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 10: Epistemics and action formation
Focus
Introduction
Epistemics
Epistemic status and epistemics stance
Epistemics in interaction
Action formation in talk
Resources for action formation and recognition
Turn formats
Prosody
Embodied actions
Sequence formats
Conclusion
Exercises
Further reading
Chapter 11: Embodied actions and the multimodality of spoken interaction
Focus
Introduction
Gaze
Gesture
Posture
Manipulating objects in interaction
Concluding comments
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 12: Online written interaction
Focus
Introduction
Turn-taking
Turn construction
Turn allocation
Sequence organization
Repair
Multimodality in online written interactions
Conclusion
Exercises
Further reading
Chapter 13: Opening conversation
Focus
Introduction
The interactional accomplishment of telephone openings
The summons-answer sequence
Identification/recognition work
Greetings
‘How are you?’ sequences
Technological changes and the structure of telephone openings
Telephone conversations as conversational openings
Openings in face-to-face interaction
Conclusion
Exercises
Further reading
Chapter 14: Closing conversation
Focus
Introduction
Terminal sequences
Pre-closing sequences
Closing implicative environments
Announcing closure
Arrangements
Formulating summaries
Appreciations
Sequence-closing sequences
Back references
Moving out of closing
Locations for moving out
Typical sequences found in moving out
Back references
Topic initial elicitors
In-conversation objects
Solicitudes
Reasons for call
Appreciations
Expanded closing sequences
Conclusion
Exercises
Further reading
Chapter 15: Storytelling in conversation
Focus
The interactional problem of extended turns
Stories
Beginning and ending stories
Story structure
Second stories
Stories of shared experience
Conclusion
Exercise
Further reading
Chapter 16: Applying Conversation Analysis
Focus
Introduction
Institutional talk
Turn-taking in institutional settings
Turn-type pre-allocation
Turn allocation
The structure of institutional interactions
Medical interactions
Conversation Analysis and second-language acquisition
Conversation Analysis across languages and cultures
Conclusion
Exercises
Further reading
Institutional talk
Medical interactions
Conversation Analysis and second-language acquisition
Conversation Analysis across languages and cultures
Glossary
Transcription conventions
Speech sounds
Other vocal sounds
Contiguous or simultaneous talk
Pauses
Problems of hearing or comprehension
Embodied actions (based on Goodwin and Mondada)
Adding transcriber’s information
References
Index