Azu’s Notes

Given information is information that is assumed by the addresser to be known to/assumed

by/inferable by the addresser at the time of the utterance because it is:
i. common/shared knowledge
ii. part of the extralinguistic context
iii. previously established in the discourse

Given information is usually:
i. placed early in a sentence
ii. spoken with little stress
iii. often reduced, abbreviated or ellipsed

Pieces of information that have close association with something that has been introduced in

the discourse previously are taken as given.

Also, as most kinds of discourse have implicit speakers and addressees, interactors always

take first and second speaker pronouns to be given information.
New information is information that is assumed by the addresser NOT
i. to be known to/assumed by the addressee
ii. previously established in the discourse

New information is usually:
i. placed late in the sentence
ii. stressed
iii. expressed in more elaborate fashions

The terms topic and theme are often used interchangeably to refer to the initial constituent

of a sentence which is the proposition that is being talked about.

The terms rheme and comment are often used interchangeably to refer to the part of the

sentence that provides information about the topic/theme.

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According to Levinson (1983) unlike a sentence, a conversation is not a structural product – it is rather the result of the interaction between two or more independent, goal-directed individuals,
with often divergent interests.

Conversation Analysis (CA), the study of talk in interaction (inspired by ethnomethodology) was developed in the 1960s and early 1970s principally by the sociologist Harvey Sacks and (among others) Emanuel A. Schegloff and Gail Jefferson who were his close associates.

Though Sacks died early in his career, his work was further developed by others in the field and CA has now become an established methodology in linguistics, sociology, anthropology, speech-communication and psychology.

Conversation analysts study all kinds of conversations - not just casual chat among friends as we may perhaps think of at first.

Conversation analysts examine how talk makes things happen - be it in social life, business interactions, healthcare, education, leisure, politics:

Among the things that CA generally attempts to describe are:
- orderliness
- structure
- sequential patterns

CA is a unique field of study within linguistics, but we shall only skim on the surface and look at the basics.
What we will focus on are:

1. turn-taking oragnization
2. sequences
a. adjacency pair
b. insertion sequence
c. pre-sequence
d. post-sequence
3. repair
a. self-initiated self-repair
b. self-initiated other-repair
c. other-initiated self-repair
d. other-initiated other-repair
4. action formation
a. speech acts
b. conversational principles (adherence and violation)

Turn-taking oragnization
A turn is a time during which one participant speaks, within a typical, orderly arrangement.
Usually participants take turns in a manner where there is minimal overlap and gap between them.
Turn-taking is one of the fundamental organizations of conversation.

Sequences

a. adjacency pairs
An adjacency pair is a unit of conversation that comprises an exchange of one turn each by two speakers which are:
- adjacent
- produced by different speakers
- ordered as a first and a second
- a first requires a second

In adjacency pairs there are preferred and dispreferred seconds for a first:

The production of a dispreferred second generally requires more conversational effort than a preferred second.
e.g.

invitation: Fuad: Shall we go for a coffee after class?
acceptance: Haseena That would be great.

invitation:
Fuad: If you would come to my place after class,
I will make you lunch.

acceptance:
Haseena: (laugh) that’s awfully sweet of you!
but I don’t think I can make it this afterfoon …
uhm I’ve got to hand in an assignment tomorrow morning
and I still have some last minute editing to do.

There are situations in which a ‘disagreement’ counts as a preferred second following an assessment:

e.g.

assessment: Basheera: This looks awful on me doesn’t it?
Disagreement: Husny Don’t be silly. You look gorgeous in it!

b. Insertion sequence

An insertion sequence is a sequence of turns that intervenes between the first and second parts of an adjacency pair.

Kamana: Konthaakah? A (question)
Gamaru: Oh hi1 it’s you dho?
Kamana: (laugh) who’d you think it was? (insertion sequence)
Gamaru: Haleema! Mi dhanee ge ah A (answer)