English Pragmatics PDF

UNIT 5: CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS PRAGMATIC PHENOMENON: Conversation is the exchange of information between at least two individuals, we understand the content but also the intention, what is behind the message, the intention of the speaker. 1. Introduction Different types of speech: - Ca...

UNIT 5: CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS PRAGMATIC PHENOMENON: Conversation is the exchange of information between at least two individuals, we understand the content but also the intention, what is behind the message, the intention of the speaker. 1. Introduction Different types of speech: - Casual conversation → is the most frequent for most people Some different types of speech (or = different genres) are: - telephone calls - service encounters (shops, ticket offices…) - classroom (classes, seminars…) - rituals (church prayers, sermons, weddings…) - monologues (jokes, speeches…) → not considered conversation because you are talking on your own - casual conversations (strangers, friends, intimates) There are different types of speech, based on your daily occupation. Casual conversion ian very common phenomenon, even though is not the only one, we have different genres. 1. Spoken Influential (important) approach: University of Birmingham - discourse in school classrooms A rigid pattern - in traditional school language classroom: - Teacher and students - spoke according to very fixed perceptions of their roles - Talk conformed to highly structured sequences They look basically at how people use conversation in the classroom. Based on the classroom setting. They observe students follow a kind of pattern. They observe students and teachers on how they exchange information and they observe how they are aware of their roles and how they have fixed perceptions of their roles, that means that students are aware that they are students and they have to ask permission from the teachers. EXAMPLE: teacher (T) - Pupil (P) talk: T: Now then… Hands up. What 's that? What is it? P: An apple. T: It’s an apple, yes this is an apple. And what about this?, what is it? P: A lemon T: ¿A lemon? Is that a lemon? P: No, no. 82 What patterns can you observe? We have a kind of pattern where the teacher is found most of the talking and asking questions and the students are just answering the questions. There is an unequal power balance, the teacher is the one initiating the conversation, the one in power. Question - answer sequence → internal structure Pattern: 1) Teacher asks something (‘What’s that?’). 2) A pupil answers (‘An apple’). 3) The teacher acknowledges the answer and comments on it (‘It’s an apple, yes’) he or she gives some kind of feedback. There are always some repeated patterns such as: there is always a teacher who asks something. So, we could label the pattern in the following way: 1. Ask (teacher) 2. Answer (pupil) 3. Comment (teacher) We have a regular sequence of TPT- TPT-TPT-TPT, etc. A typical segment: TPT unit is called EXCHANGE → this unit is a three-part exchange, and each of the parts is called MOVE. If we isolate one of these sentences we get what is called an exchange. Thi consists of these three modes TPT. Exchange approach (better explained in the photocopies): this approach has been very influential and tries to explain this structure of conversation. Examples of exchanges with three moves: A. What time is it? QUESTION B. Six thirty ANSWER A. Thanks. TO BE POLITE A. Tim’s coming tomorrow. GIVING INFORMATION B. Oh, yeah. AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A. Yes. TO CONFIRM THE INFORMATION A. Here, hold this. COMMAND B. (takes the box). NON-VERBAL RESPONSE A. Thanks. TO SAY THANKS These three moves are called: Initiation: an opening move Response: answering move Follow-up: follow-up move I-R-F There is always someone who initiates, who responds and who follows up. 83 1: We have the question, the answer and the third move which is sometimes stranded because of politeness. We transfer the tpt structure to a conversation which is outside the classroom. We can also start the move with a declarative (2), you are acknowledging the information. 3: another example would be with the imperative clause. You could refuse, so this is a non-verbal response. 1. I: Every exchange has to be initiated with: - a statement - a question or - a command 2. R: Someone has to respond whether in words or action. 3. F: Follow-up move is slightly different: an act of politeness… It may be extended further: Example: A: Oiga por favor ¿qué hora es? B: las cinco y media A: gracias B: de nada Patterns of exchanges vary from culture to culture. The third move could be stated further, you could have stopped in “gracias” but the other person says “de nada”. Mutual dependency: one depends on the other, if we remove one of the movies we do not know exactly what kind of change we are dealing with. An aspect to consider → Taken out of context and without the third part, it is impossible - to decide the functions of the individual speech acts. Example: I do not know the kind of situation I am dealing with. Depending on what you respond to, the meaning can change and therefore the function. A. What times is it? B. Five past six. A: Thank you! / Time to go home ( the meaning changes) If for instance we place this in the context of the classroom and you say “good, clever boy”. That means that we always need the third move to fully understand what I am dealing with. With the third move we already know what we are dealing with. In that case of the classroom we are not really asking for the time but testing the student. 84 What could fill the third part here? Possibilities: 1) A. Thanks. 2) A: Good! Clever boy! 3) A: No, it isn’t, and you know it isn’t: it’s half past and you’re late again, 1) If genuine request for information 2) Classroom interaction 3) Accusation for someone who is to be reproached. FUNCTION → is arrived at with reference to the participants. The moves are dependent, we need the three of them to understand the sentence and the intention behind it. 2. Conversations outside the classroom classroom conversation: talk in a rather restricted context: - rigidify defined roles - IRF patterns relatively easy to perceive - transactions: heavily marked The classroom is not the ‘real’ world of conversation. Conversations outside classroom settings vary in their degree of structuredness: Talk adheres to norms and it is regularly patterned. The structure is very easy to identify because there is a power distance, the rules are very well-defined. The doctor asks the questions and the patient responds. The classroom is not the typical place where conversions take place, usually conversations takes place between equal power such as friends. The sinclair -Couulthard ‘Birmingham’ model: Offers a hierarchical model where: - smaller units combine to form larger ones. - large units consist of these smaller ones: TRANSACTION EXCHANGE MOVE ACT (Speech acts). The model is useful for analyzing tightly structured patterns of interaction (i.e. doctor-patient) We talk about hierarchical models because we are aware of this unequal power. This is a hierarchical model which was good for class interaction in the sixties, not nowadays. Outside the classroom it can be applied but only in conversation of unequal power. 85 3. Talk as a social activity Classroom conversation → relatively easy to predict: who will speak when, who will ask, who will answer… Casual conversation (among equals) more complicated Discourse analysts pay attention to: - how people behave and how they cooperate in the management of discourse Observing conversational behavior: preoccupation of … The problem is that casual conversations are much more complex, in casual conversation since the power is equal, the conversion is more unpredictable because we do not know what the other person is going to say, unlike in the classroom we know what the teacher is more or less going to explain. There is the conversational analysis. Bottom-up: gather lots of data and see which patterns emerge in conversation. The data dictates its own rules. We analyze data and we see what patterns emerge, but we do not create them. Ethnomethodologists (conversation analysis) main areas of interest such as: - how pairs of utterances relate to one another (adjacency pairs) - how turn-taking is managed - how conversational openings and closings are affected - how topics enter and disappear from conversation. - how speakers engage in strategic acts of politeness, face-preservation, and so on. Emphasis on REAL DATA: Ethnomethodologists examine large amounts of data to observe regular patterns of behavior - ‘rules’ of conversation. The basic unit of conversation is made up of three moves, however this Ethnomethodologists say that is made up of only two moves called adjacency pairs. They look at the kind of movements and structures they follow. 1) A: Hi B: Hi 2) A: You ready to order? B: What's your soup and sandwich? A: Oh, it's a corned beef salad sandwich and uh beef noodle soup, i think. B: no, I'll take a club sandwich. And a coffee. 86  A: OK Both 1) and 2) might be treated as conversational, but it’s NOT a conversation in the more restricted sense. The second one takes place in a restaur and they follow a kind of structure, the context affects the structure they follow. Real conversations are conversations among equals, the main goal is to socialize, there is not a particular goal. 5. Structure of conversations 5.1. Adjacency pairs: - utterances produced by 2 successive speakers such that the second utterance is identified as related to the first as an expected follow-up. - pair of utterances in talk tat are mutually dependent (i.e. a question predicts an answer; an answer presupposes a question). Mutual dependency = we can only be sure of the function of the initiating utterance when it is contextualized with the response it gets, and vice versa (i.e. hello: greeting? etc…) The 2 utterances form a pair: - the first constitutes the first pair part →whats time is it - The next constitutes a second pair part → it’s five o'clock. This are together mutually depend and for a unit which is called adjacency pairs. There are the three basic moves: initiation, response and follow-up. For casual conversation according to the others, analysis the basic move is made up of only two moves. They form a pair and this pair is called adjacency pair. Basically what we need is two moves processed by two different successes speakers, one says something n the other speaker says something else. These pairs are therefore called mutually dependent, one depends on the other. If I say for instance Hello, the second part would be HI/ how are you/ you’re late. It can have different functions. We always need all the rules to understand what I mean. We need this third move which can be even non verbal to understand the meaning. Adjacency pairs = ‘the basic structural unit in conversation’. Examples: Utterance function Expected response Greeting Greeting Congratulation thanks Apology acceptance Inform acknowledge 87  Leave-taking leave-taking Examples: 1) A: Hello B: Hi Here we are greeting 2) A:Jimmy! B: Coming mother He or she acknowledges 3) A: Is that what you mean? B: Yes Question and answer 4) A: Ok see ya B:So long exchanging information If I ask you a question, which is the preferred reply? an answer. There are the preferred and dispreferred responses. If I ask you a question I expect an answer (preferred response). There are always preferred responses. Adjacency pairs are of different types: Sometimes the pair are so common, conventional that they become automatic (ritualized). - Ritualised close-sets (identical second pair-part) Hello- hello happy new year- happy new year - Different second-part (more open-ended pairs): Congratulations- thanks. Equally, a second pair-part such as thanks - will presuppose a wide range of first pair-parts: offers, apologies, commiserations, invitation (with or–) Here the first part could be a compliment, a good wish, non-verbal. We have different responses. When a speaker fails to provide the proper second pair part, this is often noticed: Mother to her daughter: You know you’re supposed to greet someone, don’t you? For other adjacency pairs there’s much freedom to respond to first pair parts: a) Compliment → Acceptance - A. That’s a nice shirt. / B: Thanks. Agreement - B. It’s quite nice isn't it? 88 We are so used to these responses that when the second part is missing we know it. We know we have to provide the ocd part because of socialization. If someone for instance says hi you have to say hi back, these are rules we learn as we grow up as citizens of a community. A) COMPLIMENT- B) COMPLAINT C) OFFER 89  D) REQUEST Different roles and settings will generate different structures for such adjacency pairs. Need to be placed in context. Observing natural data helps us discover patterns that occur in particular settings. Example of informal invitations: I was wondering, uh, we're having a party... - From native speaker. They preface their invitations. I would like to invite you to a party. - From a non-native speaker. Too formal. I want you to come to my party. - From a non-native speaker. Too informal. Similarly, native speakers preface disagreement with second pair-parts in English with partial agreement (yes, but...) and with softeners (I'm afraid...). VIDEO The science of analyzing conversations, second by second by Elizabeth Stokoe. When you analyze a conversation you can predict lots of things such as the silent moments. There are patterns that usually occur in conversations. You gather lots of data, transcribe it and see how we move away from these patterns to mean different things. SUMMARY: Bottom-up approach: they start with a model and they have a look at conversations usually in class and see whether these examples fit the mode, that means whether the DATA fits in. The conversational analysis is the other way around, starts with the data and sees if the model fits in. 90 Conversation is basically made of initiation, response and follow-up. Thisworks very well in classroom context or in context where there is unequal power balance (no overlaps, or interruption). However analysts are more interested in casual conversations, conversation among equals (they use bottom-up approach). There are the adjacency pairs (two sentences produced together by successive speakers, one after the other hello-hello, how are you-fine). There is the preferred response → usually the typical one (questions and answer → what time is it? five o'clock Dispreferred are not the one expected, for instance answering a question with another question. These are considered to be rude or impolite. 5.2. Openings and closings How do speak for marking out openings and closings.rs manage longer stretches of talk? Transaction boundary markers - for marking out openings and closings Openings and closings of conversations = organized and orderly accomplishments by conversationalists. OPENINGS (Good morning, How are you?...) become the basis for an occasion of social interaction and possible further conversation. Openings and closings are speech event-specific: - initial summons (a church bell…) - specified setting (church, courtroom, etc.) - specified category members (members of the family, as bride, groom..) We have to mark the boundaries between one unit and the other unit, this is called transaction boundary markers. We have to mark the boundaries, you can not open conversation as you want. Conversations do not simply begin and end. Openings and closing of conversations and other speech events are organized and orderly accomplishments by conversationalists. Conversations in general are organized and have a clear asset of organization. We usually use adjacency pairs. There are different formulas, you can use some kind of attention (excuse me) so you know you are opening a possible conversation. These openings and closings which mark the boundaries of a conversation are specific, that means that in each context we are going to use some openings or closing, each conversation has its own rules. For instance in a church there are certain signals that mark theta is going to start for instance ring abell. You are given some categories in the conversation so you have to fill the specific rules in those contexts. A conversation is not equal from many other speech events since: - no specified setting, no time, or place - no required roles - not specified agenda or quorum 91 Conversation happens between equals, when this happens this is more chaotic because there is now specific setting, a casual conversation can happen anywhere. Sometimes speech acts require a certain kind of quorum for instance in a meeting. But conversations must be opened. How? Through the use of adjacency pairs such as: Greeting-Greeting, Request-Grant; Question-Answer, Statement- response. Examples: (a) A: Good morning B: Hi (b) A: Got a match? (request) B: Sure (grant) (c) A: How do you like our show? B: You have some beautiful paintings there! (d) A: That was a terrible lecture! B: Yeah, I wish he could speak in normal English. Such adjacency pairs are pre-conversational. By means of additional turns a conversation may or may not get built. There isa need to have two successive speakers. There is mutual dependency, one depends on the other. Such adjacency pairs provide for; - the immediate participation of both parties - allow for the possibility of further talk: they're pre-conversational. It enables immediate participation, and adds more details. Pre-conversation: in a sense they prepare the ground for the proper conversation. Closings involve coordinated activities of the conversationalists. Real conversation must be closed in such a way that: - One speaker’s completion will not occasion another speaker’s talk, and that will not be heard as some speaker’s silence. Closing conversations are very difficult, sometimes you do not want to be rude and other times the other person doesn't realize that it is enough. The closing is very important, to mark the end of the conversation and many people do not know how. Conversation is based on cooperation. The completion has to be understood as not silence but as the end of the conversation, so you have to indicate to the other person that you are not going to add any more details, the other person has to understand that this is the end of c¡the conversation. How? Adjacency pairs Goodbye, Thank You, you are welcome, Ok… 92 BUT: Considerable prior work is required for a proper closing (we, as speakers, have to indicate when we will finish a conversational procedure). Closings are preceded by possible pre-closings: “Well”, “ok”, “so-oo” to: - Indicate that only a topic is being closed. - or lead to a terminal exchange (= end of the entire conversation): You can not say “okay bye”, you have to prepare the ground for the closing. You have to indicate that you are about to finish. Closings are usually preceded by pre-closings to indicate that the conversation is coming to an end for example: lexical words “it’s getting late”. In a conversation, if you get up, you make the other person understand that you are about to finish. Examples closing and pre-closing: A: Uh, you know, it's just like bringing the blood up. B: yeah, well, things always work out for the best A: Oh, certainly. All right. B: uh uh. A: Okay B: G’bye. A: Goodnight. Here you are preparing the ground. The other person stops contributing just to make the other notice that they want to finish. Here there are some pauses. At least there are three moves before saying goodbye (pre-closing to prepare the ground for the end) CLOSINGS: must be made to occur by coordinated activities of the conversationalists. Closing sections may include: - Reference to speaker’s interests: ‘Well, I gotta go’ → I have got some priorities and you use that for instance “well I have to prepare dinner” meaning I do not want to talk anymore. - Or to the other party’s interests: ‘Well, I don’t want to keep you longer’. - Routines at the beginning (‘What are you doing?’: ‘So, I guess I’ll let you get back to your books’. - Reinvoking the reasons for entering a conversation: ‘So, well, I just wanted to know how you were doing’. → If you are interrupting somebody who is working. - And making arrangements for future conversation: ‘Yeah, Ok, so we should get together soon’. Openings and closings can present difficulties for L2 learners since they tend to transfer the rules and expectations from one language to another. We have the tendency to transfer our rules and conventions to the other language and as a consequence there might be miscommunications. 93 Example: L2 learners may: A: “Well, I guess you have got lots of things to do”. B: Not really. The student was asking so many questions, the teacher wanted to close the conversation by using the pre-closing, but as he was so indirect that the student did not recognize the closing. A: “I have nothing more to say, so goodbye” (end of conversation) This is too direct, it might be shocking for so many cultures. It can sound even selfish. Turn-taking Conversations involve two or more people. Distribution of talking among speakers is not random. It is governed by turn-taking norms. We have to distribute conversations. Distribution of talking among speakers is governed by: - Turn-taking norms, → Children from the very beginning have been told to not interrupt. - Conventions: who talks, when and how long. → we usually respect the elderly, we are aware of the person who talks. In any piece of natural English discourse: - turns will occur smoothly - there’ll be little overlap and interruption - only very brief silence between turns (less than a second) This is theoretical but when they gather data they realize this doesn't happen often. In casual conversation interruptions and overlaps happen most of the time. There are people who can not tolerate long pauses so they tend to talk more. It is a personal kind of thing and of course a cultural kind of thing. The Japanese tend to take long pauses. Not all kinds of interruptions are bad, some are cooperative, on most occasions you are showing excitement. One basic Rule: Only one person speaks at a time NOTE: - Length of a pause between 2 turns (3s) is attributable silence (meaningful) → it carries meaning, it is meaningful. You take some second and it is for a reason, you usually want time tithing, it has some kind of feeling. - People may have sense of how long pauses should be: 94  - Longer pauses -Shorter pauses How do people take turns: - When they are selected or nominated by the current speaker. By means of an adjacency pair: A: You look tired. B: I feel fine. (you are nominating the speaker) - Or they may speak of their own accord (self-selection) → you nominate yourself). The next speaker may select a turn: A: I must tell you what happened to me yesterday. B: I’ll call you back. I’ve got a visitor. If neither of these conditions apply, usually the person who has started talking continues and the other one drops out. - The person who is currently speaking may continue. (Sacks et al, 1974). Listeners are attentive to the syntactic completeness of the speaker’s contribution and to clues in the pitch level that may indicate that a turn is coming to a close. You make people be aware that you're about to finish and the other èrson can take the turn, this is useful for abound interruptions. >>>> ongoing evaluation of each other’s utterances - to take up the turn to talk Rules for turn taking differ according to the type of speech event (classroom, a debate, informal conversations…) Turn taking is also affected by rank (power or status of the speaker). There are specific linguistic devices for getting the turn. There are also linguistic means for not taking the turn or indicate that we are attending to the message: - ‘If I may, Mr. Chairman’ - ‘I wonder if I might say something’ - ‘Can Ijust come in here?’ - ‘Hang on a minute’ - ‘Shut up will you, I can’t get a word in edgewise’ There are also linguistic means for not taking the turn or indicate that we are attending to the message or indicate that we are attending to the message: >>>Backchannel responses consist of vocalizations (mm, ah-ha…) and short words and phrases such as yeah, no, right, sure…. Back channel realizations vary from culture to culture. Another feature of turn-taking: - The way speakers predict one another’s utterances and often complete them for them or overlap with them. 95 Notice - culture-specific conventions for turn-taking: Role of silence: more acceptable in some cultures (Finnish, Japanese) Rule-conflicts: Transferring L1 conventions to the L2 Context. The looser the restrictions on WHAT and WHEN people may speak the more naturally the turn-taking emerges. There might be culture-specific conventions for turn-taking (role of silence, etc.). Turn talking is closely related to topic nomination. - People want to contribute to the topic or change the topic. Conversations are obviously cooperative, this means that although you are not talking this doesn't mean you are not attending to what the other people say. There are different ways of attending to the message. What we do to indicate things is to use some kind of expressions such as “yeah, okey, sure” to indicate that you are following what the other person is saying → backchannel response. This is done to encourage the other people to continue talking, to support the other person and to show that you are engaged in the conversation. Another aspect is that these kinds of responses vary from culture to culture.. For instance Japanese people make noises to make sure they follow the other person, but this varies from culture to culture. For instance mallorcan people we use the shwa. One of the things that happens in casual conversation is that we tend to predict what the other person is going to say so they supply the word for you. This can be very irritating because they do not let you finish the sentence, it usually happens between close friends. Usually we respect turn talking, it is not nice to be interrupted, but in casual conversation it is quite natural to be overlapping. But repeating the turn sometimes can be artificial, so it has been criticized Silence is a very important linguistic device, if you remain silent it can be interpreted as you do not agree and you don't want to cooperate. Silence varies from culture to another. In some cultures, silence is felt as awkward but for others like Japanese they are more tolerant of that silence. Of course there might be conflicts when you transfer out one rule to another one. For an Argentine it is very common to interrupt but not for a Japanese. Summary: some of the main characteristics related to conversation, we say that conversations are organized, although they may seem disorganized, they have a very clear structure. We saw two main schools that look at the patterns → the birmingham school (three part structure) and the ethnomethodologist that thought the basic unit of conversation were the adjacency pairs. We have to indicate that we want to open the conversation as well as qe want to close the conversation. To close the conversation there were these pre-closing moves announcing that the conversation is coming to an end. 96 Turn-taking → usually there is this idea of avoiding interruption in conversation so we have to take turns. Ethnomethodologists study how people take turns in conversations. Sometimes the other person stops talking or nominates you. 5.5. Topics Topics = stretches of talk bounded by transactional markers, such as: lexical ones: by the way, to change the subject…transactions markers such as: right, now, OK; phonological ones: changes in pitch. (starting a new topic - so… by the way… before I forget…) (adjusting topic - speaking of… that reminds me…) (returning to main topic - anyway… back to what I was saying…) (starting interesting story - guess what?... Listen to this!) (starting a joke…) Topics: - can be the reason for talk or - can arise because people are already talking. Remember that: Conversation has a restricted and repetitive repertoire. Speakers often repeat partially or exactly what has just been said, relieving online planning pressure. This is called: local repetition. A: Let’s serve this damn chili, B: Ok, let’s serve the chili. Conversation is repetitive in a more global sense: - It relies more on stereotyped, prefabricated sequences of words→ lexical bundles: Can I have, Do you know… - It shows a low type-token ratio (TTR) (more repetition) = the relationship between the number of different word forms, or types, and the number of running words, or tokens.: TTR = (types / tokens) x 100. - Simplest and more frequent Verbs: give, think, be… How do we introduce topics in a conversation? you signal the beginning of the topic and the end of the topic, there are these transaction markers indicating. To indicate that we can use lexical items for instance if we are talking about a topic and you want to change it you can say “by the way” indicating you want to change the topic (lexical items). Also use phonological aspects. You have to signal somehow to the other person that the new topic is coming up. Although there are different topics , we tend to repeat ourselves a lot. We engage in conversations to socialize, not because we want to say something different, so when we look up at conversation what they have realized is that we tend to repeat either partially or exactly what has been said for instance let’s go to the cinema, yeah lets go to the cinema. The other person is repeating exactly the same thing. You can be enthusiastic about that, if you say simply yes it could sound strange, you want to show that you are enthusiastic and close to that person. 97 Chili→ she is not saying anything new, she is repeating the same words. Sometimes you repeat what the other person has said because you want to avoid the silence, it’s cold today, yeah it's cold. Sometimes, however, it can be misused, to pretend that they are listening but you are not really listening. Apart from these repetition motivated from different reasons, conversation can become repetitive, we tend to use the same expressions over and over → prefabricated sequences. The tendency to use the same kind of structures. When we look at conversations, we see that there is a low type of token ratio. Tokens =total number of words. With this formula we see that we repeat ourselves a lot. We have the tendency to use the same kind of verbs (give, think, be…). 5.6 Repairs Conversation is typically spontaneous. - Speakers are faced with the need both to plan and execute their utterances in real time ‘online’. >>> We talk about normal disfluency when the speaker’s flow is impaired by: - pauses, hesitations (er, um), and repetitions (I-I-I…) at points where the need to keep talking threatens to run ahead of mental planning. The need to keep talking threatens to run ahead of mental planning. Disfluency is a pervasive feature of ordinary speech. Process of conversation - involves monitoring to correct unsuccessful attempts: The process of conversation involves monitoring to ensure that intended messages have been communicated and understood. This involves the correction of unsuccessful attempts where necessary. Repair refers to efforts made by the speaker or the hearer to correct trouble spots in conversation (Schegloff, Jefferson and Sacks, 1977). Repairs may be initiated by either the speaker or the hearer: A) Speaker-initiated repairs are termed self-repairs: - Is a dollar all right or will I need more than that for the p…to cover the postage? Retrace-and-repair sequences (false stars): the speaker retraces what has just been said, and starts again, this time with a different word or sequence of words: 1. So before we issue- before we hand over the B one what do we do? 2. Dad, i don’t think you shdad, i don’t think you sh- Chris home on saturday., i think you should leave , i think you should leave B) Other-initiated repairs are carried out by the hearer: 1) A: She married that guy from Australia…. what was his name?... Wilson… Williams B: Don Wilson A: Yeah, Don Wilson. 98 B has provided the answer because the person does not remember the name. 2) A: Iplayed, I played against erm… B: Southend. In conversation between L2 learners and L1 speakers, there may be requests for other repairs when the non fluent language user signals that s/he hasn’t understood something. L2 contexts: may request for other repairs: Echoing = the speaker repeats a word or phrase which is not understood and the conversational partner explains it or replaces it with an easier item: A:We’re going mountaineering tomorrow. B: Mountain…ee…? A: Mountaineering. You know, to climb up the mountain. Echoing → strategy included in repairs is the one called echoing, you repeat a word because you do not understand it and you want the other person to explain it to you or perhaps to use another word. He is offering an explanation for the word. The concept of repair in L2 communication can be extended to include communication strategies (strategies that non native speakers use in second languages) Self initiated repairs and request for assistance → when TL vocabulary is lacking These include: a) Approximation. Lacking a word in the TL. The speaker may choose an approximate word (a synonym). Eg: shop’ instead of ‘department store’. Used to use a synonym, if I don't know the word, you instead use a synonym. b) Word coinage. A word is made up in an attempt to fill out a gap in knowledge of a target language item. Example: Helsinki produces a lot of ice crushing ships (ice breaker). c) Circumlocution. A paraphrase or description of a word may be used when a word is unknown. E.g. Does the place have… a place for books? (bookshelf) d) Borrowing. A word from L1 is used when the TL word cannot be remembered. A: I felt very … “malu”…you know? B: You felt very shy? A: Yes, shy. e) Mime. The speaker may act out a word. A: Then the plane… (mimes a plane taking off). B: It took off? f) Topic shift. The speaker changes the topic due to lack of vocabulary to discuss it. 99 g) Topic avoidance. The speaker avoids introducing certain topics because of lack of sufficient vocabulary to discuss them. We plan, we have our idea of what we are going to say, and we have to talk at the same time, so sometimes we make mistakes because you have to talk and think at the same time. Normal disfluency (thinking and talking at the same time) → is something very common, this is that there might be trouble spots in the conversation, mistakes that you make, so your flow is impaired, you see that there is a problem there, there can be pauses, hesitations, repetitions I-I-I went.. you need to think, you need more time. You are talking but faster than you think, so the other has to catch up. There is a lot of research about dysfluency, in case of dysfluency you can also help the other person correct these troubles. Of course once you make a mistake, you want to correct it (REPAIR) you want to repair the trouble spots on conversations forecample I go… I went. You can correct the utterance yourself (speaker initiates repair or self repair). One king od self repair is what's called retrace and repair sequences → you say something, you realize that it doesn't sound right so you rephrase it and start again with different words. 5.7. Interactional and transactional talk When we talk about transnational the goal is very clear, or want to carry out the transaction. But most of the time we engage in conversation for other reasons, that is why conversations are very repetitive because we do not have a clear goal. Even in transaction exchanges we include interactional talk. A distinction is often made between transactional and interactional talk: - Transactional talk = is for getting business done in the world: to effect the purchase of something, to get someone to do something… - Interactional talk = lubrication of the social wheels, confirming and consolidating relationships, expressing solidarity… (chatting, enjoying social drinks, etc…). Talk is rarely one thing or the other. Natural data show that even in the most strictly ‘transactional’ of settings, people engage in interactional talk. UNIT 5 COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE Linked to conversation, all of use adhere to the cooperative principle, without cooperation it would be impossible to maintain a conversation. 100  1. The cooperative principle Shared assumptions and expectations about: - what conversation is - how conversation develops - sort of contribution to make. Each other’s utterances - interpreted as contributing to conversation We sometimes have problems in keeping a conversation but at least we have certain rules we all obey. We know that we have to respect each other's turns, to pay attention, to raise our hands… We have certain kinds of expectations. In conversations, what the other people say will be seen as a contribution to the conversation. Is this a conversation? 3) A: Where did you buy that shirt? B: And he shouldn’t say it anyway because that’s what he does. Exchange: uninterpretable Assumption: If I ask a question: whatever you say will be interpreted as an answer to my question. We try to establish links to make the other person follow you. The exchange is unpredictable. I need to establish links between what I say and the response, if I can not find cohenrec in the response, it will be uniterepterable. If I can not establish the relationship between what I ask and the response I get, this will be interpretable. 4) A: How much did you pay for that blouse? B: Do you like it? I got it at Metro. She is not really responding to the question, she is not responding directly but we still understand this as cooperating. We have to draw inferences, she is not giving the price maybe because she does not want to. So you infer, but still it is coherent because you can interpret this. Here we can infer the meaning unlike the other one. You are not responding directly to the price but still you can interpret this. If he or she doesn't get the answer directly we have to look for one. Exchange: coherent Avoidance of requested answer= “I don't want to tell you” 5) A: Smith doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend these days. B: He has been paying a lot of visits to New York lately. Here we have to infer as well, probably he has a girlfriend in New York. Not cohesive in form. Superficially are not connected but to make sense to it we need background knowledge, rely on contextual factors and background knowledge. This is based on my expectations of how the world 101 operates. I have to infer the intended meaning. I have to relate what the other person has said to my initial statement. I take for granted that the answer I get is contributing to what I have saud. If the links are not clear I have to establish them. I have to relate these two clauses because the other person is contributing. Since the connection is not very clear we have to rely on your background knowledge to understand it. We act under the presumption of cooperation. B is trying to be cooperative so I have to link the question to the answer. UNIT 8. PRAGMATICS ACROSS CULTURES 1. Understanding culture Human verbal communication: A continuum between 2 ends: Intracultural Intercultural Intracultural = Interactions between members of an L1 speech community_ COMMON GROUND (shared knowledge). Intercultural = Speakers who have different L1s. _ Lack of COMMON GROUND: limited access to TL conventions. Speakers cannot rely on TL prefabricated language 2. Intercultural pragmatics Intercultural pragmatics _ pragmatic differences between different languages. Intercultural communication: fast-paced developments in telecommunication and transportation technology Growing interest in increasing intercultural awareness so as to enhance intercultural competence. Communication between people of different cultural backgrounds may require added or different communication skills and competencies. Assumption: Differences in norms, values and beliefs between participants of different cultural backgrounds may affect communication in a negative way. Using a particular language and belonging to a particular speech community is linked to: “preferred ways of saying things and preferred ways of organizing thoughts” (Kecskes, 2007). Reliance on use of pre-fabricated language and formulaic and figurative language_ Cultural membership. Problematic inferences_ not sharing the speaker’s cultural membership. Different pragmatic norms can lead to cultural misrepresentations, stereotyping and misunderstandings Clash of 2 cultures (L1 and TL): - Total acceptance or assimilation: SS freely accept the new frames of reference (media, TV, films, music, etc.) - Complete rejection: SS develop some stereotypes. It provokes rejection. Pragmatic failure: Pragmatic norms of the TL and culture_ may be transferred onto another. E.g. Could I have a cup of tea? vs. I want a cup of tea. Differences occur in social situations: common speech acts (apologising, refusing, suggesting, expressing gratitude…) E.g. ‘Thanking’ in BrE vs. other languages. 102 Norms_ not universally applicable to all languages: - Western culture_ Self: Individualistic notion. Acceptable: be openly critical, confrontational, etc. - -Eastern culture_ Self: Collectivistic notion. Acceptable: Modesty, humility, formality and avoidance of strong feelings. E.g. Use of ‘I’m sorry’ between NS of English and Japanese English speakers_ can produce culture misunderstandings. 2.1. Cross-cultural pragmatics (subdiscipline of intercultural pragmatics): compares the way in which different languages are used in communication. It also deals with nativenon-native speaker interaction and with communication in English as a lingua franca. There are numerous examples of difficulties related to sociopragmatic competence. The study of contrastive and interlanguage pragmatics in SLA: - Existence of a universal pragmatic knowledge in the realisation of speech acts. E.g. Use of the same basic strategies to make requests Example: ▪ Direct: Please open the window; ▪ Conventionally indirect: Can you open the window?; ▪ Nonconventional indirect or hints: It is cold, isn’t it? - BUT different interactional styles and important cross-linguistic differences in the selection and realization of speech acts. (German vs. British). Learning speech acts in an L2: Learning the new linguistic elements + new social attitudes to know how these linguistic elements are used. Bidirectional relationship between the two languages: The influence of the L1 on the L2 and the influence of the L2 on areas of the L1 = ‘reverse’ or ‘backward’ transfer’. - ‘The intercultural style hypothesis’ (Blum-Kulka, 1991): The development of an intercultural pattern_ which reflects bi-directional interaction between the languages. It is the result of the contact of individuals with other languages (individual phenomenon). E.g.: Convergence in trilingual speakers_ tend to make their languages more similar. EFL Communication: A lack of common experiences, assumptions may contribute to a greater incidence of misunderstanding and miscommunication in intercultural communication. However, ELF communication is characterized by cooperation. Success approach: ELF participants can successfully accomplish their communicative tasks. Participants in EFL communication tend to be less focussed on cultural differences (“the Cultural Irrelevance Hypothesis”, House 1999) in order to achieve mutual understanding in the lingua franca: ‘Let it pass principle’_ everything is acceptable unless it hinders successful communication. 103