话语分析论文

1.IntroductionConversation Analysis is an approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that developed as a field of study in the 1960s. It began in sociology as a reaction to the traditional view of language as a mere reflection of internal dispositions. It was predicated on a sociocultural perspective of language as social action, which asserted that individual social actors continually produce social order in the contexts of social action: in interaction with each other, through the use of various devices or means, displaying their understanding of what is taking place with their co-interactants. It is based on naturally occurring communicative activities and data that are collected via audio and video recordings of interactions, then transcribed and analyzed for particular resources used to recognize, produce and coordinate their locally situated actions with each other. It takes a bottom-up approach: starting with the conversation itself, letting the data dictate its own structure. CA looks at conversation as a linear ongoing event, which unfolds little by little and implies the negotiation of cooperation between speakers along the way, thus viewing conversation as a process. In this article, I mainly use CA type to analyze the material.2.Data collectedI transcribed the following conversation from the TV serious Desperate Housewives(season7). Lynette’s close friend, Renee who she least want to meet come to visit her. Lynette wanted to introduce her to the other beautiful housewives. So the 5 housewives get together. Susan has been in financial troubles so she designed some jewelry to sell. Before Renee came, Susan began to sell her jewelry to the other girls.L: Lynette S: Susan B: Bree G: GabyL: Wow, they are all so (i)S: Exactly. Thank youL: You are welcome?S: Oh, I knew you guys would get it unlike those idiots that walked by my card table in the park. It’s not jewelry. It’s wearable art. So, who wants to try these earrings?(Point it to Bree)B: Oh, uh, I’m not sure that my delicate ears can support something so large. How about Gaby? She has big, strong, latino ears.G: (Sigh) ehh, Lynette, where is this friend of yours? We’re all dying to meet her. (Put the earring aside)S: Come on. I need a volunteer, Lynette?L: Yes! I guessS: How’s it feel?L: About as good as it looks, I’m guessingI’ll take’em.S:Yes!L: What are you guys getting?G: I’m gonna buy this… for Bree and her strong protestant neckS: Oh, you guys are the bestL: Oh, hey, here she isOkay, Susan, Bree, Gaby, this is my old college roommate, ReneeB: Hi, it is so nice to finally meet you. Lynette has talked so much about her friend from college. R: Oh, yes, you know how in school the pretty girls always hang out together.Well, I refused to go along with that(Silence, Smile)L: Renee comes off a little stuck up when you first meet her which is a real time-saver. Sit down! S: So Renee you have to tell us what was Lynette like in college?R: Uh, absolutely fearless. She just kept wearing those parachute pants, lesbian rumors be dammedL: Yes, Renee was always the one with the fashion sense. Before I met her, I’d never even heard of Gucci or Prada or ChlamydiaG: Oh, Wow, you guys play roughL: No, it’s just what we do. It’s fun. I tease her about being all botulism from the nose up…R: And I tease her about being all cottage cheese from the waist down.S: (Smile) So Renee, we hear that you’re married to Doug PerryG: The baseball player?L: No surprise there. In our sorority, Renee was voted most likely to marry well.R: And Lynette was voted most likely to succeed. (Pat Lynette’s arm and said aw)So Bree, I hear you’re an amazing cook.L: Hang on a second. What was that?R: WhatL: That “aw”R: Oh, nothing, I just didn’t wanna make you feel bad.3.Analysis of DataL: Wow, they are all so (pause) bigS: Exactly. Thank youL: You are welcome?(Adjacency pairs)When Lynette tried to describe the jewelry that Susan made, she gave a short pause, which reflected her hesitation to tell Susan her true feelings about the earrings. Susan give a response by using the discourse markers “exactly”, which indicated that she was too proud of her designing to recognize the true meaning of Lynette’s words. She thought Lynette was complimenting her earring so she gave feedback showing thanks. Since “thank you”and “you are welcome”are adjacency pairs, Lynette said so accordingly but used a rising tone indicating her surprise that Susan misunderstood her.S: …So, who wants to try these earrings?Susan gave an invitation and use non-verbal ways, using physical gestures to nominate Bree take the conversation turn.B: Oh, uh, I’m not sure that my delicate ears can support something so large. How about Gaby? Bree used “oh”to delay the acceptance of the invitation, showing her hesitate. Then, the discourse marker “uh” functioned as a softener for the following refusal. Giving the reason “I’m not sure that my delicate ears can support something so large”, she declined the invitation and nominated others to take the turn as a face-saver saying “How about Gaby?”G: (Sigh) ehh, Lynette, where is this friend of yours? We’re all dying to meet her. (Put the earring aside)Gaby gave the feedback, using “ehh”to delay t he acceptance, thus indicating the refusal. Then she changed to another topic on purpose by initiating a new conversation with Lynette. Then, theconversation turn would shrift to Lynette. But Susan insisted to keep the turn. So she used the utterance incompletor “Come on”to keep the conversation under her theme. She nominated Lynette to take the turn by giving offer “I need a volunteer, Lynette?”Lynette accepted the invitation but add “I guess” to show that she was not willing to do so. These 2 words reflected that unlike selfish Gaby and arrogant Bree, Lynette was very kind-hearted and would like to sacrifice for her friend.S: How’s it feel? (Question）L: About as good as it looks; I’m guessing (Response)I’ll take’em. (Comment)S:Yes!B: Hi, (start, greeting) it is so nice to finally meet you. Lynette has talked so much about her friend from college.R: Oh, yes, you know how in school the pretty girls always hang out together.Well, I refused to go along with thatRenee is a rich woman who like to show off and degrade Lynette, so she add completion to the previous complete utterance to take the turn in order to make fun of Lynette. The discourse marker “well” is a transitional word, indicating she disagreed with previous words. (Silence, Smile)There is a pause after what Renee said. Because hearing such unfriendly words, all the housewives are too shocked to continue the conversation. Then Susan’s smile broke the silence. She laughed in order to ease the embarrassment.L: Renee comes off a little stuck up when you first meet her which is a real time-saver. Sit down!Without nomination, Lynette selected herself to take the turn in order to keep the conversation going.S: So Renee you have to tell us what was Lynette like in college?Susan use the word “so” to start a new topic, avoiding continuing the embarrassing conversation.R: Uh, (hedges) absolutely (Evidentials) fearless. She just kept wearing those parachute pants, lesbian rumors be dammedL: Yes, (discourse markers) Renee was always the one with the fashion sense. Before I met her, I’d never even heard of Gucci or Prada or ChlamydiaLynette selected herself to take the turn because she wanted to fight back after being teased by Renee. Before saying the word “Chlamydia”, she pulled the pronunciation of “or” in order to strengthen and highlight the word “Chlamydia”.S: (Smile) So Renee, we hear that you’re married to Doug PerryLynette and Renee mocked at each other, letting the atmosphere becoming so embarrassed.So Susan laughed again to break the silence and use the word “So” to change the topic.G: The baseball player?Gaby didn’t wait until her turn and she asked a question to take the turn. This showed that she was very gossipy.L: No surprise there. In our sorority, Renee was voted most likely to marry well.Before Renee could answer, Lynette interrupt the conversation and take the turn, continuingmocking at Renee. So Renee fights back immediately.R: And Lynette was voted most likely to succeed. (Pat Lynette’s arm and said aw)So Bree, I hear you’re an amazing cook.In order to show her disappointment about Lynette current life, she used the gesture and a modal particle. Not wanting to hurt her deeply, she changed the topic of the conversation by using the word “So”. She nominated the next speaker Bree to take the turn.L: Hang on a second. What was that? (Question)R: What? (Answer, asking for clarification)L: That “aw”R: Oh, nothing, I just didn’t wanna make you feel bad.The above 4 sentences used the insertion sequence: Q1- Q2-A1-A2.4.ConclusionThis conversation is a high involvement style. The participation is very active, the speaking data is fast with almost no pausing between turns except some embarrassed moments. That showed the personality of the housewives who are noisy, pushy, domineering and sometimes selfish. Generally speaking, only one person speaks at a time during the conversation. There is at least one side speaking each time. When no one speaks, someone begins to remedy the situation. They will add completion to the previous complete utterance to take the turn and use utterance incompletor such as conjunctive advs to hold the turn. Short pauses occurred when the speaker are hesitate to give the immediate answer. Non-verbal ways such as gestures, eye gaze or the intonation of the voice could also contribute to the development of the conversation. The housewives above like to use the word “so” to change the topic and start a new one. The pattern of refusal could be: delay+softener+reason=face-saver. Giving a smile is a good way to break the silence and ease the embarrassment.。