Notes

Outline

Social Science & Conversation Analysis by David Silverman Presentation by: Eddie Galvez <eddie@cs.brandeis.edu>

What are we looking for? Basics of conversational parties: 2 people: Usually follows alternating order 3+ people: Does not involve strict order, instead: Explicit turn passing; explicit/Implicit name calling Visual cues Self-select Suggests semi-structured and organized units…

Some observed properties Grammatical Leeway: Talk need not be grammatical sentences ; of any size Utterances: Conversational equivalent of a sentence Terminates with utterance completer Social Objects: From apparently meaningless (hm?) to obvious (hello!)

“Grossly Apparent” features: One at a time Speaker change recurs Two adjacent utterances can be paired “Apropriateness” in placement Chaining can occur Claim: holds across types of conversation

One-at-a-time Monitoring for moment to talk… Obvious markers (greetings) Pauses Overlap’s are resolved First speaker allowed Personal addition: or loudest allowed

Speaker Change: Coordination Explicit Turn-Taking conversations: Class room Naming Action selection Q à A Self selection

Pairing Greetings Question/Answer Summon/Response Strong part of conversation! Cell phone rings anytime, we pick up! Children (even adults) You know what? What? [Original content here] Pairing property can be signal: What are you doing tonight? [Invitation will follow]

Appropriate placement Placement is as important as utterance Hello not always a greeting Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Can affect entire activity Claps following a talk Jokes one after another…

Chaining Example: Using a question/answer to “pick-up” a conversation You know what would look good in those pants? Hmmm… Me. (And on goes the conversation) Common in Professional-client Doctor-patient …

Telephone Conversations Clean analysis Nothing but audio Who speaks first? When Answerer != Called? Who provides first topic? How is call closed?

Who speaks first? Almost always answerer Lack of Answerer-speaks-first à confusion Telephone ring is like a summon Places answerer in Summon-Answer pair

When Answerer != Called? After “voice-recognition” (who answered?) might ask for intended recipient Affects Greeting-Pair unit In fact, answerer’s “hello” is answer to ring, not always greeting

Who provides first topic? Usually caller gives topic Even though answerer talked “first” (again, greeting vs answer) Exceptions: Hi! Actually I’ve tried calling you about…

How is call closed? “Goodbye” Terminates the closing Invitations to closure: Well… Okay… in downward intonation Usually only caller should invite closure Called can “provide the reason” beforehand What am I doing? Just watching TV… […] Ok Bob, I’ll let you watch TV now…

Storytelling

Storytelling: Not just uni-talk Previously mentioned features still present Listeners should provide minimal response Aha… mm… In fact, above indicates turn passing

Retaining the floor Starts usually with the child-trick: Wanna know what I did last night? Sets up requirement to tell a story, regardless of answer: Big deal, you always do the same No seriously! It was great! … Stories may extend Teller desires listening, not waiting for turn Teller can help listener to maintain attention Provide clues of purpose of story: Something terrible happened last night…

Tying Mechanisms Story to Second Story Listener’s Story Similar to turn-taking by self-selection Connection is usually established …you can’t but show that in fact you did understand…

Response Tokens …aha, uh huh, mm… Serve to: Pass turn Show understanding and listening Can be ambiguous The way laughter or “Holy smokes!” are not

Heckling That a listener can break your storytelling Let me tell you what I did last night! Boring… Anti-heckling devices exist: What I did last night was crazy! Oooh, what did you do?

Finding commonalities

Implications of studies Constant mutual monitoring of turns/role Who’s telling? Is this QA? SA? Utterances: not just expression of thought Aha, uh huh

3-Part Turn Recall Joint Activies (Clark): Synchrony on: Entry, Body, Exit Turn taking: Relation to previous turn eg. Self-selection of turn Accomplishment of one’s turn e.g Question Relation to next turn e.g Answer expected

What Turn-Taking requires Listening Motivation to listen for proper turn-taking Understanding Allows clearing ambiguity How are you? said first is commonly a greeting Display of understanding Taking a turn shows understanding of social needs within a conversation

Other features Repair Built-in to turn-taking to resolve: Misunderstanding what? Turn-taking conflicts Starting again if someone interrupted your turn Preference Organization Possibility of first-turn leading second turn You didn’t really do that did you?

What to take of this Conversation is not solely as inner thoughts being communicated An economy of conversation: Not simply outpouring of individual ideas Distribution; to keep turn, must have value Turn-taking sees no culture

The Drive for Analysis… Omnipresence and ready observability need not imply banality. (…) We need to see that with some such mundane occurrences we are picking up things so overwhelmingly true that if we are to understand [it] … , we will have to come to terms with [it].

The End

I knew it! You’re clapping. You are just completing the pair…