Collaborative construction of turn constructional units in responsive positions of question-answer sequences in Mandarin conversation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zixuan Song ◽  
Stefana Vukadinovich
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Epistemic Access ◽  
Collaborative Construction ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
Mandarin Conversation

Abstract This paper explores the features and interactional functions of collaboratively constructed TCUs (CCTs) in responsive positions of question-answer sequences in Mandarin daily conversations. Adopting the methodologies of Conversation Analysis, Interactional Linguistics and Multimodal Analysis, the study explores the sequential features of the CCTs and bodily-visual resources co-occurring with the CCTs, such as gaze orientations and gestures. Two categories have been identified based on the participants’ roles in the question-answer sequences. First, the answerer initiates the response to the question, and the questioner collaboratively completes the response. The analysis shows that the questioners are not conveying the action of answering the question but assuming the answer to the question. Second, one answerer initiates the response to the question, and another one collaboratively completes the response. The data demonstrates that this type of CCTs usually involves the two question-recipients with more or less equal epistemic access to the referent.

Managing a suspended course of action

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-334
Author(s):  
Xiaoyun Wang
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
Mandarin Conversation

Abstract This study explores interactional functions of the connective suoyi ‘so’ and its particular role in organizing talk and activity in Mandarin conversation. Adopting the methodologies of conversation analysis, multimodal analysis, and interactional linguistics, this study examines 14 hours of naturalistic face-to-face Mandarin conversation. An examination of the data shows that in addition to marking results and conclusions, suoyi is also used to preface an utterance as a tying device to manage suspensions, where progressivity of a course of action is halted. Specifically, suoyi-prefaced utterances can be used to return to a pre-prior course of action at the possible completion of a side sequence or frame. When performing the function of return, suoyi-prefaced utterances facilitate the development of the main course of action. This study contributes to our understanding of the interactional uses of linking adverbials from a cross-linguistic perspective.

Some interactional uses of syntactically incomplete turns in Mandarin conversation

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoting Li
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Mandarin Conversation

In everyday conversation, sometimes a speaker may not complete his/her turn, and the recipients do not treat it as problematic. This paper investigates this type of syntactically incomplete turns (henceforth, SITs) in Mandarin conversation. Specifically, this study examines how SITs are used and constructed through multimodal resources in Mandarin face-to-face conversation. Adopting the methodology of conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, and multimodal analysis, the present study examines 8 hours of everyday Mandarin face-to-face conversation. It shows that the SITs are situated in particular sequential environments and triggered by local contingencies. For example, they are used to accomplish socially and interactionally inappropriate actions and display sensitivity to the recipients’ disengagement from the ongoing talk and the current participation framework. Also, despite the syntactic incompleteness of the SITs, the prosodic and bodily-visual features involved in their production usually indicate possible turn completion.

Restrictiveness, exclusivity, adversativity, and mirativity

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fang Wang ◽  
Mei-Chi Tsai ◽  
Wayne Schams ◽  
Chi-Ming Yang
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
English Only ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Turn Taking

Mandarin Chinese zhishi (similar to English ‘only’), comprised of the adverb zhi and the copula shi, can act as an adverb (ADV) or a discourse marker (DM). This study analyzes the role of zhishi in spoken discourse, based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The corpus used in this study consists of three sets of data: 1) naturally-occurring daily conversations; 2) radio/TV interviews; and 3) TV panel discussions on current political affairs. As a whole, this study reveals that the notions of restrictiveness, exclusivity, and adversativity are closely associated with ADV zhishi and DM zhishi. In addition, the present data show that since zhishi is often used to express a ‘less than expected’ feeling, it can be used to indicate mirativity (i.e. language indicating that an utterance conveys the speaker’s surprise). The data also show that the distribution of zhishi as an adverb or discourse marker depends on turn taking systems and speech situations in spoken discourse. Specifically, the ADV zhishi tends to occur in radio/TV interviews and TV panel news discussions, while the DM zhishi occurs more often in casual conversations.

“So my position is…”

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-582
Author(s):  
Ian Hutchby
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Epistemic Authority ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Political News ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
News Interview

Abstract This article examines the interactional functions of the so-prefaced answer, when used by interviewees in news and other political discussion broadcasts. Using the methods of conversation analysis, based on a data corpus of recent broadcasts from British mainstream television, the analysis shows that the so-preface functions in a cluster of related ways within the question-answer discourse structure of the political news interview. Specifically, it is used to reset or reframe the prior question from a standpoint of epistemic authority, enabling the interviewee to answer on their terms rather than the interviewer’s.

scholarly journals On the role of gaze in the organization of turn-taking and sequence organization in interpreter-mediated dialogue

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Vranjes ◽  
Geert Brône ◽  
Kurt Feyaerts
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Multimodal Approach ◽  
Sequence Organization ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Speaker Selection ◽  
Mobile Eye Tracking

Abstract This paper contributes to the growing line of research that takes a multimodal approach in the study of interpreter-mediated dialogues. Drawing on insights from Conversation Analysis and multimodal analysis, we investigate how extended multi-unit turns unfold with interventions of an interpreter and, more specifically, what is the role of gaze in this process. The analysis is based on videos of interpreter-mediated dialogues (Dutch-Russian) recorded with mobile eye-tracking glasses. We argue that the interpreter’s gaze direction contributes both to the local management of turn-taking (next-speaker selection) and to sequence organization. More specifically, we show how interpreter’s gaze orientation bears on the negotiation of possible transition relevance places and how it contributes to the smooth continuation of the projected extended multi-unit turn.

scholarly journals Small but Multi-functional: Response Tokens in Content Language Integrated Learning Interaction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Sabria Salama Jawhar
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper is an investigation of language use inside a content language integrated learning (CLIL) classroom at Saudi tertiary level. It examines the difference in language use between teachers and students in four subject-specific classrooms in which English is used as a medium of instruction. The study is informed by corpus linguistics (CL) and uses the principles and theoretical underpinning of conversation analysis (CA). It identifies the most frequent linguistic features of CLIL and examines their diverse interactional functions in this context. Amongst the most frequent linguistic features in CLIL are short response tokens such as “yes” and “no”. Using a micro-analytic approach to conversation analysis, a closer look at the data shows the students’ ability to use small and limited linguistic resources to accomplish multiple interactional functions such as taking the floor, taking turns and, most importantly, displaying orientation to knowledge. The data reflected the relationship between frequency and meaning construction. With regard to the difference in language use between teachers and students with regard to comes to short response tokens, the study shows some common interactional uses of response tokens between teachers and students, such as agreement, acknowledgement, response to confirmation checks and yes/no questions. On the other hand, it shows some exclusive interactional use of the same token by teachers and students. Finally, the paper emphasises the relationship of language, interaction and orientation to content knowledge in CLIL classrooms. Pedagogically, the findings have implications for teachers’ language use and for increased classroom interaction.

scholarly journals The grammar of proposals for joint activities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra A Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
Joint Activity ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
Institutional Talk ◽  
The Social ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract The action of proposing has been studied from various perspectives in research on talk-in-interaction, both in mundane as well as in institutional talk. Aiming to exemplify Interactional Linguistics as a drawing together of insights from Linguistics and Conversation Analysis, we explore the grammar of proposals and the stances displayed by participants in making proposals in the context of joint activities, where a future or hypothetical activity is being put forth as something the speaker and recipient(s) might do together. Close examination of interactions among American English-speaking adults reveals four recurrent grammatical formats for issuing proposals: Let’s, Why don’t we, Modal Declaratives, and Modal Interrogatives. We argue that these four formats for doing proposing within a joint activity are used in socially distinct environments, contributing to a growing understanding of the fit between entrenched linguistic patterns and the social work they have evolved to do.

scholarly journals OH + OKAY in informing sequences: On fuzzy boundaries in a particle combination

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 816-836
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
American English ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Third ◽  
Weak Boundaries ◽  
Compound Particle

Abstract This study explores fuzzy boundaries, or weak cesuras, in the particle combination OH + OKAY as used in informing sequences in ordinary English talk-in-interaction. The focus is on the third position in such sequences, where OH + OKAY responds to information that has been solicited by the speaker in a prior turn. Based on a collection of approximately 45 instances of OH + OKAY in recent American English telephone and face-to-face interactions, this study adopts the methodology of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics to examine the prosody and phonetics of OH + OKAY as a feature of turn design. It asks: (i) when does the speaker use a combination of OH and OKAY in the third position rather than a simple OH or OKAY? and (ii) to what extent does the prosodic–phonetic delivery of OH + OKAY contribute to an interpretation of what the turn is doing? The study finds that (i) OH + OKAY is used when responding to a solicited informing that not only supplies information but also accomplishes another action with consequences for the recipient and (ii) if OH + OKAY is delivered with a strong cesura between its parts, its actions are distributed in separate turn-constructional units, creating a multi-unit turn that proposes sequence closure. If the cesura in OH + OKAY is weak, the component parts are fused into a compound particle that can preface more talk by the same speaker. Weak boundaries between OH and OKAY can be exploited by participants for the purposes of turn construction and epistemic positioning.

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