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Unit 2: Conversational Analysis Contents 0.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 What
is Conversational Analysis 3.1 Turn Taking and Turn Allocation
3.2 Insertion Sequences
3.3
Self-assessment Exercises 3.4 Adjacency Pairs
3.5 Error and Repair Mechanisms
3.6
Simultaneous speeches 4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0
Tutor-marked Assignment 7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION In
this Unit, we shall be examining another approach to Discourse Analysis – Conversational Analysis. This approach is concerned with the study of talk in interaction. We shall be examining such topics as how people allocate and take turns in conversation (the mechanisms used. This shows that people do not just talk anyhow in conversation. They are guided by some specific rule. We shall also look at the concepts of insertion sequences and adjacency pairs. This will show us how conversations are ordered. There are appropriate responses to specific expressions and when these responses do not come, then it is either the person responding did not understand the question or he/she is deliberate in giving such response. This will then lead us to how we repair errors in discourse. How simultaneous speech is managed, to the extent that it does not degenerate into confusion.
2.0 UNIT OBJECTIVES At the end of this Unit, you should be able to do the following
• define all the terms used
in conversational analysis • identify how conversationalists allocate and take turns in discourse
• explain the terms insertion sequence and adjacency pairs
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• explain how errors
are repaired in conversation • describe how simultaneous speech occurs and how it is managed
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