Week 3: Week 3 Discourse, Phonology and Genres 1: Conversation and Monologue Analysis Prof. Marina Cantarutti


Genre: Genre Type of text Conventions Specific speaker Particular audience Certain style and register Particular phonological choices How do these things change from dialogue to monologue?


Conversation Analysis: Conversation Analysis Sarah: So what’s new? Mark: I was thinking of buying a computer(1) . Sarah: What? New or second-hand? (2) Mark: Well, I'm not really sure. Second-hand, I guess. I haven't got that much money, really. I don't know. Do you know much about computers? What do you reckon?(3) Sarah: Yeah, I used to have a computer, but I sold it. How much are you prepared to spend? Mark: Not too much. I don't know. £500. £600. I've no idea how much they cost. (3) Sarah: Well, it'll have to be second-hand then. You won't get anything for that price new. You should be able to get something decent second-hand for that kind of money, but you need to be careful. There's no point buying something cheap, which is then going to break down every five minutes. (Taken from ELT Advantage Site: Teaching Lexically)


Discoursal Analysis: Discoursal Analysis Setting: unknown: at a café, in the street, telephone conversation? Participants: (notice these roles change throughout the conversation!!) Addresser (at the moment of speaking): Sarah. Asks first. Dominant speaker in that she possesses the knowledge required. Addressee: Mark. A friend of Sarah’s, probably. He goes straight to the point: he needs advice on computers. Exchange: familiar tone. There is a combination of telling (1), asking (2) and matching moves. (3)


Slide5: Communicative purpose: Sarah wants to know how her friend is doing (phatic function). Mark needs to get help (referential – emotive). Sarah asks further (phatic-directive). Mark replies (referential – emotive). This latter pattern is repeated. Sarah suggests a course of action (directive – referential) Transaction: not much is implied, everything is spelled out. The only ideas not explicitly repeated are rephrased (cost-price). The puzzling gap is that of the “What do you reckon?” question and the “I used to have a computer…”. There seems to be a gap of implication not filled there. Interaction: both speakers are solidary towards one another, offering help or the information they need. Cooperative Principle: none of the maxims seems to be flouted significantly. Sarah’s advice at the end is not very specific, she would be unknowingly flouting the maxim of manner. She may also want to exert some influence but hide her lack of knowledge.


Slide6: Channel: oral. No reference to paralinguistic features. Topic: Buying a computer. Code: English language Genre: conversation. Turn-taking is respected.


Phonological Analysis: Phonological Analysis Phonological Analysis (third exchange) (…)Sarah: >YEAH, // I used to vHAVE a computer , // but I ?SOLD it. // How ?much are you prepared to SPEND? / Mark: Not vTOO much.// I don't ?KNOW. // Five >HUNDRED.. // >SIX hundred. // I've no i?DEA how much they cost. (3) or I've no idea how ? MUCH they cost


Slide8: Phonological Analysis (third exchange) (…)Sarah: >YEAH, // I used to vHAVE a computer , // but I ?SOLD it. // Tonicity: nucleus on “have”, rest is recoverable from the context. Nucleus on “sold”, pronoun recoverable. Tone: level tone: allow for thinking time, keep turn. Fall-rise to present info as shared, allow for continuity. Fall: to proclaim new info. Key and Termination: high because of change of speaker. Mid: addition.


Slide9: How ?much are you prepared to spend? Tonicity: the issue is money and the fact that they discuss second-hand paves the way for this question. Tone: find-out question, paraphrased as “I don’t know, please tell me”. Key and termination: high, change of topic, pushing for an answer.


Slide10: Tone meanings Informational meanings Proclaiming falls Fall in question to express a “find-out” meaning. Rise in “know” to imply old information (his lack of knowledge has already been negotiated) Textual meanings Fall-rises for topicalisation and continuity Level tones: allow for thinking time (in some of these cases, rises for continuity are possible) Social meanings Not exploited in this extract significantly . Sarah could use a rise in her question to show solidarity, but that would in a way imply that she just wants to check.


Tips!: Tips! Note that the discoursal choices analysed coincide with the phonological ones. See how phatic questions, for example, are linked to the social meanings of intonation: fall-rises for convergence, solidarity. Falls to express divergence in that the new info will change the hearer’s point of view (in-keeping with the directive and referential functions!). Exchange types coincide with the textual meanings of intonation (organisation of info): falls as closing, as predicates, as rheme. Fall rises as topics, as themes. Rises as continuative. The ideas of transaction, implication, presupposition are telling in terms of discoursal meanings: what’s new? What’s been negotiated? Who’s dominant?