Week 3 - Conversation Tuesday, January 21, 2020 10:02 AM Conversation - Talk in context. Context matters - Participation structure. Example, lectures are one sided conversations. - Activities. We converse about things while we do things. Activity can influence the conversation. - Participation - number, familiarity, gender. - Digital conversations - hold different parameters Can you study natural conversations? - Conversations have different constraints based on the context. - Studies where homes are recorded might influence the way the subjects talk, may mo their behaviour because they know they are under surveillance Where do we get conversational data? - Large number of studies get pairings of friends or strangers to discuss open or structu topics while being recorded. - Using recorded conversations from other things such as reality shows, phone in show switchboard recordings. - Task based conversations: map task (2 people have maps. One person has the route a has to guide the other person through the route). Diapix Task. The Structure of Conversation - Structure differs by culture. - Includes: ? Opening ? Closing · Turn taking ? Topic control - Adjacency pairs ? Pairs of utterances that usually occur together Question/answer · Greeting/greeting " Information/acknowledgment o As a part of conversational structure, these have strong expectations. ? Breaking adjacency pairs can be humourous, but also have big conversational
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impact. - Stereotyped utterances ? Some utterances do not have strong conversational expectancies. Sometimes they are things that must be said and the response isn't something you really care abou Not really a conversational opening. - Opening Conversations ? Summons/answer sequence ? Summoner then indicates topic. - Closing conversations o People have to agree to close and then actually end the conversation o Preclosing statement 'weelllll', 'soooooo' Other person can bring up a new topic or close the conversation Breaking off a conversation takes agreement. ? Closing in our culture can have a back and forth. See you later. See you. Bye. Bye. a new topic is to be brought up during this exchange it must be marked: 'wait I forgot!' - Taking turns o 3 implicit rules from Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson " Current speaker is allowed to select next speaker If #1 is not used someone can speak up · The current speaker can continue but is not obligated to. Turn taking exchange time studied in multiple different languages. It is pretty peal around the 0 seconds. The turn taking gap is usually around a couple hundred milliseconds consistently with all languages. Because it is close to 0, people are planning what they are gonna say before the current speaker is finished talking. W are planning and understanding at the same time. Turn Yielding signals - let us know the cuirrent speaker is nearing the end of their turn · Drop in pitch Drawl on final syllable (or stress) Termination of hand gestures · Stereotyped expressions (you know?) · Drop in loudness · Completion of a clause ? Attempt suppressing signals . Filled pause (vs. silent