Context of Situation We act through language. We do things through language. Through words, we get others to do things for us – language is used to perform function/meaning e.g. to apologize. The meaning that speakers carry is the intention.
BBI3213 SEM 2 (2015/16)
The analysis of utterance production begins with observing a talk in context rather than an isolated sentence.
Participation structure - When people talk, they have a ‘joint’ activity where they alternate and collaborate in talking. BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
CONTEXT (Ervin-Tripp, 1993) – is known before speech occurs, affects what is to be said how it is said how it is understood.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Context (Hassan 1996) The nature of the social process The nature of the relationship The nature of the mode for message transmission. Aspects of the environment.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
CONTEXTUAL FEATURES AFFECTING SPEECH (Ervin-Tripp, 1993) Situation – setting, personnel, activities Participant status Participant’s social relations Shared environment & knowledge
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
SITUATION – Setting
Civil inattention – when other people ignore the speaker Focused interaction – where people cooperate with a common focus of attention e.g. people’s attention is immediately directed towards a person calling for help. Standing behavior patterns – regulated expected actions for a role in a setting e.g. a classroom can be turned into various settings like a party or courtroom, and our talk changes to suit such setting. Conventional situation (norms) – situations with names e.g. seminar, lecture, football match which lead to a planned / formal discourse. Complex. Familiar situation – a situation where participants come to recognize shared goals. E.g. phone conversations.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Activities Determine whether talk is possible or necessary. Establish roles for participants Set up goals in order to maintain relevance. Maybe verbal or non-verbal e.g. chatting / cooking.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Overlapping situations – 2 types of activities occurring with the same people e.g. talking and eating during a meal. Joint activities Contextualization – we look for cues – posture, vocal indicators, topic, register, language .
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
PERSONNEL Status of participant – ethnicity, nationality, social class, education level etc. Social relationships – talking with close friends is different than with strangers. Shared knowledge – talk with friends is more emotive and vivid. talk with strangers more formal and complex.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Participation structure Turn-taking in a conversation - exchanges and sequences in speech by participants (adjacency pairs) - organized timing in conversation, minimal overlap. - clues and cues control turns ď Ž WHAT KIND OF CUES AND CLUES? ď Ž
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Conversation Competence both speakers pay attention to what the other is saying and make appropriate replies. Show common interest, respect, acknowledge.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
DIMENSIONS OF CHOICE IN DISCOURSE (Ervin-Tripp, 1993) Topic Action Social features Key Text Genre
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Topic Topic control in conversation. Topic uptake – is a from of compliance in getting others to support one’s topic. (don’t you agree, don’t you think so) Topics are initiated, ,supported, changed Participants must have a shared belief to achieve mutual comprehension
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Action Conversational engagement expressed through adjacency pairs and exchanges. (how are you? – I’m fine, thank you) Sequences of moves in a dialogue Manage turn by turn. Must cooperate in order to achieve communication goal and negotiate understanding.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Preferred response e.g. saying thank you when receiving compliments Dis-preferred response e.g. making excuses to an invitation (Well…., actually…) Closing e.g. goodbye, farewell, all the best. Pre-sequences – being indirect e.g. Are you busy this Tuesday?
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Social Features
Address terms e.g. nicknames are used if the person is close to you. You don’t address the vice chancellor with a nickname when you talk to him. Politeness – relates to appropriate verbal and non-verbal behavior in certain contexts, e.g. you don’t go to a funeral and chat with your friend about your latest shopping spree.
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Key Tone or mood in order to interpret meaning. e.g. How to know someone is serious or joking? ď Ž
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Text
What we finally hear in the text of the conversation. Register – variety of language used in a certain social context, with different vocabulary and pronunciation. e.g. baby talk is different from a judge’s speech. Code-switching from one language to another according to setting, e.g. BM and English. BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Genre A class of communicative events in the target discipline’s discourse community. e.g. a sermon or prayer in the mosque, church, A lawyer’s courtroom speech,
BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)
Hymes (1974) SPEAKING Model S – Setting / scene P - participants E – ends, goals, purposes A – act sequence, order of discourse K – key, cues in tone, manner or attitude. I - instrumentalities, forms/styles of speech. N – norms, social rules, appropriacy. G – genre, speech act . BBI3213 sEM 2 (2015/16)