Hi everyone:
I am posting a sample analysis of the Stew Dinner extract for your reference. Note that this is only a partial analysis focusing on turn-taking. I’m answering only the first two questions (a and b). The other two questions concern turn allocation, which we will talk about next week.
(a) They do seem to be taking turns to speak, don’t they? But the way this is done is a little bit complicated – not simple or robotic!
First, Dad asks Cin to “tell [him] about [her] day” (line 1). Cin does not answer immediately (half-second pause in line 2). Dad pursues the response by making his question a little sharper in focus: “Wha’dju (d) learn” (line 4). Another pause (this time one second – line 5). Just as Cin is about to say something (“Uh:m” in line 7), Dad does a ‘sudden realisation’, marked by a loud and long ‘Oh’ (line 6), and then “we went to the-, we went to uh-”. His ‘word search’ ended by Cin’s “Claim Jumper” (line 8). This is received by Dad (line 9). Now, Mom comes in at this point to start a different ‘conversation’ (a brief ‘insertion sequence’ anyway) in line 11. Meanwhile, Cin expands her answer (line 12). But Dad now attends to Mom and responds to her request for the rolls, followed by his own request for butter, which was granted and carried out by Mom (line 15). The slight diversion having been done, Dad now turns back to Cin who repeats and finishes what she was going to say a moment ago – “went to Claim Jumper for a field trip” (line 17), to which Dad responds with enthusiasm: “Yiea:h, etc.”
(b)
Turns with clear beginnings and ends:
Dad (line1)
Dad (line 4)
Mom (line 11)
Dad (line 13)
Dad (line 14)
Mom (line 15)
Cin (line 17)
Dad (line 18)
Complex sequence:
Dad (line 6): Turn with clear beginning but no end (unfinished)
Cin (line 8): Bit of talk which offers a candidate to complete the unfinished turn
Dad (line 9): Bit of talk that ‘re-completes’ the speaker’s unfinished turn
Bits of talk that didn’t materialize into full turns:
Cin (line 2)
Cin (line 7)
Cin (line 12) – a good enough increment to her talk in line 8, but gets masked by Mom’s 11 and ‘sequentially deleted’ by Dad’s response to Mom’s request in line 13.