Quant: Lecture 16

Question 1

What is the simplest sequences of sequential analysis?

Answer 1

An adjacency pair, two turns, the first turn ensures the next turn is relevant. There can be text in between the pairs and they are usually greetings, requesting information, complying to requests, summoning a response, accepting a statement etc. They’re always sequentially linked. They consist of a first pair part (FPP) and an SPP. This follows the first rule of a TCU. There are other types of sequences! The response isn’t restricted but it can be constrained by the FPP. A silence after an FPP is noticeable.

Question 2

What is the purpose of a sequence in conversation?

Answer 2

It’s usually to get an action accomplished but people have preferences about whether to complete the action or not, aka preferred responses vs dispreferred responses.

Question 3

What are the three characteristics of a preferred SPP?

Answer 3

The first TCU completes the action, the response is minimal and it occurs with minimum delay

Question 4

What are the three characteristics of a dispreferred SPP?

There are 2 characteristics and then an alternate one

Answer 4

There can be a delay after the FPP, the response to the action proposition is pushed as far as possible down the turn.
The alternative is that the response to the action is eliminated althogether.
If there is a pause, the first speaker often rephrases the question with opposite polarity.

Question 5

Who carries the preference in a sequence interaction?

Is it a property of the individual or the interaction?

Answer 5

FPP, they have a preference structure that might be different to the individual’s preference, it reflects what the speakers counts as the most likely response.
Interaction

Question 6

Do the participants in a conversation collaborate to increase the amount of dispreferred responses?

Answer 6

No they try and minimise it, e.g. changing the polarity of a question

Question 7

Describe assessments in terms of conversation analysis

List something that is pervasive in the production of assessments

Answer 7

They evaluate an object or event and they display someone’s experience and affective involvement with it. They provide resources for co-experience because if you can share a viewpoint on the same topic then you will in a SPP.
Affect displays

Question 8

Why are assessments important?

Are they delicate?

Answer 8

Because they show our opinions on things and our aesthetics, taste, ideologies and morals, which basically forms our personality and identity. This is why assessments are delicate.

Question 9

List 3 characteristics of a preferred SPP assessment

And 2 of a dispreferred one

Answer 9

It’s not what they say but the time and shape of the response. They’re followed directly/ASAP (overlapping) and they’re simple but are upgraded in terms of evaluative words with more intonation. The FPP can be non-lexical and if it’s a self deprecation then the response in down graded or disagreed with.
The response is delayed and the disagreement is pushed to later on in the turn.

Question 10

Are there cultural difference with assessments in CA?

Answer 10

Possibly, for example a response to a self deprecation

Question 11

Can adjacency pairs be expanded?

Answer 11

Yes, adjacency pairs are the basis but they can be elaborated via a sequence expansion

Question 12

What is the purpose of a sequence expansion?

Answer 12

To allow multiple adjacency pairs to be understood as performing the same basic action, the additional elements do the interactional work to connect the basic action under way.

Question 13

What does a pre-sequence do and what is it’s purpose?

Answer 13

It preludes another actions to the participants and there is two ways this can occur: generic pre-sequence; can be used with any form of following talk, type-specific pre-sequences; they lead to a particular kind of base sequence. It allows preference organisation to occur, aka gauging whether the recipient is going to respond with a preferred or dispreffered SPP which allows us to not generate the main FPP. It summons a participant before the FPP to ensure that they have their attention. This can be called the summons-answer sequence.

Question 14

Describe the summons-answer sequence

Answer 14

It’s a type of adjacency pair. The FPP can use an address term, a politeness term (excuse me), an attention getting token (oi) or it can involve touching the participant. It’s used to gain attention from a recipient and an address term specifies which recipient. The SPP then redirects eye gaze to the summoner, they can verbally respond with a token like yes? or they can use another non-verbal cue like body position. This may not lead to further talk.

Question 15

Other than a summons-answer pre-sequence, describe another type-specific pre-sequence

Answer 15

The pre-invitation sequence. They usually involve asking what the recipient is doing or whether they are busy, this question isn’t seeking information, it’s just a precursor to the invitation. If the recipient is doing an activity then it indicates that they are unlikely to accept the invitation. If the invitation is declined then the speaker can respond to the other activity that the recipient is doing, therefore furthering talk. in this case, the participant can then orient the invitation to make it a relevant activity.

Question 16

List types of pre-sequences (excluding summons-answer and pre-invitation) and briefly describe them
Are pre-sequences always followed by an adjacency pair?

Answer 16

Pre-actions: This gauges the likelihood of a request being granted, e.g. do you have sims 4? Yes. Can i borrow it?
Pre-tellings/pre-announcements: This gauges whether the recipient is an appropriate recipient by alerting them that there is some good/bad news (this can be discontinuous from previous talk), giving the recipient some framework for interpretation. This can be specific; did hear about chloe? or generic; guess what!?
Pre-empting telling: Describe the news via a question before hand, did you hear that chloe slept with ryan?
No they aren’t, they can lead to one speaker speaking for a long time.

Question 17

After a pre-sequence, there’s an expansion, describe this

Answer 17

An insert expansion occurs between the adjacency pair/FPP and SPP. It doesn’t cancel the relevance of the upcoming SPP, it interrupts the action under way but it’s still relevant to it, aka a sub-topic within the main action. It allows the main SPP person to do interactional work/gather information about the action. They’re launched by the second speaker producing an FPP that requires an SPP, allowing the main SPP to be completed. They can be used as a repair, aka to repeat or rephrase the original FPP.

Question 18

After the insert expansion and SPP, there’s a post-expansion, describe this

Answer 18

The most common type is a sequence closing third (SCT) which is a response that ends the interaction. Most post-expansions are after dispreferred SPPs because preferred ones don’t require another response (sequence-closure relevant). Dispreferred responses require further talk because because the problems need to be dealt with/explained, so they’re therefore called expansion-relevant turns.

Question 19

Why do we explore sequence expansions?

Answer 19

Because they can tell us context about an action that occurred as a result.

Question 20

What are the main things you can do during CA?

Answer 20

Compare ordinary talk to institutional talk, build a collection of fragments, select examples around a general problem. Extra info: Be replicable, e.g. recordings, detailed transcripts, group data sessions etc. Sometimes there can be deviant cases that don’t conform to the aim so you either need to rethink the aim or treat it as a deviation from the norm.