话语分析论文

1.

Introduction

Conversation Analysis is an approach to the study of talk-in-interaction that developed as a

field of study in the 1960s. It began in sociology as a reaction to the traditional view of language

as

a

mere

reflection

of

internal

dispositions.

It

was

predicated

on

a

sociocultural

perspective

of

language as social action, which asserted that individual social actors continually produce social

order in the contexts of social action: in interaction with each other, through the use of

various

devices or means, displaying their understanding of what is taking place with their co-interactants.

It is based on naturally occurring communicative activities and data that are collected via audio

and video recordings of interactions, then transcribed and analyzed for particular resources used to

recognize,

produce

and

coordinate

their

locally

situated

actions

with

each

other.

It

takes

a

bottom-up approach: starting with the conversation itself, letting the data dictate its own structure.

CA looks at conversation as a linear ongoing event, which unfolds little by little and implies the

negotiation

of

cooperation

between

speakers

along

the

way,

thus

viewing

conversation

as

a

process. In this article, I mainly use CA type to analyze the material.

2.

Data collected

I transcribed the following conversation from the TV serious

Desperate Housewives

(season7).

Lynette

’

s

close

friend,

Renee

who

she

least

want

to

meet

come

to

visit

her.

Lynette

wanted

to

introduce her to the other beautiful housewives. So the 5 housewives get together. Susan has been

in financial troubles so she designed some jewelry to sell. Before Renee came, Susan began to sell

her jewelry to the other girls.

L: Lynette

S: Susan

B: Bree

G: Gaby

L: Wow, they are all so

…

big

S: Exactly. Thank you

L: You are welcome?

S: Oh, I knew you guys would get it unlike those idiots that walked by my card table in the park.

It

’

s not jewelry. It

’

s wearable art. So, who wants to try these earrings?

(Point it to Bree)

B

: Oh, uh, I’

m not sure that my delicate ears can support something so large. How about Gaby?

She has big, strong, latino ears.

G: (Sigh) ehh, Lynette, where is this friend of yours? We

’

re all dying to meet her. (Put the earring

aside)

S: Come on. I need a volunteer, Lynette?

L: Yes! I guess

S: How

’

s it feel?

L: About as good as it looks,

I’

m guessing

I

’

ll take

’

em.

S:Yes!

L: What are you guys getting?

G: I

’

m gonna buy this

…

for Bree and her strong protestant neck

S: Oh, you guys are the best

L: Oh, hey, here she is

Okay, Susan, Bree, Gaby, this is my old college roommate, Renee

B: Hi, it is so nice to finally meet you. Lynette has talked so much about her friend from college.

R: Oh, yes, you know how in school the pretty girls always hang out together.

Well, I refused to go along with that

(Silence, Smile)

L: Renee comes off a little stuck up when you first meet her which is a real time-saver. Sit down!

S: So Renee you have to tell us what was Lynette like in college?

R:

Uh,

absolutely

fearless.

She

just

kept

wearing

those

parachute

pants,

lesbian

rumors

be

dammed

L: Yes, Renee was always the one with the fashion sense. Before I met her,

I’

d never even heard of

Gucci or Prada or Chlamydia

G: Oh, Wow, you guys play rough

L: No, it

’

s just what we do. It

’

s fun. I tease her about being all botulism from the nose up

…

R: And I tease her about being all cottage cheese from the waist down.

S: (Smile) So Renee, we hear that you

’

re married to Doug Perry

G: The baseball player?

L: No surprise there. In our sorority, Renee was voted most likely to marry well.

R: And Lynette was voted most likely to succeed. (Pat Lynette

’

s arm and said aw)

So Bree, I hear you

’

re an amazing cook.

L: Hang on a second. What was that?

R: What

L: That

“aw”

R: Oh, nothing, I just didn

’

t wanna make you feel bad.

3.

Analysis of Data

L: Wow, they are all so

(pause)

big

S: Exactly. Thank you

L: You are welcome?

(Adjacency pairs)

When

Lynette

tried

to

describe

the

jewelry

that

Susan

made,

she

gave

a

short

pause,

which

reflected her hesitation to tell Susan her true feelings about the earrings. Susan give a response by

using the discourse markers

“

exactly

”

< br>, which indicated that she was too proud of her designing to

recognize

the

true

meaning

of

Lynette

’

s

words.

She

thought

Lynette

was

complimenting

her

earring

so

she

gave

feedback

showing

thanks.

Since

“thank

you

”

and

“

you

are

welcome

”

are

adjacency

pairs,

Lynette

said

so

accordingly

but

used

a

rising

tone

indicating

her

surprise

that

Susan misunderstood her.

S:

…

So, who wants to try these earrings?

Susan gave an invitation and use non-verbal ways, using physical gestures to nominate Bree take

the conversation turn.

B

: Oh, uh, I’

m not sure that my delicate ears can support something so large. How about Gaby?

Bree

used

“

oh

”

to

delay

the

acceptance

of

the

invitation,

showing

her

hesitate.

Then,

the

discourse marker

“

uh

”

functioned as a softener for the following refusal. Giving the reason

“

I’

m

not sure that my delicate ears can support something so large

”

, she declined the invitation and

nominated others to take the turn as a face-saver saying

“

How about Gaby?

”

G:

(Sigh)

ehh,

Lynette,

where

is

this

friend

of

yours?

We

’

re

all

dying

to

meet

her.

(Put

the

earring aside)

Gaby gave the feedback, using

“

ehh

”

to

delay

t

he acceptance, thus indicating the refusal. Then

she changed to another topic on purpose by initiating a new conversation with Lynette. Then, the