Conversation Analysis

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The conversation analysis , even ethnomethodological conversation analysis is a field of research that deals with the analysis of natural data of conversations and interactions involved. In German-speaking countries, their reception has contributed to various forms of linguistic conversation analysis. In terms of epistemology, it has an independent point of view in that it has consistently developed low-prerequisite techniques. Conversational analysis is related to other ethnomethodologically oriented methods such as membership categorization analysis and the analysis of media dialog networks , with which it is often used in combination.

Representative

Prominent representatives of conversation analysis are initially its founders Harvey Sacks , Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson ; in English-speaking countries, Charles Goodwin , John Heritage , Anita Pomerantz or Christian Heath may also be included. In the German-speaking area, Peter Auer , Jörg Bergmann and Lorenza Mondada should be mentioned, as well as Werner Kallmeyer and Fritz Schütze , who made conversation analysis known in the German-speaking area.

Origin and development

Conversational analysis emerged in the 1960s in the context of ethnomethodological sociology in the USA . The two first and discipline-defining representatives, Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff , were both students of Harold Garfinkel , the founder of ethnomethodology . Together with Gail Jefferson , who joined later, they are among the founders of the research direction, which can be regarded as "redeeming the ethnomethodological research program on the subject of linguistic interaction".

The original interest of conversation analysis was the analysis of everyday conversations (English conversation in the sense of an everyday conversation). Basic research practice principles of conversational analysis include first transcribing recorded data and then analyzing the transcripts. In this respect, the approximately simultaneous technological development of portable tape recorders came in handy for the development of the discipline. Since the 1980s, the discipline has experienced an expansion of research interest in the context of so-called workplace studies from everyday to institutional and professional conversational situations.

Around the same time the analysis was subject of language, which was recorded by audio recorder, on language in interaction ( talk in interaction expanded), which is sometimes due to the new technical possibilities of audio-visual recordings via VCR. Charles Goodwin's work played a pioneering role in this context.

Reception and developments in the German-speaking area

The reception in German-speaking linguistics took place in the second half of the 1970s; The essay by Kallmeyer and Schütze in 1976 may be considered their starting point. In linguistics, the reception of conversation analysis contributed significantly to the development of numerous approaches to research into spoken language.

Since the 1990s, sociolinguistic researchers have developed a “multimodal interaction analysis” based on a conversation-analytic mentality and principles of conversation-analytics, which deals not only with the linguistic aspects of interaction but also with its multimodal constitution. Reinhold Schmitt , Lorenza Mondada and Heiko Hausendorf are prominent representatives of these research areas . A research direction that focuses more on the linguistic aspects of interaction is "interactional linguistics" as proposed by Margret Selting and Elisabeth Couper-Kuhlen .

The research direction, which originally came from sociology, was also taken up in German-speaking sociology. Here Jörg Bergmann can be seen as an early and prominent representative. In addition, conversation analysis is used in the field of qualitative psychoanalysis, whereby Jürgen Streeck can be regarded as an early representative.

Subject area

In the conversation analysis, everyday conversations are examined with regard to rules and procedures with which the communication partners shape their interaction in practice. Discussions at work or in crisis situations are also examined. The "how" of the local behavior is always in the foreground: how did the participants do it? Then what exactly happened? The conversations to be examined are transcribed in great detail and examined particularly with regard to their sequential character, i.e. as successive utterances. Temporal overlaps, the interactive negotiation of speaking rights and micro-communicative units (delays, particles like uh or yeah ) are also in close interest.

Research practice

Conversational analysis has two basic requirements for empirical work. Firstly, this means that the data come from so-called 'natural' interaction situations, i.e. that they are not used for research purposes, e.g. B. in experiments, elicited. Second, the data must be transcribed as precisely as necessary for analysis. Various transcription systems are used in German-speaking countries, in particular HIAT , GAT and GAT2 ; but Jefferson's conventions are also used. For the transcription of audiovisual data there is now specially developed software such as ELAN, EXMARaLDA or FOLKER.

Basic principles of organization of conversations

Change of speakers

The turn taking can be described as a simple system of the conversation. The mechanism consists of the construction of a speech ( turn ) and the distribution of the right to speak.

Turns are made interactively in conversation. At the end of a turn there is the transition relevance place (TRP), where a change of speaker is possible. In contrast to everyday conversations, conversations in institutional contexts can have a clearly defined speaker assignment (e.g. in school).

Pair sequences

As a temporal structure, i.e. H. the ordered temporal sequence of utterances, sequentiality is a fundamental ordering principle of every interaction. Sequentiality is revealed through the analytical questions what's next? and why that now ?.

Pair sequences ( adjacency pairs ) are the basic type of all pairs of utterances and were first described by Sacks and Schegloff. They consist of two turns that usually follow one another and are expressed by different participants. They have a pragmatic relationship with one another. Prototypical examples of pair sequences are question / answer or greeting / counter-greeting.

Even complex conversation sequences can structurally be traced back to a basic pair sequence that has been expanded at different points (sequence expansion). Pair sequences can be expanded before ( pre-expansion ), after ( post-expansion ) or between ( insert-expansion ) the two basic components. Insertion sequences represent a resource to react to the conditional relevance of the first pair sequence part and to postpone the expected second part. Pre-sequences expand pair sequences beforehand, usually in order to prospectively avoid the production of a dispreferred second part. In this way it can be clarified whether the conditions for a preferred answer are met. In addition, so-called PrePre ( preliminaries to preliminaries ) can occur, which precede the pre-sequences and usually have the form of metadiscursive utterances and announce subsequent actions.

Local coherence

The principle of local coherence states “that utterances usually relate to what immediately precedes them in the conversation”. Where this principle does not apply, there are procedures to mark sequential discontinuity. The connection between statements is both prospective (builds expectations for the next turn) and retrospective (follows on from the previous turn). That is, with the connection the participants show the one hand on how they have understood the previous turn, on the other hand they build their utterances normative requirements for adequate connections as "conditional relevance" ( conditional relevance ) or sequential implications ( sequential implicativeness ) are designated.

Preference structures

The concept of preference is used in conversation analysis to describe possible options in the case of alternative possibilities in the second part of the pair sequence. Preference is to be understood structurally (and not normatively) and refers to the observable communicative behavior. The preferred form is then the one that is unmarked, i.e. H. which immediately follows; the dispreferred form is marked on the other hand, which z. B. manifested in the use of delay elements. Through the design, the participants present an answer as preferred or dispreferred, using the preference structure as a resource for a communicative task.

Repairs

Repairs are considered a characteristic phenomenon of spontaneously spoken language. According to the analysis mentality of conversation analysis, only that which is treated as worthy of repair by the participants is to be regarded as repair. Basically, conversations show the preference to repair a fault as quickly as possible. This can happen in the same cycle, in the following cycle or in the next but one.

From the point of view of conversation analysis, it is not the individual slip of the tongue that is of interest, but the entire repair sequence: It consists of the elements disruption, identification of the disruption, repair, and ratification of the repair. Constituent elements are the (1) trouble source , the subsequent (2) initiation of the repair, with which the trouble source is retrospectively defined as such, the subsequent (3) implementation of the repair and the final (4) ratification and evaluation the repair. A repair can be done in four possible ways: Depending on who started the repair, i. H. is initiated, and whoever carries it out comes to

  • self- initiated self- repair,
  • externally initiated self- repair,
  • self- initiated external repair or
  • foreign- initiated foreign repair.

See also

literature

Basic texts

  • Sacks, Harvey, E. Schegloff, and G. Jefferson: “A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation”, in: Language. 50 (4), 1974, pp. 696-735.
  • Sacks, Harvey: On doing "being ordinary" . In: John Atkinson and John Heritage (eds.): Structures of social action. Studies in conversational analysis. (= Studies in emotion and social interaction) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK 1984, pp. 413-440.

Manuals / dictionaries

  • Sidnell, Jack / Stivers, Tanya (eds.): The handbook of conversation analysis . Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2013. (Blackwell handbooks in linguistics) ISBN 978-1-118-32500-1 .

Manual article

  • Kallmeyer, Werner: Conversational analytical description . In: Ammon, Ulrich et al. (Ed.), Sociolinguistics Vol.II . de Gruyter, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-11-011645-6 , pp. 1095-1108
  • Jörg Bergmann: Ethnomethodological conversation analysis . In: Gerd Fritz and Franz Hundsnurscher (eds.): Handbook of dialogue analysis . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1994, pp. 3-16.
  • Thomas Samuel Eberle: Ethnomethodological conversation analysis. In: Ronald Hitzler and Anne Honer (eds.). Social science hermeneutics. An introduction. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-8100-1455-9 ( Uni-Taschenbücher. Sozialwissenschaften . 1885), pp. 245-279.
  • Jörg Bergmann: The concept of conversation analysis. In: Klaus Brinker et al. (Ed.). Text and conversation linguistics. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. 2nd half volume: Conversation Linguistics / Linguistics of Text and Conversation. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Volume 2: Conversation Linguistics. ( Handbooks for linguistics and communication studies . 16). De Gruyter, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-11-016918-8 , pp. 919-927.
  • Thomas Samuel Eberle: Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis. In: Rainer Schützeichel (Ed.). Handbook of the Sociology of Knowledge and Knowledge Research. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, Konstanz 2007, ISBN 3-89669-551-7 ( Experience, Knowledge, Imagination . 15), pp. 139–160.

Introductions / overview presentations

  • Kallmeyer W./Schütze F. 1976. "Konversationsanalyse", in: Studying Linguistics. 1, pp. 1-28.
  • Atkinson, J. Maxwell, and John Heritage: Structures of Social Action. Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / UK 1984, ISBN 0-521-31862-9 .
  • Bergmann, Jörg: Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis. Course units 1-3 at the Fernuniversität Hagen . Open University, Hagen 1988.
  • Deppermann, Arnulf: Analyze conversations . Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 3. Opladen 2001.
  • Have, Paul ten: Doing conversation analysis. 2. revised Edition. SAGE, London 2007.
  • Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: conversation analysis. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 .
  • Hutchby, Ian / Wooffitt, Robin: Conversation analysis. 2nd Edition. Polity Press, Cambridge 2009.

Thematic individual presentations

  • Auer, Peter. 1993. "About ↶", in: Journal for Literary Studies and Linguistics. 90/91, special issue Material Conditions of Linguistics, pp. 104–138.
  • Levinson, Stephen C. 2001. “Conversational Structure”, in: Pragmatik. 3rd edition, newly translated by Martina Wiese, Tübingen, pp. 309–404.
  • Böhringer, Daniela / Karl, Ute / Müller, Hermann / Schröer, Wolfgang / Wolff, Stephan: Keeping the case workable. Conversations with young people. Reconstructive Research in Social Work, Vol. 13. Opladen 2012, ISBN 978-3-86649-451-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas S. Eberle: Ethnomethodological conversation analysis . In: Ronald Hitzler and Anne Honer (eds.). Social science hermeneutics. An introduction. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-8100-1455-9 (Uni-Taschenbücher. Sozialwissenschaften. 1885), p. 250.
  2. ↑ Kallmeyer W./Schütze F. 1976. "Konversationsanalyse", in: Studium Linguistik. 1, pp. 1-28.
  3. ↑ See e.g. B. Reinhold Schmitt: Video recordings as a basis for interaction analyzes. In: German language. No. 1 + 2 2006, pp. 18-31.
  4. ↑ Margret Selting and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen: Arguments for the development of an 'interactional linguistics'. In: Conversation Research - Online Journal for Verbal Interaction. 1 2000, pp. 76-95 ( online ).
  5. ^ Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , pp. 27-29.
  6. ↑ Schegloff, Emanuel A./Sacks, Harvey: Opening Up Closings. In: Semiotica 8, 1973, p. 299.
  7. ↑ Schegloff, Emanuel A./Sacks, Harvey: Opening Up Closings. In: Semiotica 8.1973, pp. 289-327.
  8. ↑ Cf. Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , p. 51.
  9. ↑ cf. Emanuel A. Schegloff: Sequence organization in interaction. A primer in conversation analysis. ISBN 0-521-82572-5 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2007.
  10. ↑ Cf. Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , pp. 53-58.
  11. ^ Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , p. 49.
  12. ↑ Cf. Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , pp. 49-50.
  13. ↑ Cf. Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , pp. 52-54.
  14. ↑ Cf. Gülich, Elisabeth / Mondada, Lorenza: Konversationsanalyse. An introduction using the example of French. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2008 (= Romance workbooks 52). ISBN 978-3-484-54053-8 , pp. 59-65.