Getting to know you conversations
This dissertation is about âgetting to know youâ conversation, a form of conversation prevalent in everyday interactions. It has been defined (Garner 2004: 181) as an interaction in which participants, usually of equal social status, make initial contact and establish friendly relations, and in which they are largely concerned with finding neutral topics through which they can establish common groundâshared experiences, opinions, interests, and the like. This doctoral research was based on extensive recordings and transcription of such conversations in English between university students (both native with native and native with non-native speakers), in a relatively naturalistic setting. The analysis was conducted in two steps. The first step was to identify and describe the recurrent patterns of the data, through well-established methods of Conversation Analysis. The second was to classify identified structures within a pragmatic framework: in other words, to label utterances and sequences according to their functional properties, and to specify their roles in building relationships between the interactants. Three major sequences were identified and discussed in detail in terms of their forms, functions
Yang, Bo
Conversation analysis
Getting to know you conversations. This dissertation is about âgetting to know youâ conversation, a form of conversation prevalent in everyday interactions. It has been defined (Garner 2004: 181) as an interaction in which participants, usually of equal social status, make initial contact and establish friendly relations, and in which they are largely concerned with finding neutral topics through which they can establish common groundâshared experiences, opinions, interests, and the like. This doctoral research was based on extensive recordings and transcription of such conversations in English between university students (both native with native and native with non-native speakers), in a relatively naturalistic setting. The analysis was conducted in two steps. The first step was to identify and describe the recurrent patterns of the data, through well-established methods of Conversation Analysis. The second was to classify identified structures within a pragmatic framework: in other words, to label utterances and sequences according to their functional properties, and to specify their roles in building relationships between the interactants. Three major sequences were identified and discussed in detail in terms of their forms, functions
getting know conversation get know conversation form conversation prevalent everyday_interaction define interaction participant usually equal social_status make initial contact establish friendly relation largely_concerned find neutral topic establish common_ground share_experience opinion interest like doctoral base_extensive recording transcription conversation english university_student native native native_non native_speaker relatively naturalistic setting analysis_conduct step first_step identify describe recurrent pattern data well_established method conversation_analysis second classify identify structure within pragmatic_framework word label utterance sequence accord functional_property specify role build relationship interactants three_major sequence identify discussed detail term form_function