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12 - Meetings as Interactional Achievements
- from Capturing and Understanding Dynamics and Processes of the Meeting
- Edited by Joseph A. Allen, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Steven G. Rogelberg, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Handbook of Meeting Science
- Published online:
- 05 August 2015
- Print publication:
- 15 July 2015, pp 247-276
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Summary
Abstract This chapter offers an overview of the unique contributions of conversation analysis (CA) to research on the science of meetings. We introduce CA as a sociological framework for studying the structures and processes of talk and interaction, showing how this approach enriches our understanding of human activity in meeting interaction. After a sketch of CA theory and method and the ways that basic interactional mechanisms are adapted to meetings, we review CA research on face-to-face meetings, including practices for distributing turns at talk, the interactional constitution of organizational identities, practices for displaying affect and building relationships with team members, and interactional resources for decision making in meetings. Moving into current developments in CA and meetings, we detail one interactional strategy used to manage disagreement during decision-making episodes in scientific peer review meetings. It involves the use of “formulations,” discourse practices in which interactants summarize and paraphrase the prior talk of other participants. We provide initial evidence of the use of formulations in peer review meetings to collaboratively navigate interactional troubles, allowing participants to work toward resolution of conflict, move ahead in the progression of meetings, and to possibly introduce individual biases into meeting deliberations and decision making.
Contributors
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- By Rose Teteki Abbey, K. C. Abraham, David Tuesday Adamo, LeRoy H. Aden, Efrain Agosto, Victor Aguilan, Gillian T. W. Ahlgren, Charanjit Kaur AjitSingh, Dorothy B E A Akoto, Giuseppe Alberigo, Daniel E. Albrecht, Ruth Albrecht, Daniel O. Aleshire, Urs Altermatt, Anand Amaladass, Michael Amaladoss, James N. Amanze, Lesley G. Anderson, Thomas C. Anderson, Victor Anderson, Hope S. Antone, María Pilar Aquino, Paula Arai, Victorio Araya Guillén, S. Wesley Ariarajah, Ellen T. Armour, Brett Gregory Armstrong, Atsuhiro Asano, Naim Stifan Ateek, Mahmoud Ayoub, John Alembillah Azumah, Mercedes L. García Bachmann, Irena Backus, J. Wayne Baker, Mieke Bal, Lewis V. Baldwin, William Barbieri, António Barbosa da Silva, David Basinger, Bolaji Olukemi Bateye, Oswald Bayer, Daniel H. Bays, Rosalie Beck, Nancy Elizabeth Bedford, Guy-Thomas Bedouelle, Chorbishop Seely Beggiani, Wolfgang Behringer, Christopher M. Bellitto, Byard Bennett, Harold V. Bennett, Teresa Berger, Miguel A. Bernad, Henley Bernard, Alan E. Bernstein, Jon L. Berquist, Johannes Beutler, Ana María Bidegain, Matthew P. Binkewicz, Jennifer Bird, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Dmytro Bondarenko, Paulo Bonfatti, Riet en Pim Bons-Storm, Jessica A. Boon, Marcus J. Borg, Mark Bosco, Peter C. Bouteneff, François Bovon, William D. Bowman, Paul S. Boyer, David Brakke, Richard E. Brantley, Marcus Braybrooke, Ian Breward, Ênio José da Costa Brito, Jewel Spears Brooker, Johannes Brosseder, Nicholas Canfield Read Brown, Robert F. Brown, Pamela K. Brubaker, Walter Brueggemann, Bishop Colin O. Buchanan, Stanley M. Burgess, Amy Nelson Burnett, J. Patout Burns, David B. Burrell, David Buttrick, James P. Byrd, Lavinia Byrne, Gerado Caetano, Marcos Caldas, Alkiviadis Calivas, William J. Callahan, Salvatore Calomino, Euan K. Cameron, William S. Campbell, Marcelo Ayres Camurça, Daniel F. Caner, Paul E. Capetz, Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi, Patrick W. Carey, Barbara Carvill, Hal Cauthron, Subhadra Mitra Channa, Mark D. Chapman, James H. Charlesworth, Kenneth R. Chase, Chen Zemin, Luciano Chianeque, Philip Chia Phin Yin, Francisca H. Chimhanda, Daniel Chiquete, John T. Chirban, Soobin Choi, Robert Choquette, Mita Choudhury, Gerald Christianson, John Chryssavgis, Sejong Chun, Esther Chung-Kim, Charles M. A. Clark, Elizabeth A. Clark, Sathianathan Clarke, Fred Cloud, John B. Cobb, W. Owen Cole, John A Coleman, John J. Collins, Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Paul K. Conkin, Beth A. Conklin, Sean Connolly, Demetrios J. Constantelos, Michael A. Conway, Paula M. Cooey, Austin Cooper, Michael L. Cooper-White, Pamela Cooper-White, L. William Countryman, Sérgio Coutinho, Pamela Couture, Shannon Craigo-Snell, James L. Crenshaw, David Crowner, Humberto Horacio Cucchetti, Lawrence S. Cunningham, Elizabeth Mason Currier, Emmanuel Cutrone, Mary L. Daniel, David D. Daniels, Robert Darden, Rolf Darge, Isaiah Dau, Jeffry C. Davis, Jane Dawson, Valentin Dedji, John W. de Gruchy, Paul DeHart, Wendy J. Deichmann Edwards, Miguel A. De La Torre, George E. Demacopoulos, Thomas de Mayo, Leah DeVun, Beatriz de Vasconcellos Dias, Dennis C. Dickerson, John M. Dillon, Luis Miguel Donatello, Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, Susanna Drake, Jonathan A. Draper, N. Dreher Martin, Otto Dreydoppel, Angelyn Dries, A. J. Droge, Francis X. D'Sa, Marilyn Dunn, Nicole Wilkinson Duran, Rifaat Ebied, Mark J. Edwards, William H. Edwards, Leonard H. Ehrlich, Nancy L. Eiesland, Martin Elbel, J. Harold Ellens, Stephen Ellingson, Marvin M. Ellison, Robert Ellsberg, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Eldon Jay Epp, Peter C. Erb, Tassilo Erhardt, Maria Erling, Noel Leo Erskine, Gillian R. Evans, Virginia Fabella, Michael A. Fahey, Edward Farley, Margaret A. Farley, Wendy Farley, Robert Fastiggi, Seena Fazel, Duncan S. Ferguson, Helwar Figueroa, Paul Corby Finney, Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald, Thomas E. FitzGerald, John R. Fitzmier, Marie Therese Flanagan, Sabina Flanagan, Claude Flipo, Ronald B. Flowers, Carole Fontaine, David Ford, Mary Ford, Stephanie A. Ford, Jim Forest, William Franke, Robert M. Franklin, Ruth Franzén, Edward H. Friedman, Samuel Frouisou, Lorelei F. Fuchs, Jojo M. Fung, Inger Furseth, Richard R. Gaillardetz, Brandon Gallaher, China Galland, Mark Galli, Ismael García, Tharscisse Gatwa, Jean-Marie Gaudeul, Luis María Gavilanes del Castillo, Pavel L. Gavrilyuk, Volney P. Gay, Metropolitan Athanasios Geevargis, Kondothra M. George, Mary Gerhart, Simon Gikandi, Maurice Gilbert, Michael J. Gillgannon, Verónica Giménez Beliveau, Terryl Givens, Beth Glazier-McDonald, Philip Gleason, Menghun Goh, Brian Golding, Bishop Hilario M. Gomez, Michelle A. Gonzalez, Donald K. Gorrell, Roy Gottfried, Tamara Grdzelidze, Joel B. Green, Niels Henrik Gregersen, Cristina Grenholm, Herbert Griffiths, Eric W. Gritsch, Erich S. Gruen, Christoffer H. Grundmann, Paul H. Gundani, Jon P. Gunnemann, Petre Guran, Vidar L. Haanes, Jeremiah M. Hackett, Getatchew Haile, Douglas John Hall, Nicholas Hammond, Daphne Hampson, Jehu J. Hanciles, Barry Hankins, Jennifer Haraguchi, Stanley S. Harakas, Anthony John Harding, Conrad L. Harkins, J. William Harmless, Marjory Harper, Amir Harrak, Joel F. Harrington, Mark W. Harris, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Van A. Harvey, R. Chris Hassel, Jione Havea, Daniel Hawk, Diana L. Hayes, Leslie Hayes, Priscilla Hayner, S. Mark Heim, Simo Heininen, Richard P. Heitzenrater, Eila Helander, David Hempton, Scott H. Hendrix, Jan-Olav Henriksen, Gina Hens-Piazza, Carter Heyward, Nicholas J. Higham, David Hilliard, Norman A. Hjelm, Peter C. Hodgson, Arthur Holder, M. Jan Holton, Dwight N. Hopkins, Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, Po-Ho Huang, James Hudnut-Beumler, Jennifer S. Hughes, Leonard M. Hummel, Mary E. Hunt, Laennec Hurbon, Mark Hutchinson, Susan E. Hylen, Mary Beth Ingham, H. Larry Ingle, Dale T. Irvin, Jon Isaak, Paul John Isaak, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Hans Raun Iversen, Margaret C. Jacob, Arthur James, Maria Jansdotter-Samuelsson, David Jasper, Werner G. Jeanrond, Renée Jeffery, David Lyle Jeffrey, Theodore W. Jennings, David H. Jensen, Robin Margaret Jensen, David Jobling, Dale A. Johnson, Elizabeth A. Johnson, Maxwell E. Johnson, Sarah Johnson, Mark D. Johnston, F. Stanley Jones, James William Jones, John R. Jones, Alissa Jones Nelson, Inge Jonsson, Jan Joosten, Elizabeth Judd, Mulambya Peggy Kabonde, Robert Kaggwa, Sylvester Kahakwa, Isaac Kalimi, Ogbu U. Kalu, Eunice Kamaara, Wayne C. Kannaday, Musimbi Kanyoro, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Frank Kaufmann, Léon Nguapitshi Kayongo, Richard Kearney, Alice A. Keefe, Ralph Keen, Catherine Keller, Anthony J. Kelly, Karen Kennelly, Kathi Lynn Kern, Fergus Kerr, Edward Kessler, George Kilcourse, Heup Young Kim, Kim Sung-Hae, Kim Yong-Bock, Kim Yung Suk, Richard King, Thomas M. King, Robert M. Kingdon, Ross Kinsler, Hans G. Kippenberg, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Clifton Kirkpatrick, Leonid Kishkovsky, Nadieszda Kizenko, Jeffrey Klaiber, Hans-Josef Klauck, Sidney Knight, Samuel Kobia, Robert Kolb, Karla Ann Koll, Heikki Kotila, Donald Kraybill, Philip D. W. Krey, Yves Krumenacker, Jeffrey Kah-Jin Kuan, Simanga R. Kumalo, Peter Kuzmic, Simon Shui-Man Kwan, Kwok Pui-lan, André LaCocque, Stephen E. Lahey, John Tsz Pang Lai, Emiel Lamberts, Armando Lampe, Craig Lampe, Beverly J. Lanzetta, Eve LaPlante, Lizette Larson-Miller, Ariel Bybee Laughton, Leonard Lawlor, Bentley Layton, Robin A. Leaver, Karen Lebacqz, Archie Chi Chung Lee, Marilyn J. Legge, Hervé LeGrand, D. L. LeMahieu, Raymond Lemieux, Bill J. Leonard, Ellen M. Leonard, Outi Leppä, Jean Lesaulnier, Nantawan Boonprasat Lewis, Henrietta Leyser, Alexei Lidov, Bernard Lightman, Paul Chang-Ha Lim, Carter Lindberg, Mark R. Lindsay, James R. Linville, James C. Livingston, Ann Loades, David Loades, Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole, Lo Lung Kwong, Wati Longchar, Eleazar López, David W. Lotz, Andrew Louth, Robin W. Lovin, William Luis, Frank D. Macchia, Diarmaid N. J. MacCulloch, Kirk R. MacGregor, Marjory A. MacLean, Donald MacLeod, Tomas S. Maddela, Inge Mager, Laurenti Magesa, David G. Maillu, Fortunato Mallimaci, Philip Mamalakis, Kä Mana, Ukachukwu Chris Manus, Herbert Robinson Marbury, Reuel Norman Marigza, Jacqueline Mariña, Antti Marjanen, Luiz C. L. Marques, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele), Caleb J. D. Maskell, Steve Mason, Thomas Massaro, Fernando Matamoros Ponce, András Máté-Tóth, Odair Pedroso Mateus, Dinis Matsolo, Fumitaka Matsuoka, John D'Arcy May, Yelena Mazour-Matusevich, Theodore Mbazumutima, John S. McClure, Christian McConnell, Lee Martin McDonald, Gary B. McGee, Thomas McGowan, Alister E. McGrath, Richard J. McGregor, John A. McGuckin, Maud Burnett McInerney, Elsie Anne McKee, Mary B. McKinley, James F. McMillan, Ernan McMullin, Kathleen E. McVey, M. 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Yee, Viktor Yelensky, Yeo Khiok-Khng, Gustav K. K. Yeung, Angela Yiu, Amos Yong, Yong Ting Jin, You Bin, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Eliana Yunes, Robert Michael Zaller, Valarie H. Ziegler, Barbara Brown Zikmund, Joyce Ann Zimmerman, Aurora Zlotnik, Zhuo Xinping
- Edited by Daniel Patte, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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- The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity
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- 05 August 2012
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- 20 September 2010, pp xi-xliv
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Peter Auer, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, and Frank Müller. Language in time: The rhythm and tempo of spoken interaction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. xi, 236. Hb $65.00.
- Cecilia E. Ford
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- Language in Society / Volume 30 / Issue 2 / April 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 January 2002, pp. 298-301
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- April 2001
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To understand prosody in naturally occurring language requires an exceptional constellation of skills. One must have not only expertise in the analysis of pitch patterns and the complex signals that make up our perception of stress, but also a rich and informed perspective on how talk works. Although some phonologists are highly sophisticated in their approaches to prosody, empirical research in this area is both heavily based on laboratory-produced data (when it is empirical in that sense), and highly abstract in its descriptive procedures. For their part, analysts of spoken discourse, though basing their descriptions on naturally occurring language, often lack fundamental expertise in the close analysis of sound production and perception. The authors of Language in time are exceptional in the individual and collective skill they bring to their project. In this carefully crafted volume, Peter Auer, Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, and Frank Müller offer an empirically grounded and innovative view of the interplay of prosody and action in spoken language use. The volume focuses on the functions of rhythm in spoken interaction, drawing data from English, Italian, and German, and concentrating on “conversational organization and verbal performance” (p. 33). The work provides a counterbalance to the prevailing dualism in linguistic studies, by which language is first and foremost understood as a system separated from time.
3 - Interactional units in conversation: syntactic, intonational, and pragmatic resources for the management of turns
- Edited by Elinor Ochs, University of California, Los Angeles, Emanuel A. Schegloff, University of California, Los Angeles, Sandra A. Thompson, University of California, Santa Barbara
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- Interaction and Grammar
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- 14 January 2010
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- 12 December 1996, pp 134-184
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Summary
Introduction
The research reported in this chapter is intended as a contribution to an understanding of the basic linguistic units used by speakers in spontaneous communication. Our interest is in the linguistic factors associated with the split-second timing of next turn onset that has been documented in conversation analytic literature (Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, 1974; Jefferson, 1973; Wilson and Zimmerman, 1986).
In the past two decades, conversation analysts have uncovered patterns and principles of interaction, particularly in the areas of turn-taking and the sequential organization of talk. The picture of spontaneous interaction that emerges very clearly from this research depicts a complex and intricately monitored human practice that is maximally sensitive to moment-by-moment input by all parties to a conversation, and is, therefore, characterized by an organization that is locally managed. Turns at talk vary widely in length, and their length is not unilaterally controlled. The extension of a turn at talk has everything to do with the manner in which that turn is being responded to by the other participant(s) in the conversation (e.g., Atkinson and Heritage, 1984; Davidson, 1984; C. Goodwin, 1979, 1981, 1986a, 1986b, 1987; M. Goodwin, 1980; Goodwin and Goodwin, 1986, 1987, forthcoming; Heritage, 1984, 1989; Jefferson, 1973, 1987, 1989; Lerner, 1987, 1989, 1991, in progress; Sacks, et al. 1974; Schegloff, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992; Schegloff and Sacks, 1973; Wilson and Zimmerman, 1986; and Wilson et al. 1984). To understand the syntax and rhetoric of conversational language use, linguists need to take very seriously the situated practices of conversationalists as revealed in the careful work of conversation analysts.
ENGLISH VERB CLASSES AND ALTERNATIONS: A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION. Beth Levin. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. Pp. xvii + 348. $45.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.
- Cecilia E. Ford
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- Studies in Second Language Acquisition / Volume 17 / Issue 1 / March 1995
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- 07 November 2008, p. 105
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- March 1995
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References
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp 155-160
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Grammar in Interaction
- Adverbial Clauses in American English Conversations
- Cecilia E. Ford
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993
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Cecilia E. Ford explores the question: what work do adverbial clauses do in conversational interaction? Her analysis of this predominating conjunction strategy in English conversation is based on the assumption that grammars reflect recurrent patterns of situated language use, and that a primary site for language is in spontaneous talk. She considers the interactional as well as the informational work of talk and shows how conversationalists use grammar to coordinate their joint language production. The management of the complexities of the sequential development of a conversation, and the social roles of conversational participants, have been extensively examined within the sociological approach of Conversation Analysis. Dr Ford uses Conversation Analysis as a framework for the interpretation of interclausal relations in her database of American English conversations. Her book contributes to a growing body of research on grammar in discourse, which has until recently remained largely focused on monologic rather than dialogic functions of language.
1 - Introduction
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp 1-20
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Summary
While our understanding of English grammar at the single sentence level is substantial, we are only just beginning to seriously explore patterns of interclausal relations as they are used in naturally occurring language. Furthermore, even though interactional language use outweighs all other types of language use, the analysis of English discourse within linguistics has tended to concentrate on monologue data and to neglect conversation. One reason for this neglect has to do with the relatively recent development of practical and unobtrusive audio and video recording technology. If we hope to gain an understanding of how grammar emerges and changes with use (i.e., an understanding of grammar as a system adapted to its use [Du Bois 1984]), we must make use of the available technology and look more seriously at language in interaction. The present book is a contribution to our understanding of the use of a clause type that is very common in spoken English interaction: the adverbial clause. I examine the use of adverbial clauses in a corpus of naturally occurring American English conversation.
At a general level, this research is part of a larger program of interest in observing grammar in its “natural habitat”: connected, contextualized discourse. The focus here is on adverbial clause usage, in part because numerous studies have detailed their functions in discourse and in part because of their relative frequency in spoken English. In addition to contributing to our understanding of adverbial clauses in interactional language use, this study has been guided by a methodological goal: The research presented in this book demonstrates the usefulness of conversation analysis as a tool for understanding the emergence of grammar in interaction.
Transcription conventions
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Book:
- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp xvi-xviii
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4 - Final versus initial adverbial clauses in continuous intonation
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp 63-101
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Summary
Overview
Unlike initial adverbial clauses in these data, which always end in continuing intonation, when adverbial clauses appear after their associated modified material, they may be connected to that material across continuing or ending intonation. There are 135 final adverbial clauses, making up 66% of the adverbial clauses in the data. Of these final adverbial clauses, 40 (30%) are temporal (when, while, before, after etc.), 18 (13%) are conditional (if), 75 (56%) are causal (because, 'cause), and 2 (1%) are concessive (although, even though).
Eighty (59%) of the final adverbial clauses occur after continuing intonation, while 55 (41%) link back to utterances ending in final falling intonation.
The distinction between continuing and final intonation reflects speakers' decisions to signal that an utterance is not yet completed (continuing intonation), or that an utterance is possibly complete (final intonation). Schiffrin (1987) used this intonation distinction to separate intra-utterance conjunction from inter-utterance conjunction in her analysis of interview data. By distinguishing intra- from inter-utterance intonation patterns, one can describe grammatical connections that occur as parts of intonationally coherent units, and compare these connections to grammatical connections that occur across final intonation boundaries.
In the present chapter I describe the use of adverbial clauses following continuing intonation. In the next chapter, I look at adverbial clauses added to utterances that have been presented as intonationally complete. Final adverbial clauses after continuing intonation are of three types in my corpus: temporal, conditional, and causal. Of these three, only temporal and conditional clauses appear both before and after their main clauses, while causal clauses appear only after the material they modify.
List of tables
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp xiv-xiv
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Subject index
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp 163-165
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6 - Comparison of clause types and apparent deviations from the general patterns
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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- Grammar in Interaction
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- 09 November 2009
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- 08 April 1993, pp 131-145
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Summary
In the preceding chapters, I have explored the work that adverbial clauses do in conversation, and in what positions they do that work. In addition to the usage patterns focused upon in chapters 3–5, there is interesting variation in the distribution and functions of the three major types of adverbial clauses found in the corpus. In the present chapter, I compare the placement and functions of the different clause types, and I also highlight some apparent violations of the general principles discussed in previous chapters. The exceptions serve to further elucidate the principles themselves.
Different clause types in initial versus final placement
Examining variation in the use of different clause types, we find that causal clauses, while not appearing initially, do frequently appear in final position after continuing intonation. In final position, causal clauses do work that is distinct from the work of other final adverbial clauses. These differences are consistent with the semantics of the different clause types, causals presenting explanatory or motivating material, rather than temporal or situational grounding.
As can be seen from Figure 1, of all temporal clauses, most (52.5%) appear finally after continuing intonation. That is, a majority of temporal clauses in this corpus are being used to complete main clause meaning, rather than to structure the discourse (or add more material after an utterance is finished – to be discussed in section 6.2). Utterances in these conversations, then, seem to be regularly provided with some temporal or situational grounding through temporal clauses.
List of illustrations
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2 - Overview of the conversational corpus
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary
This chapter presents a brief overview of the database and the distribution of adverbial clauses within it.
The data
The database includes thirteen naturally occurring telephone, face-to-face, two party, and multi-party conversations. None of the interaction originates from interview or data-elicitation formats. In this way, special turn-taking formats were avoided. Twelve of the conversations are audio taped, and one particularly long span of talk comes from a video taped multi-party conversation. All the data used for this study are transcribed according to the conventions of conversation analysis (CA). In each instance of an adverbial clause, I have done a careful analysis of intonation. In some cases, this has resulted in the addition of commas (level rising, incomplete intonation) or periods (final falling intonation) to the original transcriptions.
All the conversations are between adults, and all are in relatively casual situations: chatting on the phone, drinking beer on a picnic, visiting over crackers and cheese after a movie, or eating dinner. Eight of the recordings are of two-party telephone conversations, eliminating the question of non-verbal signaling for at least a portion of the data. Five of the conversations are face-to-face, multi-party interactions, in which the contribution of nonverbal cues will not be addressed in this study. There are a total of 33 different speakers in the conversations, 20 women and 13 men. The level of education of the participants has not been controlled for, although there is a preponderance of college-aged young people, as many of the recordings were originally collected for class assignments in CA courses.
Contents
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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3 - Initial adverbial clauses
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary
In the present conversational corpus, initial adverbial clauses can be described in terms of the information patterns they form, and in terms of the interactional functions they serve. While the dichotomy between the information management or patterning and interactional functions of language is not a discrete one, there is value in approaching the description of adverbial clause usage with this division in mind. Because previous studies of adverbial clause usage have focused on monologue data, we know the kind of work such clauses do in less interactive discourse. That work has been described mainly in terms of information management. Prior studies have consistently pointed to a shift function for initial adverbial clauses. In monologue texts, such clauses set off prior discourse from discourse that follows. An initial adverbial clause uses information that has either appeared in some form in the previous discourse, or that follows sequentially from a point in the previous talk. Such information is either taken directly, negated or put in a contrasting form, or simply introduced as a possible option. The adverbial clause then constitutes explicit background for the following discourse.
With those findings as a source of comparison, we can look at the occurrence of adverbial clauses in conversation to see what such clauses do in encoding and organizing information and, additionally, in managing and maintaining interaction and the social roles of parties in conversations. It is assumed that information patterns, relations of these clauses to their textual environments, exist in conjunction with the interactional work that is being done at any point in a conversation.
Notes
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Author index
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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7 - Conclusion
- Cecilia E. Ford, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary
In this study, I have used the framework of conversation analysis, and the body of findings associated with that approach, to examine the distribution and functions of temporal, conditional, and causal adverbial clauses in a corpus of American English conversation. In the present corpus, in line with findings from prior text-based analyses, discourse-structuring functions are realized through initial adverbial clauses, while final adverbial clauses tend to work more locally in narrowing main clause meaning without creating links or shift points in a larger discourse pattern. I have suggested that the pattern whereby conditional clauses are most likely to be initial, and causal clauses final, is related to an interaction between the inherent meanings of these clauses and the discourse functions those meanings are particularly suitable for serving. The common discourse organizational use of if-clauses is likely related to their hypothetical meaning; they are used to create temporary discourse realities, introducing and forming the background for associated modified material. Causal clauses, which present the sources and precipitating states or events that explain other states or events, are well-suited for appearing after the proposition, to be expanded upon, and for introducing background elaboration. They are especially useful as the vehicles for further explanation when problems arise in interaction. Temporal clauses are used most often in post-verbal position, functioning to ground the situation represented by the verb in time. When temporal clauses are placed initially, they are commonly involved in the structuring of discourse involving sequenced events. Temporal clauses are least common after the preceding clause has been finished with ending intonation.