Discourse and Pragmatics

1. Discourse and Pragmatics Week 9 Strategic Interaction

2. Whos doing Whats • When we use language we communicate • Who we are and who we think the people we are communicating with are • What we think we are doing

3. Interactional Sociolinguistics • Whos doing Whats in Talk • ‘Strategies’ of doing and being • ‘Small stuff’ matters • Even the smallest features of talk are functional and potentially meaningful • Subtle variations in the way we talk can create big problems in communication and in relationships

4. Whos and Whats • Whos • Presentation of the Self • Conversational Style • Politeness • Whats • Framing and Contextualization Cues • Whos + Whats • Positioning

5. Whos • Presentation of the Self

6. Who are you? • The is no fixed, essential ‘self’ • The idea of a consistent self is an illusion • It is also a ‘necessary fiction’ for social interaction • It is better to talk of ‘selves’ rather than ‘self’ • We perform different ‘selves’ to different people in different situations

7. What is the ‘self’ • Erving Goffman: sociologist • The presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) • Focus on ordinary social interaction • ‘Dramaturgical’ Approach • Life is like a play

8. The self • Can be divided into: • performer • character • We are all actors • We are always performing • What is ‘true’ or ‘real’ • Depends on how much we ‘believe’ in the character we are portraying

9. Sincerity Sincere ------------------------Cynical • We always have something to hide! • Whether we are being ‘honest’ or ‘dishonest’, we must exercise similar ‘care’ in creating the ‘impression’ that we want to create • Audience must believe the performance to be ‘real’ if it is to be effective • Businessperson vs. con-man • Lover vs. gigolo

10. Interaction involves... • performers • audience • roles • The main risk in interaction is that your performance will be inadequate or ‘questioned’ by your audience

11. Controlling Information • Information that is ‘given’ • Information that is ‘given off’ • Information ‘leakage’

12. Performance • Elements of performance: • ‘Routine’ • ‘Front’ • ‘Line’ • ‘Face’

13. Audience segregation • We use different fronts for different people in different situations • We usually arrange our lives so that the people towards whom we play one part are different from those towards whom we play another part • Difficulties of performing to ‘mixed audiences’ • Regions (frontstage and backstage)

15. Whos • Conversational Styles • New Yorkers and Californians • The Silent Finn

16. Example: ‘Valley girl talk’ • Habitual rising intonation • ‘Like’ • "I, like, didn't say anything." • Relationship to gender • Negative evaluations • Systematic variation • Uptalk: Given and new information • Like: discourse marker, marker of social identity

17. Some Functions of ‘Like’ • Inspecificity • She's like five foot five. • She's five foot five. • Hyperbole • She's like ten feet tall. • She's ten feet tall. • Quotation • She was like, I don't see why that's necessary. • * She was, I don't see why that's necessary.

18. Example: ‘Language Crimes’ • Roger Shuy • Forensic Linguistics • Agent: You see these plans are very hard to get. • Engineer: uh-huh • A: I need to get them at night • E: uh-huh • A: It’s not done easily • E: uh-huh • A: understand? • E: uh-huh • +++++++ • A: How are you? • E: uh-huh

19. Politeness • How we communicate our relationship with other people in our language

20. Two kinds of face • Negative face (desire for autonomy, personal space,freedom from imposition, freedom of action) • Positive face (desire for self-image to be acknowledged and approved of) • Each are addressed with specific formsof face work

21. Two Kinds of Face Strategies • Involvement • ‘Solidarity’ • Showing ‘closeness’ or solidarity • using first name, expressing interest, claiming common point of view, using informal language

22. Involvement Strategies • Use first name or nicknames • Use informal language • Use a ‘common language’ • Act interested, sympathetic • Be direct • Agree • Claim common experiences, interests, group membership • Talk about ‘us’

23. Two Kinds of Face Strategy • Independence • Showing ‘respect’ • using titles, not making assumptions, apologizing, using formal language

24. Independence Strategies • Use titles • Use formal language • Don’t make assumptions • Apologize • Be indirect • Try to minimize imposition • Hedge • Talk about things not having to do with us

25. Independence and Involvement • In any interaction we usually use both independence and involvement strategies • The problem is deciding how and when to use these strategies • Based on • who we are talking to • why we are talking to them

26. Deference Face System • -P, +D • symmetrical (equal) • participants see themselves as at same social level • distant • both would use mostly independence strategies

27. Solidarity Face System • -P, -D • symmetrical • close • both participants likely to use more involvement strategies

28. Hierarchical Face System • +P, +/-D • asymmetrical (unequal) • asymmetrical face strategies • higher uses more involvement • lower uses more independence

29. Deference Speaker<-----------------Independence--------------->Speaker Solidarity Speaker<--Involvement-->Speaker Hierarchical Speaker (involvement) Speaker (independence)

30. But it’s really not that simple... • There is another factor • W • Weight of imposition • W+/ W-

31. Conflicting Strategies/Mixed up systems • Two businessmen meeting for the first time • Mr R: (reading Mr. Wong’s business card which says Wong Hon Fai) Hi, Hon Fai. I’m Bill Richardson. My friends call me Bill. • Mr W: How do you do Mr. Richardson. • Mr. Wong thinks: That guy is acting too familiar, who does he think he is? • expects deference system, hears hierarchical system • Mr. R. thinks: This guy doesn’t want to be my friend. He’s not very nice. • expects solidarity system, hears deference system

32. Frames • The way we signal • and interpret • what’s going on • what we are doing in interaction

33. Frames • Interpretative Frames • Interactive Frames

34. Interpretative Frames • Participants general expectations about • objects • people • settings • ways to interact • Restaurants, Classrooms, Karaoke Boxes, MTR, etc.

35. Interpretive Frames • Schema • ‘World knowledge’ • our knowledge of the physical and biological world, our agreement about what ‘reality’ is • ‘Social knowledge’ • our knowledge of social conventions around different kinds of activities

36. An embarrassing situation... • Getting a taxi in Taipei

37. Interactive Frames • ‘a definition of what is going on in interaction (or a any point in the interaction) without which no utterance (or movement or gesture) could be correctly interpreted.’ • Tannen and Wallat

38. Monkeys • Gregory Bateson • Observations of monkeys at play • ‘a monkey need to know whether a bite from another monkey is intended within the frame of play or the frame of fighting.’

39. She knows... • Play time • walk time • meal time • quiet time • trouble time

40. Interactive Frames • Frames of activity within an interaction • We usually don’t just do one thing at once • There are • Overlapping frames • talking on the phone and playing with my dog • Frames within frames • Lecture--activity--Lecture • Serious--joking--Serious

41. What’s going on here? • Doctor: (feeling child’s stomach) Okay, now let me see what I can find in there. Is there a peanut butter and jelly? Wait a minute... • Child: No. • Doctor: No peanut butter and jelly in there? • Child: No. • Doctor: Now move your legs up a little..Okay? Any peanut butter and jelly in there? • Child: No. • Doctor: No? Is your spleen palpable over there? • Child: No.

42. How does she know? • Gestures • Movements • Intonation • Loudness • Voice quality

43. Contextualization Cues • ‘Surface features of message form which are the means by which speakers signal and listeners interpret… • what the activity is • what words mean • and how what they say is related to what has been said before or what will be said after.

44. ‘Framing’ and ‘Contextualization Cues’ • John Gumperz • Contextualization cues • any sign which serves to construct the contextual ground for situated interpretations, and thereby affects how constituent messages are understood. • Stress, intonation, voice quality (prosody) • Paralinguistic cues • Code choice • ‘Nervous’

45. Competing Frames • Tutorial Task

46. ‘Discourse markers’ • Focus: as far as ... is concerned, speaking of which • Clarification: I mean, actually • Contrast: on the other hand, mind you, whereas • Dismissal of previous discourse: anyway, whatever • Change of subject: whatever, by the way, ok • Consequence: so, then, as a result • ‘Anyway’

47. Tutorial Task • Listen for the tokens: • ‘umm’ or ‘eh’ • ‘you know’ • ‘ok’ • What are the functions of these utterances in the conversation

48. Positioning • In interaction we negotiate who we are in relation to each other (face) • We also negotiate what we are doing/what’s ‘going on’ (frames) • But interactions do not happen in a vacuum • Every interaction has histories (stories) behind it

49. Positioning • Tries to connect the individual interaction with the bigger picture • Tries to show how we build up identities in interaction • Position • military language • marketing language • Putting yourself and people you talk to in some position in relation to other speakers and the groups that make up the culture

50. Positioning • ‘Karen, what do you think about positioning?’ • Questioner/Answerer • Teacher/Student • Powerful/Less Powerful