HG2033: Shane’s Utterance Inline 2 Might Look Like a Description of a State of Affairs: Introduction to Conversation Analysis Assignment, NTU, Singapore

Final Extract Analysis Paper (Individual Assignment)

By now, you should be familiar with the level of details that conversation analytical work requires. You would also already had some practice when attempting your Short Extract Analysis Paper in locating some sort of interesting interactional phenomenon in a stretch of talk, and then analyzing how that is done via a precise description of the interactional mechanisms involved (i.e. sequential, turn-taking, preference & repair organization) in pulling off that sort of phenomenon.

For the final paper, you will be tasked to observe a shorter but significantly more complex and context-rich extract, at first in an unmotivated way, which means that you should simply try to understand what’s going on turn-by-turn in the data without trying to identify a topic for the paper. This shorter segment of conversation is between two couples Shane (Sha) & Vivian and Michael (Mic) & Nancy (Nan), which consist of only 19 numbered lines on the transcript. The general context of this segment is an exchange that happened during a home-made dinner that Shane & Vivian hosted for Michael & Nancy, where Vivian made chicken with potatoes.

Final Extract Transcript

01 (1.1)
02 Sha: Ah can’t- Ah can’t[get this thing ¯mashed.
03 Viv: [Aa-ow.
(1.2)
04 Nan:
05 You[do that too:? tih yer pota]toes,
06 Sha: [This one’s hard ezza rock.]
07 Sha: ­Ye[ah.
08 Viv: [It i:[s?
09 Sha: (0.3) [B’t this thing- is ­ha:rd.
10 Viv:
11 It’s not do:ne? th’potato?
12 Sha: Ah don’t th ink so,
13 Nan: (2.2)
14 Seems done t’me how ‘bout you Mi[chael,]
15 Sha: [Alri’ ]who
16 cooked this mea:l.
17 Mic: .hh Little ¯bit’v e-it e-ih-ih of it isn’done.
18 Sha: Th’ts ri:ght.
19 (1.2)

• Shane’s utterance inline 2 might look like a description of a state of affairs, one that he is experiencing right at this point in time. But is he really describing something, or is he doing something else – carrying out some other kind of action?
• Consider now Nancy’s response inline 5. Can we tell from what she says here how she is proposing to take Shane’s prior utterance?
• Now consider Vivian’s line 8? What is it responding to, and what kind of response is it?
• Viv’s question inline 11 (“It’s not done? The potato?”) is responded to first by Shane (line 12) and then by Nancy (line 14). Should Nancy’s utterance be understood in the context not only of Viv’s question but also of Shane’s response? If so, how would you characterize it in relation to Shane’s line 12?
• Michael speaks for the first time inline 17. Did he volunteer this utterance? And how would you characterize it in terms of the ongoing ‘discussion’ about the potatoes?
• Taking the episode as a whole, how would you describe the activity that seems to be going on here (in parallel to the eating of the meal)?