Introductory Activity
A1 Language and Social Interaction
- Where do you think the following conversation took place? What is there in the speakers' words that lead you to believe that their conversation occurred in a particular physical location?
A: But she's a FLAKE.
B: ((fast tempo)) Ya know we should probably watch it.
They're [probably sitt'n there.
A: [I know
B: It's just nice going to cafes now and I feel like
I don't have [to avoid anybody
A: [THIS is the LIFE.
- Here is an example that Ludwig Wittgenstein gave of how meanings of words change according to the language game being played: "Say 'It's cold in here' and mean 'It's warm in here'. Can you do it?&And what are you doing as you do it? And is there only one way of doing it?"
A2 Talk in Context
- In this exchange between a high school teacher and student, what does the teacher imply by his reply? How can the student use the Cooperative Principle to arrive at an understanding of what the teacher 'really means'?
Student: Tehran's in Turkey, isn't it, teacher?
Teacher: And London's in Armenia, I suppose.
- Here is an example of misinterpretation of contextualization cues. A graduate student has been sent to interview a black housewife in a low income, inner city neighborhood. The contact has been made over the phone by someone in the office. The student arrives, rings the bell, and is met by the husband, who opens the door, smiles, and steps towards him:
Husband: So y're gonna check out ma ol lady, hah?
Interviewer: Ah, no. I only came to get some information. They called from the office.
(Husband, dropping his smile, disappears without a word and calls his wife.)
The student reports that the interview that followed was stiff and quite unsatisfactory. Being black himself, he knew that he had 'blown it.' What were the contextualization cues that the student missed and what did they mean? How could the student have replied to the husband to show that he was on the husband's wavelength?
A3 Interactional Resources
- Here are some more turns from a conversation between a mother and daughter. The mother, Lyn, is sitting at the kitchen table at home and Zoe, her daughter, has just come in. The turns are listed in alphabetical order by the first word of each turn. Rearrange the turns so that each column makes sense as a conversation. What knowledge of adjacency pairs do you use to help you rearrange the turns into a conversation?
Zoe: hello
Lyn: hello I'm here
Lyn: hi
Lyn: in the kitchen
Zoe: mum
Zoe: okay
Zoe: where's the cigarettes
- Teenagers, when talking to each other on the phone, often use language and expressions that their parents don't understand. And when you are in a foreign country, it is often an advantage to be able to speak to your friends in a language that the people around you don't understand. How do the participation frameworks of these two communicative events affect the language that teenagers and foreigners use?
A4 Discursive Practices
- Here is a description of a picture of a practice that is of cultural significance among members of a particular community. Use the description to draw a picture and write a caption that identifies the social roles of the participants and names the practice.
The two individuals in the picture have long black hair; they are wearing earrings and brightly colored clothes that are typical of females. Their physical size suggests that they are of a similar age and their skin texture shows that they are not yet adult; their light brown skin, dark brown eyes, and similar facial features indicate a similar ethnicity. Their heads are very close together; the one on the left is in profile, facing the one on the right. The one on the left is smiling and holding her right hand open between her mouth and the right ear of the one on the right. The one on the right has wide open eyes and a half-open mouth. Besides the earrings and clothes, there are no other physical artifacts in the picture.
- Imagine the following discursive practices. How do participants in these practices allocate the next turn? When do participants recognize that a transition from one speaker to the next is possible? What does your analysis of turn-taking in these practices indicate about the power of the participants in these practices?
* A courtroom trial
* A wedding ceremony
* A first date
* A politician's speech
A5 Describing Discursive Practices
- What are the kinds of topics and vocabulary that are likely to be used in an informal conversation among formally dressed adults in a public setting? How does that differ from the register of informal conversation among informally dressed adults in a private setting?
- Write a dialogue for the practice of 'ordering drinks in a bar,' and identify the acts that characterize the practice. Now compare your dialogue with one written by someone else. How do the acts that you selected for your dialogue compare with the acts that another person selected? Does the sequence of acts differ?
A6 Interactional Competence
- In the following interaction, analyze the participation framework in order to discover how (or whether) participants construct intersubjectivity. What evidence exists of their interactional competence?
A couple who live together are having an argument. The man suddenly turns to their pet dog and says in a high pitched, baby-talk register, "Mommy's so mean tonight. You better sit over here and protect me." This makes the woman laugh&especially because she is a petite 5 ft, 2 in.; her boyfriend is 6ft, 4 in. and weighs 285 lb.; and the dog is a 10-lb Chihuahua mix.
A7 Talk and Identity
- When we meet people for the first time, we often try to make sense of our experience by putting them into categories, and these categories help us to distinguish them from other people. Here are some pictures of people you probably don't know. Write down your description of the people in these pictures. What categories do you use to describe them? Then compare your descriptions with those made by someone else.
- Imagine calling people up on the phone and identifying yourself. How do you name yourself … to your parents? To your friends? To your teachers? To your best friend? To your partner? How do these people name you? Has your name changed over time?
A8 Community and Communities
- If you have a passport or an identity card, you will know that it says something about your identity and about the community to which you belong. How does this document provide evidence of the community to which you belong?
- In the prelude to their music video "Le Bien, Le Mal & The Good, The Bad," MC Solaar telephones Guru to arrange a meeting. MC Solaar is in Paris and speaks to Guru in French using verlan & urban French vernacular that incorporates movement of syllables and deletion of consonants. Guru is in New York and uses hip hop terminology and African American English as he talks to MC Solaar.
Paris
MC Solaar: C'est longtemps depuis qu'on a vu Guru Gangstarr.
(It's been a long time since we've seen Guru from Gangstarr.)
C'est pas cool, s'il venait a Paris?
(It will be fly [very cool] if he comes to Paris.)
Friend: Ouais.
(Yeah)
MC Solaar: On essait de l'appler
(Let's give him a call.)
New York
Guru: Hello & who dis? Solaar! What up Man? Yeah!
(on phone) No I'm comin' man. I know I'm late Yo! Hold up for me
al(r)ight. Baby! I'm on my way now al(r)ight! Peace!
At the end of the conversation, Guru leaves to meet MC Solaar and descends stairs into a New York subway. When he ascends the subway, he is in Paris!
You don't have to live in the same place or even speak the same language to be part of the same community. How do these two hip hop artists form a community?
A9 Developing Skills in Social Interaction
- How have you learned to use T and V forms in languages such as French, Spanish, German, Italian, or Russian? Do you know languages such as Korean and Japanese which use honorifics? If so, consider what form you would use in addressing (or talking about) the following participants. Have you ever experienced an interaction in which you realized that you had used the incorrect form? In English today, we have lost the distinction between the T-form thou and the V-form you. Are there other linguistic resources that we use in contemporary English to show respect/familiarity and social distance/solidarity?
Your teacher |
Your elder brother |