CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

This conversation is taken from the film Abraham Lincoln – vampire hunter. In this conversation Mary Todd is talking to Abraham when she come to his shop. She want to order something but Abraham is busy arranging his wares. And Mary Todd little annoyed with Abraham because he called her as mam.

Extract 1 (SCENE 13 – IN THE STORE – IN THE MORNING)

01 Mary Todd             : Excuse me (.3)

02                                  Excuse me, I need this (.)

03 Abraham                : Wait a second mam

04 Mary Todd             : Wow↑ you don’t need call me mam↑=

05                                  =Like I was an old [maid]

06 Abraham                : [I am sorry mam]

07                                : Madam (.2) I mean miss.

Analysis of conversation

1.      Turn-Taking

In the conversation above consist of four turns at talk from different speakers. Mary Todd uses falling intonation to signal the end of the turn. And Abraham also uses body language when he response to Mary Todd. In this conversation, Abraham with Mary Todd also experiencing overlap when Mary Todd saying “maid” and Abraham saying “I am sorry mam”.

2.      Adjacency Pairs

Mary Todd utters the first pair part (FPP) Excuse me, Excuse me I need this in line 1-2. This type of utterance may be defined as opening conversation. It is opening conversation to Abraham. In line 3 Abraham responds with the second pair part (SPP) wait a second mam. It means that Mary Todd want to order something but Abraham still busy so Mary Todd asked to wait.

3.      Insertion sequences :

There’s no insertion sequence in this conversation.

4.      Feedback

Feedback is the ways in which listeners show they are attending to what is being said. In this conversation, Abraham gives feedback to Mary Todd statement that she didn’t want called mam by saying I am sorry mam and he continues his utterance by saying Madam, I mean miss.

5.      Repair

Repair is the way speakers correct things they or someone else has said, and check what they have understood in a conversation. In the last utterances’ Abraham, he explained more detail about his utterances. In this conversation, Mary Todd didn’t want called mam, because that Abraham repair his statement as in utterance 06 - 07.

6.      Structural Organization

Talk-in-interaction is organized into phases: most obviously, opening and closings (Schegloff and Sacks 1873). This conversation have an opening conversation. At the beginning of the conversation, Mary Todd saying “Excuse me” to starting the conversation. But in this conversation have not closing conversation.