However use of the word “But” comes into different context through the initial moves in the form of questions on lines three and four. On line three C poses a question to B as to “how many paper’s you sell”. This is quite a weak and vague move because of the error in the question. Firstly Speaker C makes an initial self-correction from “how much” to “how many papers you sell”. Although this is an error in itself because it is not B that sold the papers but her son so she wielded little power to influence the response moves. Hence in line four speaker A poses another question “But how much you get a paper”. Speaker A interrupts the questioning of Speaker C because he believes that his line of questioning is more relevant. This is shown by the use of “But” which in this context signals addition of new or more important information than previously said. This affects the line of questioning and appropriate responses with speaker A asserting authority over speaker C’s initial move.
An example of a different type of initial move can be seen on line ten in the form of a statement. Here speaker B begins a statement with the word “And”. This holds great significance in conversation analysis as Schiffrin analysis predicts, ‘and’ is used primarily to mark that the current move is a continuation of the same speaker’s prior turn. “And’ also correlates strongly, though not absolutely, with the presentation of new information. This holds true for Speaker B who goes on from talking about her sons’ commission to “some weeks he got a hundred dollars and others week he might of got well forty dollars”.
Response Moves:
The first response move in this speech segment comes in line two in response to the direct line of questioning by speaker C. Speaker B replies to the question “On a commission yeah”. This response move is the preferred response that C was after because it was the C’s expected answer. Sack’s states, 'the utterance of one speaker makes a particular kind of response likely’ (1974, p.53). Therefore because C posed the question as “its on a commission basis isn’t it”. This depicts that the speaker is quite sure it is but needs B’s clarification to be certain, which makes the preferred response one that affirms C’s belief.
In response to the initial move from speaker A (“But how much you get a paper”) are the response moves from line five, six and seven. Sacks said “The non-preferred reply tends to be marked by a pause, an hesitation, a justification or another sign”. Initially speaker B responds hesitantly with “Aww” which indicates the speaker was unsure or did not know the correct or preferred response. On this apprehension speaker D comes in with a response of “Well it’s thirty cents a paper. Schiffrin suggests that ‘well’ is used almost exclusively at the beginning of a response, to signal that an upcoming contribution is not fully consonant with the set of possible responses implied by the question initiator. Speaker D’s response is hence very vague, not answering the commission price per paper but rather giving the price of the paper itself. Therefore D’s response move is out of place from the possible response set or is un-preferred option. Although it could be argued that speaker D’s response is more a type of insertion sequence. Which is a sequence of turns that intervenes between the first and second parts of an adjacency pairs (Levinson 1983).
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Finally is the response move in line seven by speaker B. Here B states, “I think, I think they got five cents a paper”. Although it can be noted that the speaker is hesitant and answers with uncertainty using the words “I think”. This is the most preferred response because the move elicits information concerning the price her son’s got per paper, which was the initial question from A. Affirming the response from B is the follow up moves or exclamations from speaker A and C in line eight and nine. Exclamations are odd because they are non-interactive. If the exclamation is 'ouch', it is likely to elicit a question, 'What's the matter’ which in turn starts off an adjacency pair, completed by, for example, 'I've cut my finger'. However since the move’s by A and C are unlikely to elicit a question, they are considered mere follow up statements in response to speaker B’s answer.
Conclusion:
Initial moves influence and limit responses as well as raise topics, which requires the listeners to speak about. A preferred response is given when you respond as the speaker expects you to, in agreement or support of them, whilst a dispreferred response is when the expected response is not given (Mulholland 1991: 48). However, as shown throughout the analysis, it is important to remember that speech pairs are not absolute “rules”; they are just conversational “norms”. After current speaker produces an initial move, next speaker may or may not chose to produce a response move.
Bibliography
Websites
Levinson, S. (1983). What is an insertion sequence. . (Accessed May 10, 2003).
Books
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., and Jefferson, G. (1974) “A simplest systematics for the organization of turntaking in conversation”, in Language, vol. 50.
Mulholland,J. (2003) “Spoken Communication”
