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DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 4
Trương Văn Ánh
Trường Đại học Sài Gòn
Adjacency pairs
In a dialog, two exchanges next to each other are called an adjacency pair.
Adjacency pairs include question-reply, introduction-greeting, praising-thank, blaming-excusing, inviting-refusal, praising-refusal, and so on.
Ex: A: How much is the car?
B: Two billion dong.
C: My name is Jack.
D: Hi, Jack. Pleased to meet you.
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Many actions in conversation are accomplished through established adjacency pairs, examples of which include:
- call/beckon → response
"Waiter!" → "Yes, sir“
- complaint → excuse/remedy
"It`s awfully cold in here" → "Oh, sorry, I`ll close the window“
- Compliment → acceptance/refusal
"I really like your new haircut!!" → "Oh, thanks”.









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- Degreeting → degreeting
"See you!" → "Yeah, see you later!"
- Inform → acknowledge
"Your phone is over there" → "I know”
- Greeting → greeting
"Hiya!" → "Oh, hi!”
- Offer → acceptance/rejection
"Would you like to visit the museum with me this evening?" → "I`d love to!”









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- Request → acceptance/rejection
"Is it OK if I borrow this book?" → "I`d rather you didn`t, it`s due back at the library tomorrow".









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Inserted pairs
An adjacency pair may include another question-answer pair:
Ex: A: Where’s the milk I bought this morning?
B: The skim milk?
A: Yeah.
B: On the counter.
An inserted pair is in the middle of the dialog.
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In the following exchange, the turns which separate the parts of the request-acceptance pair are insertion sequences:
A: I wanted to order some more paint.(Request)
B: Yes, how many tubes would you like, sir? (Question 1)
A: Um, what`s the price with tax? (Question 2)
B: Er, I`ll just work that out for you. (Hold)
A: Thanks. (Acceptance)
B: Three nineteen a tube, sir. (Answer 2)
A: I`ll have five, then. (Answer 1)
B: Here you go. (Acceptance)









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Preferred or dispreferred responses
The second pair part may be preferred or dispreferred responses.
A: I really enjoyed the movie last night. Did you ?
B: No, I thought it was pretty crummy, though I can see how you could’ve liked certain part of it.
The second part (B) is dispreferred.
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Analyze the following pair:
A. The book is interesting.
B. I think so.
The second part (B) is preferred.
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Invitation 1
A: Why don’t you come up and see me some time?
Acceptance
B: I would like to.
Invitation 2
A: uh if you’d care to come and visit a little while this morning I’ll give you a cup of coffee.

Refusal








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B: hehh well that’s awfully sweet of you I don’t think I can make it this morning hh uhm I’m running an ad in the paper and uh I have to stay near the phone.
As the two examples above illustrate, the production of a dispreferred second generally requires more conversational effort than a preferred second. In example 2, one can distinguish the following components in B`s turn: delaying a response + marker + expressing appreciation of the offer + declination itself + giving a reason for why one has to decline.









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There are situations in which a `disagreement` counts as a preferred second following an assessement:
Assessment: I haven`t done well, haven`t I?
Disagreement: Nonsense. Of course, you did well!








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Repairs
When the conversation is broken down, Repairs are the things done to fix a conversational breakdown and restore alignment. Breakdowns can be misunderstandings ("What did you say?"; "What do you mean?") as well as disagreements ("I think you’re wrong"), rejections ("No, I won’t") and other difficulties, assessments ("That’s good"), newsmarks ("Oh, wow!), continuers ("uh huh"), formulations (giving the gist of what’s been said),  collaborative Completions (finishing the speaker’s sentence)

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A: Where have you put the book?
B: On the shelf.
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A: uh huh.
B: I have read it.
A says “uh huh” to encourage B to continue the conversation. (A wants B to repair the conversation).








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THE END