DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 4
Trương Văn Ánh
Saigon University, HCMC

1

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, praisingrefusal, 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.

2

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”.
3

- 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!”
4

- 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".

5

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.
6

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)
7
B: Here you go. (Acceptance)

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.
8

Analyze the following pair:
A. The book is interesting.
B. I think so.
The second part (B) is preferred.

9

10

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

11

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.
12

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!

13

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)
14

A: Where have you put the book?
B: On the shelf.
…
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).

15

THE END

16