Transcript Analysis

Transcript: Conversation at St Brendan's College

 A: What did you do last weekend?

B: I started my new job

A: What was it like?

B: I was on the tills. Ellie what did you do on the weekend?

A: Ummm my brother went to Uni on Sunday, we went down Southampton and then yeah basically

B: Greaatt

C: I was working all day Saturday and then that was about it

D: Ummm I was doing homework all weekend, didn’t really

B: Yeah umm I had my first driving lesson as well

A: How was that?

B: That was really good actually yeah, I can’t wait to be able to drive, yeah

A: Ummm what else did I do? I had dance on Saturday

C: How was dance?

A: Great, getting ready for competitions and performances, yeah

• 'What did you do last weekend' - Phatic talk to start off the conversation, used as a social gel
• 'What was it like?' followed by 'I was on the tills' is a dispreferred response. The speaker didn't actually answer the question, possibly because of the awkward circumstance of being recorded
• 'Down Southampton' is not grammatically correct, it should be 'to Southampton' however because it is spontaneous speech, we wouldn't point it out usually
• 'Down Southampton' is also an example of region specific dialect because you wouldn't say 'down' if you lived right next to it
• 'University' shortened to 'Uni' is abbreviated because spontaneous speech is a lot more informal and relaxed
• 'Ummm' is a filled pause - A non-fluency feature, perhaps used because they are unsure of what to say and so they hesitate
• 'Didn't really' opposes to one of Grice's Maxims as it has no relevance - it does not relate to the topic
• 'Yeah', 'ummm' and 'basically' are fillers - possibly used because they are unsure of what to say
• 'How was that?' with the response 'that was really good' is an example of adjacency pairs and a preferred response - the question has been answered and it is relevant to the topic, making the conversation flow
• 'What else did I do? I had dance on Saturday' is an example of answering your own question - this may be because of the situation they have been put in, and so they are trying to think of something to say
• Person A knew person B and C before the conversation and St Brendan's - may show in conversation because A is more outgoing and chatty than person D
• Person D did not know anyone before the conversation and St Brendan's - this could be why they do not converse and speak as much as the others