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COM 370

4/28/2008

Transcript

1. S1 I forgot to ask, did you like, see, uh, Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

2. S2 I thought it was funny. Not, I-I-I like Knocked Up-

3. S1 Yeah, I know you do.

4. S2 [Knocked Up is one of my favorites.

5. S1 I can’t remember, I don’t think I liked it?, that much-

6. S2 Knocked Up?

7. S1 But I liked it better than, Super Bad, but I’ve seen Super Bad like two or three times, I’ve only seen Knocked up once.

8. S2 See, I haven’t seen all of Super Bad, ever-

9. S1 [Hmmm.

10. S2 So, I guess I’m out of the loop.

11. S1 I really hate that guy though. That fat kid. And he was, he was in this movie=

12. S2 [He wasn’t funny in Forgetting Sarah Marshall at a::ll!

13. S1 =he was just, he was just weird, like awkward.

14. S2 [He was just sta::lking that guy=

15. S1 [Yeah, and he’s just-

16. S2 =and it wasn’t funny-

17. S1 Yeah.

18. S2 I thought it was going to be funny. And there was that one commercial that they showed, and he was saying, like (h) ‘oh no clear off the table=

19. S1 [Yeah! And that wasn’t in it!

20. S2 =it’s just one guy.’ That part wasn’t in the movie!

21. S1 [I know! The one/

22. S2 And I thought that part was the one funny part that he said=

23. S1((Laughs)).

24. S2 =and I hate it when they do that with commercials, when they show something=

25. S1 [They always do that!

26. S2 =and it’s not in the movie!

27. S1 Or they’ll show a::ll the funny parts-=

28. S2 [Oh yeah, that sucks.

29. S1 =that are in the movie. Yeah, but mainly=

30. S2 [I’m kind of worried that’s how Baby Mamma is going to be.

31. S1 [=when they show something, oh yea:h, probably, yeah. They show something that’s not even in the movie=

32. S2 [Oh, yeah,

33. S1 =as they’re like ‘come see this movie cause this is a funny part=

34. S2 Yeah!

35. S1 =in it’ and no it’s not!

36. S2 [No, it’s not even in there!

37. S1 ((Laughs)).

38. S2 That made me mad.

39. S1 Yeah.

40. S2 I loved the Dracula musical though.

41. S1 That was good.

42. S2 That was so funny. I loved his Dracula voice. ( )

43. S1 [I could tell he was obsessed with music because in Freaks and Geeks he’s, you know, he’s, a, crazy, uh,=

44. S2 [Yeah.

45. S1 =drum-drummer, and he’s knows all the knowledge. And I know that’s a character, but=

46. S2 [Yeah.

47. S1 =you have to have something=

48. S2 [Yeah, you have to have the background.

49. S1 =and he could play the drums, so.

50. S2 He could play the piano.

51. S1 Yeah, he-he’s, really good.

52. S2 [He’s very talented.

53. S1 You know the part I thought was really weird though? When Sarah was explaining why she broke up with him, and all of a sudden she was like, ‘you never leave your place!?’ It was just like, I know they kind of impli:ed that?=

54. S2 [Yeah.

55. S1 =but we only saw him for like a day before he, or maybe a few days before he went to Hawaii. So, that was weird that she was like ‘you’re a recluse!?’ blah blah blah?=

56. S2 [Yeah.

57. S1 but, we never, it was-

58. S2 [She said ‘I tri::ed (h)=

59. S1 [Yeah.

60. S2 =and I went to all these semin:ars’ and all this stuff and it’s like, okay, well, if that’s true, then you can sort of see maybe why their relationship wasn’t, going? anywhere=

61. S1 [Yeah.

62. S2 =but, I mean the fact that she, cheated on him for a year=

63. S1 [Yeah, that doesn’t help.

64. S1 ((Laughs)).

65. S2 =with that guy.

66. S1 Yeah. I liked that guy though.

67. S2 Yeah, he was really=

68. S1 [I really=

69. S2 [=kinda cool.

70. S1 =liked-I liked the-we::ll-I just liked everything h-he said, but the part about the-the, the flip flops, he’s like=

71. S2 [((Laughs))

72. S1 = ‘This one’s mate.’

73. S2 [‘It’s like this one, except the opposite.’

74. S1 [‘It’s like it’s twin, but not not, like an evil one.’

75. S2 ((Laughs)) That was pretty good.

[ [

76. S1 ((Laughs)).

77. S2 Yeah, he was actually, n:ot a terrible guy.

78. S1 Yeah, and I-I’m wondering=

79. S2 [I’m glad they made him no:t a terrible guy though-=

80. S1 Right, yeah.

81. S2 because he could have been a very clich::e.

82. S1 [Yeah, like he was still a terrible guy technically=

83. S2 [Yeah,

84. S1 = because he was like=

85. S2 [Yeah-he-yeah,

86. S1 = ‘Yeah, I’m gonna sleep with all these wom::en, I’m so worldly,’=

87. S2 [Yeah.

88. S1 =but at the same time, he was just so laid back that you couldn’t be mad at him?

89. S2 Yeah.

90. S1 And he was still really nice.

[ [

91. S2 And he could have been more cliche and just like this evi::l=

92. S1 [Yeah.

93. S2 =cra:zy gu:y.

94. S1 But I-I, was wondering like, if I’ve seen him somewhere?, so I-I IMDB’d him, and-=

95. S2 Has he been in anything?

96. S1 =He’s from, he’s like, from Britain, and he does things there. Like he’s a comedian a:nd like a::, t.v.?, like a V.J. or something there? U:m / yeah, so, h-he acts in like, some, shows there, but, yeah, never really anything here, except for this? So, I was like, O.K.?

97. S2 [Hmm.

(Pause).

98. S1 He has a weird face though. It’s like squished. ((Laughs)).

99. S2 [It was like covered by like the hai::r, but when you actually looked at it, and at the very end when he was sitting in th:::e=

100. S1 [The chair with the hat?

101. S2 =Yeah! I didn’t even know that was him at first.

102. S1 [I know!

103. S2 I was like, ‘Why are they showing us these people=

104. S1 [((Laughs)).

105. S2 =winking at each other?’

106. S1 ((Laughs)). Yeah, I thought the same thing, I’m like, ‘Wait, is that him?’ That’s weird.

107. S2 [It really didn’t look like him, he looked a lot different.

108. S1 Yea:h.

Conversation Analysis

My friend came to visit me for the weekend. I met her two years ago when I first transferred to this school. She lived on the same dorm floor as me, however, she lived on the other side. At the end of the semester we realized that her roommate would be leaving and she would have a room vacancy. Instead of living with someone she did not know, I decided to move across the floor and live with her for that semester. She then graduated and I moved to an apartment for my final year. We do not get to see each other much, mainly just meeting in Chicago for concerts once or twice during the summer and perhaps once over winter break.

This was a Friday, about an hour after she had come to visit. Most of our conversations are through e-mail, but we happened to have spoken over the phone the day before and caught up a bit more than usual. At the time of this conversation we were sitting at my kitchen table discussing random things (friends, bars, t.v., school, exercise, family) when I pressed record.

This conversation is a rather shallow one. It is about the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” The premise of the movie, which is a bit important only in order to understand what the speakers are discussing, is that a man gets dumped by his t.v. star girlfriend of five years and is devastated. He decides to take a vacation to Hawaii, only to find out that he is staying in the same hotel as her . . . and her new boyfriend. He ends up falling in love with the woman at the front desk and eventually his ex-girlfriend (Sarah) wants him back. Only he comes to find that she had been cheating on him for a year with the man she was with in Hawaii. He is a British rock star who is extremely laid-back and non-sentimental. Sarah ends up alone while he has met someone who treats him far better.

We had spoken about other things, but this was the part of the conversation that had the most going on. By this I mean we were both very animated at certain parts and there were a lot of noticeable differences in the conversation. We had not seen this movie together, but had both gone to see it in the past week. The reason it starts off with me (speaker 1) saying “Oh, I forgot to ask . . . ” was because on the phone the day before she had asked me if I liked it, but I had forgotten to return the question.

While speaking with my friend (speaker 2) I did not notice anything unusual. However, when I went back to actually transcribe the conversation I realized that we both interrupt a lot, even if it is just to say “yeah,” which we tend to say a lot. This overlap is particularly noticeable in lines 70-86. There is a lot of laughter in this piece of the conversation and we both seem very excited to discuss this aspect of the movie while quoting the British man with fake accents.

With that being said, after I noticed that there was a lot of overlap, I counted how many times each of us interrupted each other in this four-minute period. I found that she interrupted me at least seven more times than I interrupted her. I also found that when I interrupted, it was mainly to agree (yeah) rather than to bring up a new idea. I also tend to interrupt near the end of a statement, but she jumps in quickly and cuts me off more often (lines 29-33).

Though we seem fairly equal in the conversation, it seems that I dominate the topics more. Perhaps it is because it was my apartment, or even though we tried to ignore it, that it was my assignment to record us, so I may have felt that I needed to make sure the conversation kept going. I start off asking the question that introduces the rest of the conversation (line 1). I then go to bring up the other main sub topics in the conversation, like lines 11, 53, 66, 94 and 98, whereas she seems to only change topics two times (lines 18 and 40).

I think there is an overall structure for this conversation. Never did we really change the adjacency pair order. There was only one time when S1 (me) went twice in a row, and it was only to laugh (63 and 64).

Our conversation has a high level of consistency. It also follows the norms of Grice’s Maxims (The Cooperative Principle handout). We are following the Maxim of Quantity because we contribute information (our opinions about the movie) but do not monopolize the conversation with useless information. However, since it was an informal conversation some might say that our contributions were not as “informative” as they were “unnecessary.”

Almost every statement we made, we backed up with reasons why it was so. This is why we followed Grice’s Maxim of Quality. For example, in lines 2-8, we explain the reasons we either liked or disliked this movie. Speaker 1 gives the reason that the movie was better than “Super Bad,” which is made by the same people. Speaker 2 gives a similar reason. This reason is that it was not as good as “Knocked Up,” which is one of her favorites (also by the same people). Since we felt comfortable with each other and trusted that we would be accepted, we were able to make true statements, even if the other person did not agree. The whole conversation involves the same subject, so we follow the Maxim of Relation because of this.

The Maxim of Manner is the only Maxim I feel might not be fulfilled. This is because this conversation is full of unfinished thoughts, interruptions, overlap and underlying understanding. When speaker 1 says “I really hate that guy though,” it might be unclear to most likely anyone else who that “guy” is (line 11). Also, the unfinished thoughts are particularly noticeable in lines 5, 21, 45, 55, 57, 62, 67 and 78. There are at least 35 moments of overlap and interruption in this four minute conversation. Having that much confusion and change of speaker would obviously be difficult to follow. Therefore, although WE understood the things we were saying, to others listening, it might not be clear, unambiguous or orderly.

The implicature, I feel, is fairly clear to the both of us. We knew what direction the conversation should take, what each other was saying, and what was implied. For example, when speaker 2 mentions the end scene in which the man is sitting in the chair (lines 99 and 100), she could not remember “in the chair with the hat,” which, since I knew what she was trying to say, I finished her sentence for her.

In addition, there is a part early in the conversation (line 3) where I say, “Yeah, I know you do,” which implies that I am aware of her love for the movie so there was no need to explain that she did. However, with that being said, the way it is said (the tone) gives the impression that speaker 1 did not really agree that the movie was great, but that it was said slyly as to not threaten face or make the other person get angry or upset with the comment.

There are many parts in which both speakers say “yeah,” and “I know,” which imply understanding, thus the implicature is understood. So, even though there were no underlying requests in this conversation, there were underlying understandings between the two speakers. This also shows that we have certain relationship indicators. It would be obvious to anyone listening or reading this conversation that these two people are friends.

The most disturbing part of this conversation to me, being one of the speakers, is the amount of fillers that are used. Also, the amount of non-ideal phrases used. For speaker 1 (me), there are around 18 times I used the word ‘like’ in an inappropriate manner. I am aware that I used other fillers, but I thought I did not use ‘like’ as much as the average person. This was very disappointing to me. There is one time I talk in which I use six likes (line 96).

I also seemed to change my thought process, or at least stutter while trying to figure out what to say. For example, in lines 68 and 70 I say “I really liked-I liked the-well-I just liked everything h-he said . . . ” which, while transcribing, I was shocked at. It seemed as if I knew what I wanted to say yet I was not trying to contradict that I liked the man’s other lines in the movie as well as the one I was talking about.

However, though I would expect myself to say ‘uh’ or ‘um,’ I only used them about three times throughout the conversation. It is interesting that speaker 2 does not use any filler but ‘like,’ and that only appears about three times in the whole four minutes.

When it comes to ideal delivery, this could not be farther from it. As mentioned before, there are far too many overlaps, interruptions, fillers, an ambiguous conversation for it to be ideal. Also, there is a phrase that really bothers me. Speaker 1 says, in line 45, “he knows all the knowledge.” Clearly that is extremely redundant. However, most people know that while speaking with improvisation, most people say something they did not mean to say.

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was the animation. Both speakers would get very excited about certain aspects of the conversation and use a higher intonation. It also seemed that I would higher my voice when I was kind of unsure about the factual nature of what I was saying, though they were not questions (lines 5, 53, 55 and 96).

I think overall, I learned that it is very hard for me to wait for someone to finish a sentence if I know what they are getting at. I want to jump in and declare my understanding. Also, because I am so anxious to do the aforementioned, I tend to not think about what I want to say as fully as I should. This leads to my changing of thoughts mid-sentence. However, I have a feeling that, in this case, because speaker 1 and speaker 2 are so close, it was easier to allow the overlap and interruption because it was very informal and we knew we wouldn’t offend each other by doing so. However, while transcribing this conversation, I certainly wished we would have waited turns patiently as it was much more difficult to understand and write.

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