Analyzing Casual Conversation

This book develops a systematic model for the analyses and description of casual conversation in English. Working through examples of casual conversations, the authors argue that despite its sometimes aimless appearance and apparently unstructured content, casual conversation is a highly structured semantic activity and plays a critical role in the social construction of reality. Drawing on insights from sociological, linguistic and critical semiotic perspectives on interaction, the book aims to equip readers with the analytic skills to describe the different layers of structure, and critical interpretive framework within which to explain the 'social work' that goes on through chat. Casual conversations are identified as everyday verbal interactions in which talk seems to be an end in itself, for example, getting together with friends over coffee or diner and just 'having a chat'. In seeking to understand how language enables us to participate in casual conversation, and the role such interactions play in our formation as social agents, the book progressively introduces successive levels of analytical techniques. Organised from a micro- to macro- focus, the techniques provide a cumulative account of conversational patterns at grammatical, semantic, discourse and contextual levels. At each level, techniques are presented and exemplified on authentic conversational excerpts, involving participants differing in age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic class. The book begins by distinguishing varieties of everyday talk and briefly reviewing relevant approaches to conversation/discourse analysis. Subsequent chapters detail each of the analytical techniques, beginning with grammatical patterns (types of clauses). At the semantic level, analysis covers attitudinal and intensifying lexis, use of strategies to create intimacy, and the role of humour in casual interactions. The turn-taking structure of casual talk is described through the analysis of 'moves' interactants make (how they act on each other). Finally, the book presents descriptions of some common conversational genres such as story-telling and gossiping. By the end of the book, readers will be in a position to analyze and explain the social purpose and the linguistic characteristics of samples of casual conversation from contexts of relevance to them.