COVERSATION AS A
DISCOURSE TYPE
CONTENT
DEFINITION OF CONVERSATION
WHAT IS NOT CONVERSATION
TYPES OF CONVERSATION
CONVERSATIONAL NARCISSISM
PROCESS OF CONVERSATION
WHAT IS CONVERSATION?
• Generally speaking
Conversation is
interactive communication betw
een two or more people. The
development of conversational
skills and etiquette is an
important part of socialization.
DEFINITION
• No generally accepted definition of
conversation exists, beyond the fact that
a conversation involves at least two
people talking together.
WHAT IS NOT CONVERSATION?
A ritualized exchange such as a mutual greeting is
not a conversation,
an interaction that includes a marked status
differential (such as a boss giving orders) is also not a
conversation.
An interaction with a tightly focused topic or purpose
is also generally not considered a conversation.
From a less technical
perspective, a writer on Conversation is the kind of
etiquette in the early 20th speech that happens
century defined conversation as informally, symmetrically,
the polite give and take of and for the purposes of
subjects thought of by people establishing and maintaining
talking with each other for social ties
company.
• Conversation is generally face-to-face person-to-
person at the same time (synchronous) – possibly
online with video applications such as Skype, but
might also include audio-only phone calls.
• Conversation would not
generally include internet
written communication
which tends to be
asynchronous (not same
time – can read and respond
later if at all) and does not fit
the 'con'='with' in
'conversation'.
In face to face conversation it has
been suggested that 85% of the
communication is non-verbal/body
language – a smile, a frown, a shrug,
tone of voice conveying much added
meaning to the mere words.
Short forms of written
communication such as sms are thus
frequently misunderstood.
SUBJECT
Many conversations can be divided into four categories according to their
major subject content:
Subjective ideas, which often serve to extend understanding and
awareness.
Objective facts, which may serve to consolidate a widely held view.
Other people (usually absent), which may be either critical, competitive, or
supportive. This includes gossip.
Oneself, which sometimes indicate attention-seeking behavior or can
provide relevant information about oneself to participants in the
conversation.
FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION
• Functional conversation is designed to
convey information in order to help
achieve an individual or group goal.
• Small talk is a type of conversation
where the topic is less important than
the social purpose of
achieving bonding between people or
managing personal distance.
NARCISSISM
• Conversational narcissism is a term used by
sociologist Charles Derber in his book, The Pursuit
of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life.
• Derber observed that the social support system in
America is relatively weak, and this leads people
to compete mightily for attention. In social
situations, they tend to steer the conversation
away from others and toward themselves.
• "Conversational narcissism is the key
manifestation of the dominant attention-getting
psychology in America," he wrote.
"shift-response" VS "support-response"
• A shift response takes the • Whereas a support response
focus of attention away maintains the focus on the
from the last speaker and last speaker, as in: "John: I'm
refocuses on the new feeling really starved. Mary:
speaker, as in: "John: I'm When was the last time you
feeling really starved. ate?"
Mary: Oh, I just ate."
5-stage-model of conversation
The five-stage model of
conversation says that there are
five steps in every conversation:
opening
feedforward
business
feedback
closing
What Is the Process of Conversation?
• Conversation at its simplest takes place when participants
these tasks:
• 1) Open a channel.
• 2) Commit to engage.
• 3) Construct meaning.
4) Evolve.
5) Converge on agreement.
• 6) Act or Transact.
OPEN A CHANNEL
• When participant A sends an
initial message, the possibility for
conversation opens.
• For conversation to follow, the
message must establish common
ground; it must be
comprehensible to participant B.
COMMIT TO ENGAGE
• Participant B must pay attention to the
message and then commit to engaging
with A.
• Such a commitment may amount to
nothing more than continuing to pay
attention.
• For conversation to persist, the
commitment must be symmetrical, and
either side may break off for any reason, at
any time.
CONSTRUCT MEANING
• Conversation enables us to construct (or
reconstruct) meaning, including meaning
that is new to the destination. Conversation
theory has a highly detailed model that we
must leave to other descriptions though it
is useful even in this skeletal form.
• Messages are composed with topics or
distinctions that are already shared, on the
basis of prior conversation or shared
contexts, such as common language and
social norms.
EVOLVE
• Participant A or B (or both) are different after
the interaction. Either or both hold new
beliefs, make decisions, or develop new
relationships, with others, with circumstances
or objects, or with themselves.
• Here we define an “effective conversation” as
an interaction in which the changes brought
about by conversation have lasting value to
the participants.
CONVERGE ON AGREEMENT
• Participant B may wish to confirm understanding of
A’s concept. To do so, B must create and transmit a
different formulation of the topic(s) under
discussion, one that captures his model of the
concept.
• On receipt, participant A attempts to make sense of
B’s formulation and compares it with her original
intention. This may lead to further exchanges.
• When both A and B judge that the concepts match
sufficiently, they have reached “an agreement over
an understanding.”
ACT OF TRANSACT
• Sometimes one or more of the participants
agrees to perform an action as a result of,
and beyond, the conversation that has
taken place.
• For example, they may agree to play a
game together or enter into a relationship.
• Or they may agree to an exchange, as
when money is traded for a product or
service.
THANK YOU FOR
ATTENTION!
