A Tagmemic Analysis of Conversation.

Abstract

The tagmemic method of linguistic analysis as developed by Kenneth L. Pike is applied to the analysis of informal multi-party verbal interaction ('conversation'). The three part-whole hierarchies of units of tagmemic analysis--grammatical, referential, and phonological--are each discussed with reference to prior analysts' choices of units. Methodological problems of analyzing conversation are discussed and the hierarchies reevaluated and modified in response to them. Methodological questions include (1) identification of nuclei and margins, and boundary definitions of units, (2) differences between written and oral texts, and implications of the presence of hearer/respondent(s) in spontaneous verbal interactions, and (3) the nature of cohesion and the degree and kind of convergence of the three hierarchies at their upper levels. A central question is how to treat speakership in the analysis. The conclusions reached are that alternation of speakers should not be used as a feature of grammatical units; that speakership is reflected in the purpose (an element of cohesion) of the 'move', which is a unit of the referential analysis; and that the individual speaker's voice is a feature of the unit labeled the 'turn' in the phonological hierarchy of units. Although the word 'turn' is used in this dissertation as a technical term limited to a single hierarchy, the tri-hierarchical approach of tagmemic analysis is found to contribute toward an underst and ing of what is commonly referred to as a turn (an interactional component). The analysis of speech into three distinctive systems clarifies the problem of defining a turn by identifying multiple points in an interaction--hierarchical unit boundaries--at which a change of speakers may take place. All three hierarchies as constructed for conversational analysis include the Episode and History as their highest-level units. The other units of the revised grammatical hierarchy are the Morpheme, Morpheme Cluster, Word, Grammatical Phrase, Grammatical Clause, Grammatical Sentence, and Grammatical Paragraph. For the referential hierarchy, the other units are the Concept, Concept Complex, Monolog, Exchange, Interlogue, and Speech Event. For the phonological hierarchy, they are the Phoneme, Syllable, Word, Phonological Phrase, Phonological Clause, Phonological Sentence, Turn, Phonological Paragraph (projected), and Conversation.