A conversation analysis with Colin and Bradley
For my Linguistics course I had to write an essay analysing a conversation, specifically, an interview. I chose to do this interview with Colin and Bradley. (The Geek Syndicate one from the BFI event.) I'm mainly discussed power dynamics. I must say, it is SO strange to be writing about Colin and Bradley and have it not be a fanfic! My brain kept wanting to go off on a tangent about how much Bradley and Colin are clearly IN LOVE while I'm supposed to be academic.
The power dynamic between Bradley and Colin is very interesting. Although they seem to be mainly maintaining an equal power balance, there are times when Colin takes the conversational floor from Bradley, and times when Bradley gives the conversational floor to Colin, even when it is his turn to speak. However, there is a sense that Colin takes the conversational floor to assist Bradley, rather than by way of asserting dominance.
NB: I only analysed 10 minutes of the interview, and any quote from Bradley, Colin and the interviewer are as direct and word for word as I could hear after spending a week transcribing the interview. If there are any terms used here that need explaining, just let me know and I'll do my best.
The interviewer is by default placed in the position of choosing the topic and introducing it. It is her job to ask questions and lead the conversation. Yet, she speaks very little, it is the interviewees’ responsibility to talk about the topic and offer up more information. With the amount of talk each participant contributes, it is clear that Colin and Bradley, the interviewees, dominate the conversation. Asymmetrical speech is defined as ‘one party, that is, has responsibility for the conduct of talk, while the others have less control over it’ (Cameron, D. Working with spoken discourse: 126). It is difficult to assess the power relationships in this interview. The interviewer asks the questions, but the conversation is very one-sided, that is, Colin and Bradley speak much more than the interviewer. Still the interviewer decides when Colin and Bradley have expanded enough on a certain topic and leads them on to the next one by asking other questions; she is responsible for the conduct of talk in that way. The interviewer and the interviewees are, however, working towards a common goal, which is to talk about the television show Merlin and given that both parties entered into this willingly it may be fair to say that the power between the interviewer and the interviewee is equal but manifests itself differently.
Mostly, the turn taking between the interviewees, Colin and Bradley, is determined by the interviewer. She’ll either elect them by name, ‘Bradley, were you bummed you didn’t get to go?’ or by asking a question specifically about their character, ‘What’s Arthur’s mindset like at the beginning of this series?’ With questions that either interviewee is equipped to answer they shared the conversational floor equally, with nine questions that either could answer, Bradley spoke first five times and Colin spoke first four times and they both contributed to the answer of the question. The interviewer will self-select the next turn when either the interviewee had given enough information for the question, or has left a sizeable silence in the conversation.
Tannen (1990: 215) (as cited in Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A., & Leap, W. L. Introducing linguistics: 233) says ‘men who approach conversation as a contest are likely to expend effort not to support the other’s talk… they can take centre stage by telling a story or joke or displaying knowledge’. This can be seen in the beginning of the interview, where Colin’s and Bradley’s speech overlaps frequently. Colin undermines Bradley’s description of how hard they work by saying ‘so dramatic’, but his tone is undoubtedly playful and this is clearly more of a game than a serious fight for dominance. Bradley rebuffs this by taking the conversational floor with his response to the question about describing the series in one sentence; he purposefully cuts Colin off and dominates the conversational floor. He declares his victory by saying ‘I know his tricks you see’.
What happens next is an interesting power shift. An open question is asked, ‘How about favourite parts or a tagline?’ and Bradley starts to speak after Colin requests time to think. Colin interrupts him and Bradley apologises, sincerely, and stops speaking. Bradley is submitting to Colin. Colin makes a joke and Bradley’s deadpan response is met with negativity from the interviewer:
B: That’s what I was thinking
(1)
I1: No
Bradley regains some ground by making another joke, which Colin responds positively to, but from there on out the interview takes a more focussed, serious tone. Mostly, Colin and Bradley do not interrupt each other again and remain silent while the other is speaking. There is a supportive response from Colin when Bradley struggles with the word ‘kingmanship’ which is eventually posed as a question to Colin as Bradley struggles with the word. Colin answer, ‘mmm’ sounds like an affirmation, with its rising intonation.
‘A wider range of compliments may be addressed to women than to men, and women also tend to pay more compliments’ (Mesthrie et al.: 230). In this interaction, there is only one compliment paid, from Colin to Bradley. A question is posed to Bradley about an interview he did, ‘Maybe a future job as a journalist?’ which Colin answers instead, with a compliment to Bradley, ‘the interview was awesome there was an interview with Warwick which one that was brilliant’. He repeats the sentiment after Bradley thanks him, ‘yeah, it was lovely’.
When Bradley tries to censure Colin from giving away to much information about what happens in the series he is ignored:
B: Oh just spoil it
(2)
C: Not to him
B: Not to me
Once again Colin gains dominance, this time by not listening to Bradley.
‘Conversational support: female speakers more frequently use features that provide support and encouragement for other speakers, for example ‘minimal responses’ such as mmh and yeah’ (Mesthrie et al.: 230). Towards the end of the transcription both Bradley and Colin use back-channelling (or conversational support) while the other is speaking. This is unusual, given that previously in the conversation there was no back-channelling between them and as the above quote states, conversational support is a more feminine trait. This may be due to the sensitive nature that the conversation has taken, they are talking about possible criticism of the show, which Bradley is tentatively trying to express without actually aligning himself fully with the notion, and Colin supports him through minimal responses. When Colin in turn talks about the topic, Bradley also makes minimal responses. Colin uses minimal responses more with Bradley than Bradley does with him, however this may be due to the fact that Bradley spends more time talking about the topic than Colin does.
The interviewer, as previously stated, is female, and as expected uses a lot of back-channelling when Colin and Bradley are speaking.
‘There are claims that female speakers use features that make their speech appear tentative and uncertain, such as ‘hedges’ that weaken the force of an utterance (‘I think maybe…’, ‘sort of’, ‘you know’) and certain types of ‘tag questions’ (questions tagged on to statements, such as ‘It’s hot, isn’t it?’) (Mesthrie et al.: 230). The opposite is in fact seen in the interview; Bradley and Colin make frequent use of hedges. The interviewer, although admittedly she speaks infrequently, does not make use of hedges or tag questions whatsoever.
The interviewer clearly has dominance over turn taking and topic choice while Colin and Bradley have dominance over time spent speaking. This structure is determined by the nature of the interaction (being an interview) rather than any personal traits, such as age, gender or personality type. Between Bradley and Colin there is a friendly struggle for dominance, usually seen when joking and absent when the subject is more serious. During more serious conversation Bradley gives way to Colin and Colin asserts dominance, although this only happens a few times. During the discussion of a sensitive subject matter, Bradley and Colin use back-channelling to show support of one another which is not seen as an effort to gain dominance, which was evident in the over lapping speech at the beginning of the interview.
Word Count: 1223
Reference:
Cameron D., 2001, Working with spoken discourse. London: Sage.
Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A.,& Leap, W. L. 2000. Introducing
Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press.
The power dynamic between Bradley and Colin is very interesting. Although they seem to be mainly maintaining an equal power balance, there are times when Colin takes the conversational floor from Bradley, and times when Bradley gives the conversational floor to Colin, even when it is his turn to speak. However, there is a sense that Colin takes the conversational floor to assist Bradley, rather than by way of asserting dominance.
NB: I only analysed 10 minutes of the interview, and any quote from Bradley, Colin and the interviewer are as direct and word for word as I could hear after spending a week transcribing the interview. If there are any terms used here that need explaining, just let me know and I'll do my best.
The interviewer is by default placed in the position of choosing the topic and introducing it. It is her job to ask questions and lead the conversation. Yet, she speaks very little, it is the interviewees’ responsibility to talk about the topic and offer up more information. With the amount of talk each participant contributes, it is clear that Colin and Bradley, the interviewees, dominate the conversation. Asymmetrical speech is defined as ‘one party, that is, has responsibility for the conduct of talk, while the others have less control over it’ (Cameron, D. Working with spoken discourse: 126). It is difficult to assess the power relationships in this interview. The interviewer asks the questions, but the conversation is very one-sided, that is, Colin and Bradley speak much more than the interviewer. Still the interviewer decides when Colin and Bradley have expanded enough on a certain topic and leads them on to the next one by asking other questions; she is responsible for the conduct of talk in that way. The interviewer and the interviewees are, however, working towards a common goal, which is to talk about the television show Merlin and given that both parties entered into this willingly it may be fair to say that the power between the interviewer and the interviewee is equal but manifests itself differently.
Mostly, the turn taking between the interviewees, Colin and Bradley, is determined by the interviewer. She’ll either elect them by name, ‘Bradley, were you bummed you didn’t get to go?’ or by asking a question specifically about their character, ‘What’s Arthur’s mindset like at the beginning of this series?’ With questions that either interviewee is equipped to answer they shared the conversational floor equally, with nine questions that either could answer, Bradley spoke first five times and Colin spoke first four times and they both contributed to the answer of the question. The interviewer will self-select the next turn when either the interviewee had given enough information for the question, or has left a sizeable silence in the conversation.
Tannen (1990: 215) (as cited in Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A., & Leap, W. L. Introducing linguistics: 233) says ‘men who approach conversation as a contest are likely to expend effort not to support the other’s talk… they can take centre stage by telling a story or joke or displaying knowledge’. This can be seen in the beginning of the interview, where Colin’s and Bradley’s speech overlaps frequently. Colin undermines Bradley’s description of how hard they work by saying ‘so dramatic’, but his tone is undoubtedly playful and this is clearly more of a game than a serious fight for dominance. Bradley rebuffs this by taking the conversational floor with his response to the question about describing the series in one sentence; he purposefully cuts Colin off and dominates the conversational floor. He declares his victory by saying ‘I know his tricks you see’.
What happens next is an interesting power shift. An open question is asked, ‘How about favourite parts or a tagline?’ and Bradley starts to speak after Colin requests time to think. Colin interrupts him and Bradley apologises, sincerely, and stops speaking. Bradley is submitting to Colin. Colin makes a joke and Bradley’s deadpan response is met with negativity from the interviewer:
B: That’s what I was thinking
(1)
I1: No
Bradley regains some ground by making another joke, which Colin responds positively to, but from there on out the interview takes a more focussed, serious tone. Mostly, Colin and Bradley do not interrupt each other again and remain silent while the other is speaking. There is a supportive response from Colin when Bradley struggles with the word ‘kingmanship’ which is eventually posed as a question to Colin as Bradley struggles with the word. Colin answer, ‘mmm’ sounds like an affirmation, with its rising intonation.
‘A wider range of compliments may be addressed to women than to men, and women also tend to pay more compliments’ (Mesthrie et al.: 230). In this interaction, there is only one compliment paid, from Colin to Bradley. A question is posed to Bradley about an interview he did, ‘Maybe a future job as a journalist?’ which Colin answers instead, with a compliment to Bradley, ‘the interview was awesome there was an interview with Warwick which one that was brilliant’. He repeats the sentiment after Bradley thanks him, ‘yeah, it was lovely’.
When Bradley tries to censure Colin from giving away to much information about what happens in the series he is ignored:
B: Oh just spoil it
(2)
C: Not to him
B: Not to me
Once again Colin gains dominance, this time by not listening to Bradley.
‘Conversational support: female speakers more frequently use features that provide support and encouragement for other speakers, for example ‘minimal responses’ such as mmh and yeah’ (Mesthrie et al.: 230). Towards the end of the transcription both Bradley and Colin use back-channelling (or conversational support) while the other is speaking. This is unusual, given that previously in the conversation there was no back-channelling between them and as the above quote states, conversational support is a more feminine trait. This may be due to the sensitive nature that the conversation has taken, they are talking about possible criticism of the show, which Bradley is tentatively trying to express without actually aligning himself fully with the notion, and Colin supports him through minimal responses. When Colin in turn talks about the topic, Bradley also makes minimal responses. Colin uses minimal responses more with Bradley than Bradley does with him, however this may be due to the fact that Bradley spends more time talking about the topic than Colin does.
The interviewer, as previously stated, is female, and as expected uses a lot of back-channelling when Colin and Bradley are speaking.
‘There are claims that female speakers use features that make their speech appear tentative and uncertain, such as ‘hedges’ that weaken the force of an utterance (‘I think maybe…’, ‘sort of’, ‘you know’) and certain types of ‘tag questions’ (questions tagged on to statements, such as ‘It’s hot, isn’t it?’) (Mesthrie et al.: 230). The opposite is in fact seen in the interview; Bradley and Colin make frequent use of hedges. The interviewer, although admittedly she speaks infrequently, does not make use of hedges or tag questions whatsoever.
The interviewer clearly has dominance over turn taking and topic choice while Colin and Bradley have dominance over time spent speaking. This structure is determined by the nature of the interaction (being an interview) rather than any personal traits, such as age, gender or personality type. Between Bradley and Colin there is a friendly struggle for dominance, usually seen when joking and absent when the subject is more serious. During more serious conversation Bradley gives way to Colin and Colin asserts dominance, although this only happens a few times. During the discussion of a sensitive subject matter, Bradley and Colin use back-channelling to show support of one another which is not seen as an effort to gain dominance, which was evident in the over lapping speech at the beginning of the interview.
Word Count: 1223
Reference:
Cameron D., 2001, Working with spoken discourse. London: Sage.
Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A.,& Leap, W. L. 2000. Introducing
Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press.