METHODS SECTION TO CASE STUDY ONE http://se.unisa.edu.au/phd/storm/chapter1.htm

 

NOTE: All references to ‘speech’ in chapter one will be from the ‘STORM’ chatroom at http://se.unisa.edu.au/phd/chat/storm.htm. For example saying In turn 58… will be turn 58 in the storm chatroom. The script from the storm chatroom will be in italics. The transcription methodology is explained at: http://se.unisa.edu.au/phd/storm/transcriptions.htm  

 

In order to establish a methodology of analysis of this chatroom - ‘STORM’ I will briefly examine the already established forms of dialogue analysis. I will show why each theory is either useful or inadequate for a study of this particular chatroom. However, the main research will be on Conversational Anaylsis.

 

<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">In developing a transcription system to accommodate and "capture" multilogue in case study ONE, I will use symbols to indicate: interaction between participants, change of topic, and introduction. Interaction between participants will indicate retrograde speech referencing, as "speakers" can only refer to what has already been said.

 

Whereas turn-taking is thought as primarily a two-part turn taking system in chat rooms there are so many voices that actual individual turn-taking has to be teased out to find mean in dialogue.

<o:p></o:p></SPAN>

<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">For example, in the multilogue below, the text in 1 is not answered until 4.<o:p></o:p></SPAN>

 

The methodology I propose to pursue for the textual analysis within this project is a mixture of several approaches to linguistic studies. As what I am proposing to do includes several fields of study, as shown below, I have to be clear at all times that what I am doing is at core a linguistic study. My approach to this study therefore, differs from a psychological or sociological approach to the use of language. The psychologist asks why we have conversation the way we do. Sociological conversation analysis asks us instead how we do the conversation. Linguists ask, "How is language structured to enable us to do conversation" (Eggins & Slade 1997, p.7). By extending this 3rd, linguistic approach into electronic interactions I can retain for my study a focus on evolving practices within a sphere still loosely considered textual rather than talk-based. In other words, I anticipate the possibility of being able to capture emergent conventional patterns of use within Internet chat behaviour, as my original contribution to this field of study.

 

In order to establish a method of analysis of case study one I will examine the already established forms of dialogue analysis. I will show why each theory is either useful or inadequate for this study. The main contributors and theorists in each field will be noted and their work cited in this section of the review of literature.

 

Chunk and chat segments in chatroom talk

In developing a transcription system to accommodate and "capture" multilogue in case study ONE, I will use symbols to indicate: interaction between participants, change of topic, and introduction. Interaction between participants will indicate retrograde speech referencing, as "speakers" can only refer to what has already been said.

 

This dialogue was ‘jumped’ in to.  The complete interaction that I ‘captured’ lasted approximately 20 minutes.  I have a transcription of 279 lines from 45 speakers.  The participants did not all enter or speak at the same time.  This is one of the most obvious differences between a chat room transcription and that of a spoken conversation.  Casual conversation may have several speakers talking at a time. This can be recorded and much of the ethnographic work of social linguistics discusses this.  ([i]) Because the ‘speakers’ did not all arrive at the same time in the chat room I have numbered them according to sequential chat-events.

 

There is an orderly and sequential flow of ‘chat_events’([ii]). This is one of the contradictory situations in chats.  They are at the same both structured and unstructured. This is also chat’s departure from casual conversation.  Whereas, in casual conversation there is no going back to an earlier chunk of speech.  What is said has come and gone and may be referred as memory but it can not be referred to as ‘captured’ text.  In a chat room one can scroll back to what was said earlier and respond to that.

 

In this chat room I have taken the raw material and represented it in three formats.  Firstly, is the raw data as it appears in the chat room. http://se.unisa.edu.au/phd/chat/storm.htm

 

Secondly, I have isolated speakers and grouped each speaker’s text together.  For example the chat_author, <EMT-Calvin>, below, even though saying at chat_event 42 that there will be no more dialogue is still writing turn-taking 272 and because I did not record any more of this particular chatroom the speaker could have gone for much longer.  The point to grouping individual speakers is to attempt to identify linguistic patternings.  This will be discussed in the next section of this thesis.  The data for each speaker’s completed text is viewable at: http://se.unisa.edu.au/STORM2.htm

<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]> <o:p></o:p>

<TBODY>Turn

Speaker

Text

1

<EMT-Calvin>

 

hahahaha lol

14

 

that weather building in cherryt

pooint says it s 126 degrees

 

35

 

well folks im signing off here

 

42

 

i need some sleep

 

63

 

i like being self employed

 

69

 

dont have to worry about

someone telling me to report to worl

 

70

 

k

 

82

 

and those folks will be sent back

to mexico

 

85

 

the locals will be the ones to

get jobs

 

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Thirdly, I have grouped turn-taking between speakers where a particular thread of conversation was being established. An example of this is:

<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]><o:p></o:p>

<TBODY>

Turn

Speaker

Text

58.

‘lookout4110’

Who is in Wilm. right now?

62.

<Werblessed>

Im 50 Miles west of Wilm.

71.<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7pt"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>

<lookout4110>

How ya holding up Werblessed?

81.

<Werblessed>

So far just strong wind gusts and lots of rain.. Over 8 inches so far..

87.

<lookout4110>

Have the winds been strong?

96.

<Werblessed>

Gusts up to 60-65 so far its starting to pick up a bit.. Only gonna get stronger Between now and midnite

106.<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7pt">                </SPAN>

<ankash>

Hi guest JoJo......I'm from Wilmington, the hurricane bullseye.

108.<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7pt">                </SPAN>

<lookout4110>

ankash is alot of Wilmington flooded?

110.<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7pt">                </SPAN>

<Werblessed>

In Bladen County Outside of White<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </SPAN>Lake

</TBODY>

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Then the types of ‘speech’ will be compared such as whether it is a greeteing or an answer to a question. This will be formulated and explained in a table as follows:

 

Major theoretical studies have examined conversation as interaction between participants with conversation understood as spoken communication. One primary characteristic of conversation is that it is fully interactive - at least two people must participate in it, and they exchange messages in a real-time basis. Participants take turns in exchanging these messages, so conversation is fundamentally a sequential activity (Nofsinger 1991: p.3).  However, on-line sequential activity is rare.  Conversation is often similar to bumper cars in a side-show amusement park.  Dialogue seemingly bumps and weaves often without any reason or its existence.

 

When the dialogue is about an emergency such as in the ‘storm’ chatroom the sequential activity could be a life and death situation.  There was not that element of drama in this particular chatroom however, there could easily have been. 

 

There is the question of whether cyberspace is even "real" and therefore worthy of study. To most participators chatrooms are real created space.  People are able to express ideas, ask questions, and make arrangements to meet in the physical. There have been the same experiences gained within the chatroom environment as there would be if people were at a meeting, party or at any social gathering; “chatrooms are suitable places for developing the self socially, mentally and culturally, as well as shaping the character traits of the self.” (Teo Soo Yee in In Defence of Chatrooms) Virtual communities can be as important to those who visit the same chatrooms as any community in RL (Real Life) would be. There is an ever expanding amount of online essays which discuss virtual communities.  Many of these essays will be cited in this literature review and as I find more they will be listed at:http://se.unisa.edu.au/vc~essays.html . As I am investigating linguistic patterns in chatroom ‘speech’ exchanges  I am not overly concerned with who exchanges meaning , ie. what role the person is playing and whether it is ‘he or she’ ‘talking’ or a made up identity, but how meaning is exchanged.

 

In turns 58 through 110 there is an interactive conversation between two ‘speakers’ regarding the location of the storm:

 

Turn

Speaker

Text

58.

‘lookout4110’

Who is in Wilm. right now?

62.

<Werblessed>

Im 50 Miles west of Wilm.

71.  

<lookout4110>

How ya holding up Werblessed?

81.

<Werblessed>

So far just strong wind gusts and lots of rain.. Over 8 inches so far..

87.

<lookout4110>

Have the winds been strong?

96.

<Werblessed>

Gusts up to 60-65 so far its starting to pick up a bit.. Only gonna get stronger Between now and midnite

106.                

<ankash>

Hi guest JoJo......I'm from Wilmington, the hurricane bullseye.

108.                

<lookout4110>

ankash is alot of Wilmington flooded?

110.                

<Werblessed>

In Bladen County Outside of White  Lake

analysis

 

 

 

Return to Case Study One, Two, Three, Four, Five

Return to Introduction for thesis

Return to Literature Review

Return to Bibliography

 

 Notes:


turn-taking
 A pragmatic conversation principle usually (but, heaven knows, not always) respected in which each participant in a dialogue takes turns at speaking. The rules that govern turn-taking are rather complex and involve subtle factors like intonation, contour and pausing as well as the more straightforward invitations from the other person to speak, such as questions and partial lead-ins. The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, © Arthur S. Reber 1995 http://www.xrefer.com/entry/157565

   Last accessed on line: Wednesday, 9 May 2001

 

 

Areas of study in face-to-face casual conversation read in preparation for the introduction to a methodology to STORM.

 

1.     David G. Novick, Brian Hansen and Karen Ward ‘Coordinating Turn-Taking with Gaze’ (Gaze plays a powerful and complex role in face-to-face conversation). Center for Spoken Language Understanding, Oregon Graduate Institute.                               Last accessed on line: Wednesday, 9 May 2001 http://www.cs.utep.edu/novick/papers/gaze.icslp.html

2.     Turn-taking, Stress, Instruction, Coordinate

  1. Leland McCleary, Turn-taking
  2. "elaine crowder", freq of ult/pen/ant Eng verb stress
  3. William Tishey, cai with databases
  4. Steven Schaufele, Coordinate-Structure Constraint

Last accessed on line: Wednesday, 9 May 2001

 

3.      Solomon, Paul. Conversation in Information Seeking Contexts: A Test of an Analytical Framework. http://ils.unc.edu/~solomon/hp/ConInfo.html  last accessed on-line Wednesday, 9 May 2001

 

4.      Bunt, Harry. ITK, Tilburg University, The Netherlands bunt@kub.nl ‘Dynamic Interpretation and Dialogue Theory’ http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/bunt97dynamic.html Last accessed on line: Wednesday, 9 May 2001

 

 

5.     King, G. (1972). Open and closed questions: The reference interview. RQ,12, 157-160.

 

This is a work in process by Terrell Neuage for a Ph.D at the University of South Australia  

 

 

 



[i] .  1. For work on ethnographic see METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN CONVERSATION ANALYSIS</SPAN> <SPAN style="COLOR: olive"></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black">http://www.pscw.uva.nl/emca/mica.htm </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: red">LAST ACCESSED ON-LINE Thursday, 30 November 2000 (47)

2. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696-735

3.

 

 

 

[ii]  Chat_events are the individual turn-taking text of a particular participator in a chat room.

 

 

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