A study of preferred and dispreferred second turns used in the first episode of the film downton abbey

This study is carried out in an attempt to investigate the general patterns ofpreferred and dispreferred second turns as well as the common linguistic features indicating them in the fir

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-o0o -ĐINH THỊ THANH HUYỀN

A STUDY OF PREFERRED AND DISPREFERRED

SECOND TURNS USED IN THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE

FILM “DOWNTON ABBEY”

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÂU ĐÁP ƯU TIÊN VÀ KHÔNG ƯU TIÊN

TRONG TẬP 1 PHIM “DOWNTON ABBEY”)

Major: English LinguisticsCode: 60220201

Training Program: Type 1Supervisor: Assoc Prof Nguyễn Văn Trào, PhD

HANOI – 2016

I confirm that when I quoted from the work of others, the source was always given and

no part of this work has been published before submission

Signature:

Date:

Second, I wish to thank all of the lecturers, professors and doctors teaching at theFaculty of Post-Graduate Studies of ULIS for their lessons and support during my MAcourse.

I would also like to express my warmest thanks to my parents, my beloved sister, and

my friend Ngo Thanh Huyen for their love, support and caring

Finally, I am also grateful to all the authors whose books, newspapers and works havebeen referred to in this thesis

The research paper could not have been fulfilled without them

Hanoi, October, 2016Dinh Thi Thanh Huyen

This study is carried out in an attempt to investigate the general patterns ofpreferred and dispreferred second turns as well as the common linguistic features

indicating them in the first episode of the film Downton Abbey based on the theoretical

frameworks of conversation analysis and preference structure

The database comprises 108 conversations, in which 13 contain preferredsecond responses and 95 consist of dispreferreds Both quantitative and qualitativemethods have been employed to seek answers to the research question

The findings reported in the study can be summarized as follows Firstly, the

mere four patterns of preferred seconds, namely assessment – agreement, invitation – acceptance, proposal – agreement and request – acceptance, can be found in the movie and the assessment – agreement pattern is the most common one Also, there are four linguistic elements signaling the preferreds, among which „saying „Yes‟ as answer‟ ranks the most Next is the appearance of all the five patterns, respectively assessment – disagreement, invitation – refusal, offer – decline, proposal – disagreement and request – refusal, in the examined dialogues including dispreferred second turns The

„delay/hesitate‟ feature is the most widely used one Additionally, the data analysis

figures out that there is a combination of using several linguistic units to indicatedispreferred second responses and some certain elements express the same-class lines

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES vii

ABBREVIATIONS & CONVENTIONS viii

PART 1 – INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Design of the study 4

PART 2 – DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Film 5

1.2 Speech Acts 5

1.2.1 Definition 5

1.2.2 Typical types 6

1.3 Conversation analysis 6

1.3.1 Definition 6

1.3.2 Turn-taking 7

1.3.3 Adjacency pairs 8

1.4 Preference structure 10

1.4.1 Definition 10

1.4.2 General patterns of preference structure 10

1.4.3 Preferred second turns 12

1.4.4 Dispreferred second turns 13

1.5 Preferred and dispreferred second turn in Episode 1of the film Downton Abbey 15 1.6 Related prior works 16

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 18

2.1 Research Methods 18

2.1.1 Database 18

2.1.2 Research Methods 18

2.1.3 Research Procedures 19

2.2 Findings and Discussion 20

2.2.1 Overview of Preferreds and Dispreferreds 20

2.2.2 General patterns of Preferreds 21

2.2.3 Common linguistic features indicating Preferreds 22

2.2.4 General patterns of Dispreferreds 25

2.2.5 Common linguistic features indicating Dispreferreds 26

2.2.5.1 Common linguistic features 26

2.2.5.2 The ways six common linguistic features are used 27

PART 3 – CONCLUSION 36

1 Recapitulation 36

1.1 General patterns of preferreds 36

1.2 Linguistic features associated with preferreds 36

1.3 General patterns of dispreferreds 37

1.4 Linguistic features associated with dispreferreds 37

2 Limitations of the study 39

3 Implications for language teaching and learning 39

4 Suggestions for further studies 40

REFERENCES ix

APPENDIX 1 xiii

APPENDIX 2 xv

LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES

pageTable 1 – Correlation of content and format in adjacency pairs seconds 11Table 2 – The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures 11Table 3 – Linguistic patterns signaling dispreferred second turns 14

Figure 3: Linguistic features indicating preferred second turns 22Figure 4: General patterns of dispreferred second turns 25Figure 5: Linguistic features indicating dispreferred second turns 26

ABBREVIATIONS & CONVENTIONS

AnswerEarl of GranthamCountess of GranthamDowager Countess of GranthamDuke of Crowborough

And

(.) pause in talk less than tenths of a second

PART 1 – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Downton Abbey is a period drama television series set and filmed in Britain and

created and principally written by Julian Fellowes The series is set during the Edwardian era (after Edward VII's death) and depicts how major historical events such

post-as the sinking of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic, the First World War and the Spanishinfluenza pandemic affect the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in Yorkshire Sixseries have been made so far, in which the 6th one has recently been confirmed to bethe final

The first series of the seven episodes in Series 1 was broadcast in the UK in 2010,exploring the lives of the Crawley family and their servants from the day after the

sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 to the outbreak of the First World War on 4th

August 1914 The focus of the discussion is the first episode of Series One of the film

Downton Abbey because it is the commencement of all events and shows the main

features of the characters, notably their social status, attitude and personalities throughconversations with others

However, from a functional approach to analyze this work, little research based onpragmatic knowledge has been carried out Therefore, this study is intended to find outhow Conversation Analysis (CA) can be applied to conversations in movies or drama

to inform audiences‟ understanding of the interpersonal dynamics between charactersthrough an investigation into a small aspect of CA – common patterns of preferred anddispreferred second turns and linguistic units used to signal them

In short, the self-interest in the film series Downton Abbey, especially the first season,

and the lack of attention to the link between English film works and preference

structure are the stimulation for the author to do the study of “Preferred and

Dispreferred Second Turns Used in the first episode of the film “Downton Abbey”.

2 Research Questions

The research seeks the answer to the following questions:

1 What are the general patterns of preferred structures and the common linguistic features indicating them in the first episode of the film “Downton Abbey”?

2 What are the general patterns of dispreferred structures and the common

linguistic features indicating them in the first episode of the film “Downton Abbey”?

3 Aims of the study

This study aims to:

(1) supply readers with basic understanding of speech acts, conversation

analysis, adjacency pairs, and preference structure;

(2) explore the general patterns of preferred and dispreferred second turns

structure used in the first episode of the film Downton Abbey;

(3) investigate the linguistic features signaling preferred and dispreferred replies

in the episode;

(4) provide film critics with practical knowledge of conversations comprising preferred and dispreferred second-turn questions

4 Significance of the study

This conversational analysis of preferred and dispreferred second turns contributes intwo main aspects; both theoretically and practically Theoretically, the paper expandsthe scopes of preference structure research employing the language spoken at the end

of the Edwardian era in 1912 Moreover, practically, this study might contribute ineducation fields; especially for English language teachers and learners who exploitfilms as a means of acquiring knowledge of English language and pragmatics; also infilm industry for critics and conversational analyst to create profound reviews onanalyzing lines as well as turn-taking practices Therefore, with its assistance, readerscould comprehend speech acts, conversation analysis, adjacency pairs, preferencestructure, preferreds and dispreferreds, together with their general patterns and thelinguistics segments indicating them

Additionally, it may serve as the reference and suggestion for possible further studiesregarding the analytical comparison on this aspect of pragmatics among different kinds

of films by researchers of related fields

5 Scope of the study

Owing to time limitation and within the framework of a minor thesis submitted inpartial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in EnglishLinguistics, the primary concentration of this study will merely be an investigation intothe small aspects of preference structure: the common patterns of preferred anddispreferred second turns and the frequently exploited linguistic characteristics to state

them in the first episode of the film Downton Abbey.

Part 2, Development, comprises two chapters.

Chapter 1 – Theoretical background indicates the relevant theories for the work Chapter 2 – The Study covers the context and methodology of the study, as well

as presents and discusses the findings that arise from the data collected

Part 3, Conclusion, summarizes major points of the investigation, and provides

implications for teaching and learning English and pragmatics This part will alsofigure out some limitations of the research and make suggestions for further studies

PART 2 – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND1.1 Film

Film (usually North American English movie) is a series of moving pictures recorded

with sound that tells a story, shown on television or at the cinema/movie theater (FreeOnline Dictionary, Oxford Learner‟s Dictionary)

Film, known as “the Seventh Art” (given by Ricciotto Canudo), shows the interactionand communication between characters in form of conversations representing thereality of daily life Movies are not only the source of entertainment, documents oftheir time and place but perfect wholes of dialogues that can be observed and analyzed.These dialogues are analyzed is to “describe, analyze, and understand talk as a basicand a constitutive feature of human social life” (Sidnell, 2009)

The sentiment, attitude and personalities of each character would be vividly revealedthrough actions, lines of dialogue, and even silence

1.2 Speech acts

1.2.1 Definition

The speech act theory has long been one of the widest interests among linguists andphilosophers For instance, Yule (1996) stated that speech acts are “actions performedvia utterances” (p.16) or according to Kent Bach, "almost any speech act is really theperformance of several acts at once, distinguished by different aspects of the speaker'sintention."

1.2.2 Typical types

In English, speech acts are performed in „authentic situations of language use‟ such asoffer, acceptance, denial, refusal, assessment, offer, apology, greeting, request,command, complaint, invitation, compliment, or invitation (Searle, 1969: 16)

These titles of SAs are used to indicate the speaker (S)‟s communicative ideas and thehearer (H)‟s anticipated interpretation of the ideas via the process of interferences.For instance,

 “Could you mail this letter for me?””  Request

 “Okay.””  Acceptance

(Yule, 1996:78)

1.3 Conversation analysis

1.3.1 Definition

The term “conversation” or “talk-in-interaction” (Schegloff, cited in ten Have (1999))

could possibly be recognized as „a talk between two or more people in which thoughts,feelings, and ideas are expressed, questions are asked and answered, or news andinformation is exchanged‟ (Cambridge Dictionary Online) To put it another way, CA

is an approach to the analysis of spoken discourse that look at the way people managetheir everyday conversational interactions (Paltridge, 2008:107)

Conversation analysis (CA), therefore, is involved in the study of the orders of interaction, whatever its character or setting Agreeing upon this idea, Hutchby &Wooffitt (2008) points out that it is „the study of recorded, naturally occurring talk-in-interaction‟ that aims to explore the understanding and responses of the S and H

talk-in-Levinson (1983: 287) also shows the purpose of conversation analysis that is todiscover the systematic properties of the sequential organization of talk, and the wayutterances are designed to manage such sequences By studying CA, people can be ofmuch help when they do “talk-in interaction”, properly as an orderly accomplishment.

A must of CA is to catch “natural interaction” as fully and faithfully as possible, that is,

in other words, the data recorded should be “naturally occurring” or experimental”, not co-produced with or provoked by the researcher (ten Have, 1999)However, there does not seem to be a sharp line separating “naturally occurring” fromso-called “experimental” data because to some extent, Ss and Hs might be affected bythe appearance of the recorder

“non-When studying CA, it would be a shortcoming if the linguistic units of its organizationfail to be mentioned here, namely turn-taking and adjacency pairs

1.3.2 Turn-taking

Studying turn-taking has been long considered to be important since conversations areapparently and intimately related to people as a part of communication that cannot besegregated from human life; turn-taking is even the heart of CA as declared by Richardand Seedhouse (2005)

According to Hutchby and Wooffitt (1998:14), CA is purposed to investigate the wayparticipants receive the information and response to one another‟s talk, with theprimary concentration on how the successions of actions are created

Turn taking is a cyclical process It begins with one person speaking, and continues as

the speaker gives up control to the next person The second speaker now has theconversational floor When the speaker is finished, they give control back to another

speaker (in this case, the beginning speaker), thus creating a cycle The turn takingcycle stops when there is nothing left to say (Woodburn, Arnott, Newell, and Procter).Levinson (1983) also notes that conversation is distinctly characterized by turn-taking.The speaker and the listener respectively change their role whether becoming a listener

or speaker via the process of talk-stop-talk-stop, i.e the sequence of talk distribution

1.3.3 Adjacency pairs

As Yule (1996: 77) mentions, adjacency pairs are “automatic patterns/sequences in

the structure of conversations” that always “consist of first part and a second partproduced by different speakers” They can be classified as greeting-greeting, question-answer, thank-response, request-acceptance, etc

For example,

A: Bye then.” B: Bye.”

To share this point of view, Paltridge (2008) also explains the term “adjacency pairs”

as utterances produced by two successive speakers in the way that the second utterancecan be regarded as the expected follow-up to the previous utterance (as cited in Silvia

& Imrohatin, 2012)

This local management organization in conversation, namely adjacency pairs, is

defined by Levinson as “paired utterances” of which question-answer,

greeting-greeting; offer-acceptance; apology-minimization; etc are prototypical (p.303) This may seem enough but both Levinson (1983) and Heritage (1984) realize certain

problems with such a bald formulation and add their own qualifications Both identify

that such pairs are not always uttered in immediately adjacent positions Here we use

an example from Goffman to illustrate this

Q1.” A: Have you got the time?”

Q2.” B: Standard or daylight saving?”

Q3.” A: What are you running on?”

A3.” B: Standard.”

A2: A: Standard, then.”

A1.” B: It‟s five o‟clock.”

(1981: 7)

It can be easily noticed that the answer to question one (Q1) is not given immediately

but after several insertion sequences (Schegloff, 1972) (actually it is the sixth

utterance of the dialogue) However, Q2 to A2 also adapt to the adjacency pair rule andthus all the questions are finally replied

Two problems arising here are that:

(i) There must be a strict criterion for adjacency pairs that, given a first part of apair, a second part is immediately relevant and expectable (Schegloff, 1972:363, as cited inLevinson, 1983)

(ii) There must be a delimited set of seconds due to a wide range of potential second part to a first part (Levinson, 1983:306-307)

The concept of preference structure helps revive the structural importance of the

concept of an adjacency pair

Preference structure divides second parts into preferred and dispreferred social acts.

The preferred is the structurally expected next act while the later is the structurallyunexpected next act In other words, two possibilities of pairs that could happen inadjacency pairs are respectively preferred (the H provides anticipated answers orresponses) and dispreferred (the H gives unpredicted answers or responses) Therefore,preferred second turns are unmarked as they are quite simpler whereas because ofvarious types of structural complexity, dispreferreds are marked

1.4.2 General patterns of preference structure

Levinson (1983:336) mentions the potential correlation of the content and sequentialposition in each adjacency pair thanks to a structural characterization of preferreds anddispreferreds, which may lead to their productions in proper format Recurrent andreliable patterns, such as refusals of request or invitation are almost classified asdispreferred while acceptance would be on the other side The table below may

illustrate the fairly appropriate correspondence between the content and the format

found across a number of adjacency pair seconds

Table 1 – Correlation of content and format in adjacency pair seconds

Inheriting from Levinson‟s theory, Yule (1996) offers the common patterns of

preference structures as follows:

(Yule, 1996:79)

Table 2 – The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures

(following Levinson 1983)

It can be recognized from the two tables above that they share some similarities incategorizing the labels of first and second turns Nonetheless, should Levinson includequestion and blame as the first parts, Yule alters them with invitation and proposal As

a matter of fact, Yule‟s criterion might be considered to be more explicit since theaction of questioning can be realized as invitation, proposal, offer or even request.For example,

(Yule, 1996:79)

1.4.3 Preferred second turns

As being referred previously, preferred second turns tend to follow the first part

without a pause and to consist of structurally simple utterances Silvia and Imrohatinstate that preferreds mean interlocutors display a systematic preference for agreement,acceptance, granting, etc One of the earliest comments on this (1972) coming fromSacks in a public lecture is that a preferred response „pretty damn well occurscontiguously‟ (1987:57) (as cited in Willis, 2002)

Heritage, too, remarks that preferred responses have the features of:

(i) simple acceptance

(ii) no delay

as in:

B: Why don‟t you come up and see me some times

(1984:265-6, cited in Willis,2002)

1.4.4 Dispreferred second turns

At the other end of the spectrum, dispreferred seconds seem to be preceded by a

pause and to begin with a hesitation particle such as well or uh In Pragmatics by Yule

(1996), he points out that silence in the second part is always considered an indication

of dispreferred reply in any adjacency pair In fact, silence is a factor that assistsinterlocutors to revise the first one so that they may get a different response apart frombeing silent (p.79-80) Look at the example below

Sandy: But I‟m sure they‟ll have good food there.”

(1.”6 seconds) Sandy: Hmm – I guess the food isn‟t great.”

Jack: Nah – people mostly go for the music.”

Here Jack‟s silence makes Sandy utter a different saying while normally he wouldhave had to produce a disagreement The S is incapable of producing the preferredsecond turn in this non-answer communication

Schegloff et al (1977) suggest that dispreferreds are structurally delayed in turns andsequences and are (or may be) preceded by other items (p.362), that is, a dispreferredresponse can be marked with a hesitation, a delay, a preface, an apology and so on The

patterns associated with a dispreferred second in English are presented as a series of optional elements as shown in the following table.

f mention obligation I must do X; I‟m expected in Y

g appeal for understanding you see; you know

h make it non-personal everybody else; out there

k hedge the negative I guess not; not possible

Table 3 – Linguistic patterns signaling dispreferred second turns

Here is a short dialogue to analyze:

Becky: Come over for some coffee later.”

Wally: Oh – eh – I‟d love to – but you see – I – I‟m supposed to get this finished

– you know.”

(Yule, 1996:81)

From this talk, a combination of dispreferred patterns are utilized, namely, hesitation

“oh”, “eh”; Token Yes “I‟d love to”; stumbling repetition “I – I‟m”; giving an account

“I‟m supposed to do X” and an appeal for understanding “you know” to express a

dispreferred second turn

Sharing this opinion, Levinson (1983:334) notes another way of generalizing the characteristics of dispreferred seconds below:

(a) delays: (i) by pause before delivery, (ii) by the use if a preface, (iii) by displacement over a number of turns via use of repair initiators or insertion sequences

(b) preface: (i) the use of markers or announcers of dispreferreds like Uh and Well, (ii) the production of token agreements before disagreements, (iii) the use of

appreciations if relevant (for offers, invitations, suggestions, advice), (iv) the use of

apologies if relevant (for requests, invitations, etc), (v) the use of qualifiers ( e.g I don‟t know for sure, but ”.”.”), (vi) hesitation in various form, including self-editing.

(c) accounts: carefully formulated explanations for why the (dispreferred)

act is being done

(d) declination component: of a form suited to the nature of the first part of

the pair, but characteristically indirect or mitigated

To sum up, it can be drawn that making dispreferreds take more time, effort andlanguage use than preferred seconds

1.5 Preferred and dispreferred second turns in Episode 1 of the film Downton Abbey

To obtain a thorough understanding of the spoken discourse, generally; and the

preference structure, specifically generated in Episode 1 of Downton Abbey, it is

advisory that we are well-equipped with the background and setting of the film

Masterpiece Website describes the opening scene as follows: the sinking of Titaniccovers almost every newspaper headline, which hits the idyllic and bustling life of theBritish aristocratic Crawley family and their cadre of servants Set on a gigantic and

luxurious mansion surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds in North Yorkshire,the movie features two sets of characters, revealing the viperous qualities of the upper

class and the venom of those who wait on them Downton Abbey is set in an earlier

period but the upstairs/downstairs dynamic is also a focus (Frederic and Brussat)

Hence, the conversations occurring are amidst class lines, mainly between the upperclass – servant; servants or aristocrats themselves This relates to huge differences of

action, attitude, together with word choice in their answers or responses; which is the

main emphasis of the researcher During the film, sometimes it may lead to ambiguityfor listeners to decide whether the reply is agreement or disagreement; thus, it isessential to acquire the knowledge of preferred and dispreferred second parts in theearly 20th century

1.6 Related prior works

There exist a wide variety of studies of conversation analysis and preference structurecarried out heretofore

The first and foremost to refer to here is Pomerantz‟s work conducted in 1975, whichcan be regarded as the inspiration for followers in terms of the primary characteristics

of preference structure, especially agreement and disagreement Later on, herpreference structure-related publication, which examines a number of patterns ofpreferred/ dispreferred turn shapes in agreeing and disagreeing assessments, appears inAtkinson and Heritage‟s book (1985) Both of the aforementioned works have pavedthe way for the junior researchers to discover other applied aspects of CA

Interestingly, concerning CA in actual situations, Schegloff et al (1977)‟s „thepreference of self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation‟, Heritage(1988)‟s „explanations as accounts: a conversation analytic perspective‟, Seedhouse(2004)‟s „the interactional architecture of the language classroom: a conversation

analysis perspective‟ and Ingram and Elliott (2014)‟s „turn-taking and „wait time‟ inclassroom interactions‟ have made used of video tapes or audio tapes, the naturally-occurring conversations, as the database.

In addition, as seen in the study by Kieu T.T.H (2006), the native perception andrealization of the speech act of disagreement in English and Vietnamese wasinvestigated to find out appropriate polite strategies to perform disagreements for NorthAmericans and Hanoians Nguyen T.O (2013) also looked into this linguistic aspect inListening Section of TOEFL PBT to make tips for test-takers when dealing withconversations containing dispreferred second turns

Regarding film analysis, it is marked that several authors have paid attention toconversations generated in movies, such as Desilla (2012)‟s „implicature in film:

construal and functions in Bridget Jones romantic comedies‟ or Jannah (2014)‟s investigation into turn-taking occurring in The Social Network film.

This paper makes its distinction from the prior works in the degree and scope to whicheach approach is applied to meet the requirements of the research question sufficiently.Seemingly, the author has not been able to get access to any studies correspondingpreferreds and dispreferreds used in films spoken in English set in the late modernperiod Hence, the writer of this thesis would like to discover more about the commonfeatures of preferred and dispreferred second turns used in an episode of the series

drama Downton Abbey.”

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter presents the methodology and data collection methods used in this study,followed by the findings and discussion via the data and figures

2.1 Research Methods

2.1.1 Database

The corpus of the study comprises 102 adjacency pairs, which contain 13 preferredsecond turns and 89 dispreferreds, collected and chosen from the first episode of the

film Downton Abbey, particularly, 121 linguistic features of dispreferreds discovered in

these 89 seconds The data source is in the written script form of Episode 1, Season 1

of the film Downton Abbey that has been downloaded at www.sharewithu.com and

www.transcripts.foreverdreaming.org

2.1.2 Research Methods

The paper has been conducted with a combination of analytical, descriptive,quantitative and qualitative methods based on the frequencies of using the generalpatterns of preferred and dispreferred structures and the linguistic features signalingthem in the film episode

Among the methods mentioned above, quantitative one will be the foci because most

of the findings and considerations are calculated and converted into visuals and figures.The author has also chosen the theories proposed by Yule (1996) and Levinson (1983)

to be the framework of analyzing the preferred and dispreferred second turns in thefilm episode

2.1.3 Research procedures

The process of data collection requires the four following stages:

Stage 1: The researcher gains fundamental knowledge of literary works related to the

topic, such as SAs, CA, adjacency pairs and preference structure

Stage 2: The film was downloaded and observed deeply by the author; after that we

downloaded the movie script, transcribed between the transcripts and the film andadded symbols of conversation In the next step, the thesis writer studied and selectedcarefully conversations from the film in order to seek which utterances containedpreferreds or dispreferreds and how many dialogues in which participants usedpreferred and dispreferred second turns

Stage 3: The author distinguished the common patterns of preferreds and dispreferreds

used in each interaction and which the most popular is, along with the linguisticfeatures demonstrating these second turns

Stage 4: All the results above were converted into figures which are shown in

Appendices The coded data were then presented in charts and tables

2.2 Findings and Discussions

2.2.1 Overview of preferreds and dispreferreds

Initially, an overview of how preferred and dispreferred second turns are applied indialogues taken from the film should be examined deliberately so that readers canrealize the distribution of these seconds throughout the selected movie episode

In Chapter 2 the author has already mentioned the quantity of investigated adjacencypairs which is successively 13 pairs enclosing preferreds and 89 ones usingdispreferreds That leads to the comparison between these two preference structures

regarding the frequency of use in Episode 1, Season 1 of the film Downton Abbey.

Figure 1: Percentage of frequency distribution

13%

Preferreds Dispreferreds 87%

Given is a pie chart comparing the rates of preferred and dispreferred second responsesamong the chosen adjacency pairs found in the referred part of the drama series.Apparently, the number of dispreferreds outnumbers that of preferreds 7 to 1, whichindicates film characters are more favor of using dispreferreds in their conversations to

express themselves Subsequently, deeper analyses into each kind of preferencestructure are provided.

2.2.2 General patterns of preferreds

From 13 adjacency pairs out of 102 surveyed conversations containing preferred

seconds extracted from the transcripts of the first episode of the film Downton Abbey,

the results could be synthesized in Figure 2 below

Figure 2: General patterns of preferred second turns

Five columns in the preceding visual illustration represent the five common structures

of preferreds, namely assessment-agreement, invitation-acceptance, offer-acceptance, proposal-agreement and request-acceptance for each bar.

From the statistics in Figure 2, merely four examined patterns of preferred second turns

appear in Episode 1 of Downton Abbey movie series Pairs of assessment - agreement,

found in 7 over 13 dialogues, accounts for over 50% of occurrence and ranks the most

frequently used pattern while the least used structure offer-acceptance is hardly seen among the studied conversations The second most popular one goes to request- acceptance with 3 times of usage Following this is the paired utterances invitation - acceptance and proposal – agreement, which emerge once and twice respectively.

2.2.3 Common linguistic features indicating preferreds

To find the answer to the first research question, the researcher has investigated closelythe dialogues one by one to identify the most widely used linguistic items expressingpreferred in these conversations and how these items correspond in each pair The

findings were classified into four main groups that are namely negative agreement, saying „Yes‟ as answer, expressing gratitude as answer and offer as acceptance Later

on, the results were shown in Figure 3 that follows

It suggests the general use of linguistics units marking preferred second responses in 13adjacency pairs taken from the film episode

Figure 3: Linguistic features indicating

preferred second turns

Saying 'Yes' as answer Expressing gratitude as answer

15,5%

15,5%

23%

As can be seen, Figure 3 presents some striking differences of linguistic elements

appearing in the studied dialogues It is evident that „saying „yes‟ as answer‟ is the

most commonly used one which makes up approximately half of the seconds It should

be noted that this kind of preferreds is favorably uttered in both same-class and class lines: i.e., in conversations between the aristocrats [3], the servants [6] and

cross-aristocrat-servant [2], [5] via repeating a part of the first part or simply „thank you‟,

„of course‟ Look at the examples below.

[2] Mr Bates: We‟ve managed so far, haven‟t we?

Robert, COG: Yes, we have Of course, we have.

[3] Cora, COG: You know my daughter, Mary, of course.

DOC: Of course, Lady Mary.

[5] Mr Carson: My lord, would it be acceptable for Bates to ride in front with

Taylor? [ ]

Robert, EOG: Perfectly acceptable [ ]

[6] Mrs Patmore: William, will you stop talking and take this kedgeree up, and

mind the burners are still lit

William: Yes, Mrs Patmore.

It is followed by „expressing gratitude as answer‟ occurring three times over 13 pairs Here characters utilize the phrase „thank you‟ or express their feelings as replies For

example,

[7] Lady Sybil: You look beautiful.

Lady Mary: Thank you Sybil, darling.

[8] Robert, COG: I can assure you the Duke very much appreciated his welcome.

Mr Carson: I‟m glad.

Negative agreement is occasionally used and only takes up 15.5%, which equals „offer

as answer‟ Specifically speaking, the agreement which is shown by Hs making use of utterances including „so‟, „too‟, „either‟, „neither‟ with Ss is called negative

agreement, which can be seen in the following illustration:

A: I like eating strawberries

That explains for the appearance of „so‟ in the dialogue extracted from the film.

[10] Mrs Hughes: I can‟t make myself believe it.

Mrs Patmore: Me neither.

Discussing the fourth linguistics unit aforementioned, giving an offer to a first part iscasually exploited by servants of Downton estate They tend to require others to dothings and receive responses as a promise or an offer For instance,

[12] Daisy: Oh, please, it won‟t take a moment!

William: All right, give it to me.

[13] Thomas: Remember to help me with the luggage Don‟t go running off.

Mr Bates: I‟ll give you a hand.

2.2.4 General patterns of dispreferreds

Similar to the first step of analyzing patterns of preferreds, it is essential to categorizethose of dispreferred seconds in order to interpret the results Eighty nine adjacency

pairs in 102 dialogues in the first episode of the movie Downton Abbey have been

processed and analyzed which can be presented in Figure 4

Figure 4: General patterns of dispreferred second turns

Types of Adjacency Pairs

Each column in Figure 4 presents each of the five tested adjacency pairs including

dispreferreds, namely assessment – disagreement, invitation – refusal, offer – decline, proposal – disagreement and request – refusal It is evident that all the five observed

patterns of dispreferred seconds occur in conversations in the film episode

Assessment – disagreement makes a sharp distinction amidst the five patterns when it

appears 65 times in the selected pairs: i.e., approximately 70% of second responsesshow disagreement to an assessment

On the other hand, invitation – refusal is the least common pattern used and it is only

found in merely one reply

The three remaining patterns, respectively proposal – disagreement, request – refusal

and offer – decline, appear 7 to 8 times in the conversations.

2.2.5 Common linguistic features indicating dispreferreds

With the attempt to solve the rest of the research question, the writer conducted an

investigation of each chosen dialogue to explore the most frequently used linguistic

elements expressing dispreferred second responses The findings were processed,

calculated and displayed as below

2.2.5.1 Common linguistic features

Figure 5: Linguistic features indicating

dispreferred second turns

15%

Mention obligation Appeal for understanding

Figure 5 presents the proportion of linguistic units associated with dispreferred secondturns in 121 synthesized patterns from 89 adjacency pairs.

A glance at the pie chart reveals the most frequently used feature accounting for a

quarter of total, which is „delay/hesitate‟ It is understandable that the hearer (H) may

take some time to think and give the answer to the S‟s utterance, hence, the H tends to

fill up with filler sounds such as „er‟, „um‟, „ah‟ to make up for those pauses and

delays

Following it is the use of „preface‟ which takes up 24%, almost as preferably as the first position Similar to „delay/hesitate‟, it is likely that a habit of interlocutors is to start with „yeah‟, „well‟ and so on Next is the use of „give an account‟ and „hedge the negative‟ making up 15% and 11% respectively.

On the contrary, the frequencies of utilizing the elements containing „express doubt‟,

„token yes‟, „apology‟, „mention obligation‟ and „make it non-personal‟ are

small-scale They conventionally play a role of supplementary devices for the second S tomake a dispreferred after hesitating, using preface or giving an account why he/shedisagrees with the first S‟s utterance

In conclusion, primarily seven linguistic features indicating dispreferreds have been

widely enjoyed by film characters in Episode 1 of Downton Abbey However, each

pattern of adjacency pairs is expressed differently via particular structures which areillustrated and discussed in detail in the following part

2.2.5.2 The ways six common linguistic features are used

The ways that six popular units signaling dispreferred second responses in the selected

episode, namely „delay/hesitate‟, „preface‟, „give an account‟, „hedge the negative‟,

„use mitigators‟, and „appeal for understanding‟ work in the five patterns are discussed

more thoroughly in this section Due to the lack of capacity, this study supplies a merelimited number of examples for each element while the full version of all examineddialogues is given in Appendix 2.

a „Delay/hesitate‟

It can be inferred from the statistics that the linguistic element „delay/hesitate‟ occurs

in almost every kind of five patterns related to dispreferred seconds apart from

invitation – refusal in the movie Specifically, it appears 26 over 65 dialogues of assessment – disagreement, 3 out of 8 offer – decline pairs, and 2 times among proposal – disagreements and once among request – refusal.

With regard to the paired utterances of giving disagreement to an assessment, this

linguistic means turns up in the form of a pause (.) [3‟], a stumbling repetition [24‟] or

an „insertion sequence‟, a question for unrequired answer [2‟], [5‟] It aims to hedgethe second S‟s disagreement towards the first S‟s saying

[2‟] Robert, EOG: It seems James and Patrick were on board.

Cora, COG: What?” They can‟t have been They weren‟t going till May.

[3‟] Cora, COG: But surely they were picked up?

Robert, EOG: (0.”3) It doesn‟t look like it.

[5‟] Mr Bates: I‟m John Bates, the new valet.

Miss O‟Brien: The new valet?”

[24‟] Thomas: I want to be a valet I‟m sick of being a footman.

DOC: Yeah, Thomas, I don‟t need a valet I –I thought you were getting rid

of the new one here?

The same role of „delay/hesitate‟ linguistic unit is applied for the pattern of offer – decline [28‟], proposal – disagreement [29‟] and request – refusal [32‟], which is

illustrated in the following examples, respectively

[28‟] DOC: We shall do very well together, won‟t we ?

Thomas: Er, Thomas, Your Grace.

[31‟] Lady Mary: Well, aren‟t you coming into the drawing room?

DOC: I‟m – I‟m tired I – I think I‟ll just slip away.

[32‟] Daisy: You‟ve got to I‟ll be hanged if you don‟t.

Gwen: What?”

After observing the whole episode, the author has realized some noteworthy points, such as:

(i) Robert, Earl of Grantham and Duke of Crowborough are the two characters

uttering the most linguistic elements associated with „delay/hesitate‟.

For Robert, Earl of Grantham, the shocking news of Titanic‟s sinking shouldhave come as an extreme shock to him and plans for the life at Downton afterhis death become meaningless Whereas, stumbling repetition might beconsidered a distinction of Duke of Crowborough whenever he speaks; hecomes to Downton with an insidious purpose, i.e., to get rid of the letter sent toThomas some time ago, so he behaves unnaturally and quite hesitates whenanswering others‟ questions

(ii) Also, pauses are widely used around 6 times over 32 pairs containing

„delay/hesitate‟ language pattern The length of each pause may be different but