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

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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY 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 Linguistics Code: 60220201

Training Program: Type 1 Supervisor: 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 the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies of ULIS for their lessons and support during my MA course

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 have been referred to in this thesis

The research paper could not have been fulfilled without them

Hanoi, October, 2016 Dinh Thi Thanh Huyen

ABSTRACT

This study is carried out in an attempt to investigate the general patterns of preferred 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 preferred second responses and 95 consist of dispreferreds Both quantitative and qualitative methods 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 indicate dispreferred second responses and some certain elements express the class lines

same-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

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

Figure 2: General patterns of preferred second turns 21 Figure 3: Linguistic features indicating preferred second turns 22 Figure 4: General patterns of dispreferred second turns 25 Figure 5: Linguistic features indicating dispreferred second turns 26

ABBREVIATIONS & CONVENTIONS

(.) 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 Spanish influenza pandemic affect the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in Yorkshire Six series have been made so far, in which the 6th one has recently been confirmed to be the 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 through conversations with others

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

to inform audiences‟ understanding of the interpersonal dynamics between characters through an investigation into a small aspect of CA – common patterns of preferred and dispreferred 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 in two main aspects; both theoretically and practically Theoretically, the paper expands the scopes of preference structure research employing the language spoken at the end

of the Edwardian era in 1912 Moreover, practically, this study might contribute in education fields; especially for English language teachers and learners who exploit films as a means of acquiring knowledge of English language and pragmatics; also in film industry for critics and conversational analyst to create profound reviews on analyzing lines as well as turn-taking practices Therefore, with its assistance, readers could comprehend speech acts, conversation analysis, adjacency pairs, preference structure, preferreds and dispreferreds, together with their general patterns and the linguistics segments indicating them

Additionally, it may serve as the reference and suggestion for possible further studies regarding 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 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Linguistics, the primary concentration of this study will merely be an investigation into the small aspects of preference structure: the common patterns of preferred and dispreferred 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 also figure out some limitations of the research and make suggestions for further studies

PART 2 – DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 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 (Free Online Dictionary, Oxford Learner‟s Dictionary)

Film, known as “the Seventh Art” (given by Ricciotto Canudo), shows the interaction and communication between characters in form of conversations representing the reality of daily life Movies are not only the source of entertainment, documents of their 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 basic and a constitutive feature of human social life” (Sidnell, 2009)

The sentiment, attitude and personalities of each character would be vividly revealed through 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 and philosophers For instance, Yule (1996) stated that speech acts are “actions performed via utterances” (p.16) or according to Kent Bach, "almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once, distinguished by different aspects of the speaker's intention."

1.2.2 Typical types

In English, speech acts are performed in „authentic situations of language use‟ such as offer, 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 the hearer (H)‟s anticipated interpretation of the ideas via the process of interferences For instance,

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

(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 and information 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 manage their 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 to discover the systematic properties of the sequential organization of talk, and the way utterances are designed to manage such sequences By studying CA, people can be of much 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” from so-called “experimental” data because to some extent, Ss and Hs might be affected by the appearance of the recorder

“non-When studying CA, it would be a shortcoming if the linguistic units of its organization fail 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 are apparently and intimately related to people as a part of communication that cannot be segregated from human life; turn-taking is even the heart of CA as declared by Richard and Seedhouse (2005)

According to Hutchby and Wooffitt (1998:14), CA is purposed to investigate the way participants receive the information and response to one another‟s talk, with the primary 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 the conversational 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 taking cycle 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 part produced by different speakers” They can be classified as greeting-greeting, question-answer, thank-response, request-acceptance, etc

For example,

A: Hello B: Hi

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 utterance can 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

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 and thus 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 a pair, a second part is immediately relevant and expectable (Schegloff, 1972:363, as cited in Levinson, 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 structurally unexpected next act In other words, two possibilities of pairs that could happen in adjacency pairs are respectively preferred (the H provides anticipated answers or responses) and dispreferred (the H gives unpredicted answers or responses) Therefore, preferred second turns are unmarked as they are quite simpler whereas because of various 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 sequential position in each adjacency pair thanks to a structural characterization of preferreds and dispreferreds, which may lead to their productions in proper format Recurrent and reliable patterns, such as refusals of request or invitation are almost classified as dispreferred 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

admission

(Levinson, 1983:336)

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:

disagree refuse decline disagree refuse

(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 in categorizing the labels of first and second turns Nonetheless, should Levinson include question 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 the action of questioning can be realized as invitation, proposal, offer or even request For example,

a Can you help me? (Request) Sure (Acceptance)

b Want some coffee? (Offer) Yes, please (Acceptance)

(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 Imrohatin state that preferreds mean interlocutors display a systematic preference for agreement, acceptance, granting, etc One of the earliest comments on this (1972) coming from Sacks in a public lecture is that a preferred response „pretty damn well occurs contiguously‟ (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 assists interlocutors to revise the first one so that they may get a different response apart from being 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 would have had to produce a disagreement The S is incapable of producing the preferred second turn in this non-answer communication

Schegloff et al (1977) suggest that dispreferreds are structurally delayed in turns and sequences and are (or may be) preceded by other items (p.362), that is, a dispreferred response 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

k hedge the negative

pause; er; em; ah well; oh

I‟m not sure; I don‟t know that‟s great; I‟d love to I‟m sorry; what a pity

I must do X; I‟m expected in Y you see; you know

everybody else; out there too much work; no time left really; mostly; sort of; kinda

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 and language 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 Titanic covers almost every newspaper headline, which hits the idyllic and bustling life of the British 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 upper class – 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 ambiguity for listeners to decide whether the reply is agreement or disagreement; thus, it is essential to acquire the knowledge of preferred and dispreferred second parts in the early 20th century

1.6 Related prior works

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

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

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

Interestingly, concerning CA in actual situations, Schegloff et al (1977)‟s „the preference 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‟ in classroom 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 and realization of the speech act of disagreement in English and Vietnamese was investigated to find out appropriate polite strategies to perform disagreements for North Americans and Hanoians Nguyen T.O (2013) also looked into this linguistic aspect in Listening Section of TOEFL PBT to make tips for test-takers when dealing with conversations containing dispreferred second turns

Regarding film analysis, it is marked that several authors have paid attention to conversations 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 which each 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 corresponding preferreds and dispreferreds used in films spoken in English set in the late modern period Hence, the writer of this thesis would like to discover more about the common features 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 preferred second 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 general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures and the linguistic features signaling them 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 the film 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 and added symbols of conversation In the next step, the thesis writer studied and selected carefully conversations from the film in order to seek which utterances contained preferreds or dispreferreds and how many dialogues in which participants used preferred 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 linguistic features 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 in dialogues taken from the film should be examined deliberately so that readers can realize the distribution of these seconds throughout the selected movie episode

In Chapter 2 the author has already mentioned the quantity of investigated adjacency pairs which is successively 13 pairs enclosing preferreds and 89 ones using dispreferreds 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

Given is a pie chart comparing the rates of preferred and dispreferred second responses among 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, which indicates film characters are more favor of using dispreferreds in their conversations to

13%

87%

Figure 1: Percentage of frequency distribution

Preferreds Dispreferreds

express themselves Subsequently, deeper analyses into each kind of preference structure 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

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

3

2

7

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 closely the dialogues one by one to identify the most widely used linguistic items expressing preferred 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

13 adjacency pairs taken from the film episode

46%

23%

15,5%

15,5%

Figure 3: Linguistic features indicating

preferred second turns

Saying 'Yes' as answer Expressing gratitude as answer Negative Agreement Offer as answer

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

B: Me too

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 is casually exploited by servants of Downton estate They tend to require others to do things 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 categorize those 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

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 responses show disagreement to an assessment

Types of Adjacency Pairs

Figure 4: General patterns of dispreferred second turns

Assessment - Disagreement Invitation - Refusal

Offer - Decline Proposal - Disagreement Request - Refusal

7

65

1

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

Delay/hesitate Preface Express doubt Token Yes Apology Mention obligation Appeal for understanding Make it non-personal Give an account Use mitigators Hedge the negative

Figure 5 presents the proportion of linguistic units associated with dispreferred second turns 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 to make a dispreferred after hesitating, using preface or giving an account why he/she disagrees 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 are illustrated 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 mere limited number of examples for each element while the full version of all examined dialogues 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 hedge the 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 should have come as an extreme shock to him and plans for the life at Downton after his death become meaningless Whereas, stumbling repetition might be considered a distinction of Duke of Crowborough whenever he speaks; he comes to Downton with an insidious purpose, i.e., to get rid of the letter sent to Thomas some time ago, so he behaves unnaturally and quite hesitates when answering 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

they all indicate the lag of replying, which provides time for „giving an account‟

or „token yes‟

b „Preface‟

The data reveals that the three apparently recognized ways of making „preface‟ in four types of patterns (no data found in invitation – refusal) are „well‟, „oh‟, „yeah‟ They

can be found at the beginning of the second S‟s utterance and before some hesitations

[33‟], several explanations for disagreement [58‟], or „making it non-personal‟ [37‟]

[33‟] William: You‟re late

Paperboy: Yeah I – I know, but

[37‟] Robert, EOG: If you‟re saying you do not wish to mourn Patrick as a fiancé,

that is up to you

Lady Mary: Well, no one knew about it outside the family

[58‟] Mr Bates: I‟ll give you a hand

Thomas: Oh, I couldn‟t ask that, Mr Bates, not in your condition

That is the reason why „preface‟ appears 29 times out of 121 total dispreferred elements in the studied film episode

Interestingly, this linguistic element is merely found in same-class dialogues In other words, those who share the same social status tend to use preface with each other while

cross-class lines comprising „preface‟ seldom exist This phenomenon may be untrue

in these examples

[55‟] Thomas: I don‟t believe that

DOC: Well, believe what you like

[56‟] 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?

However, it is advisory that the relationship between Thomas, the first footman at Downton and Duke of Crowborough is quite sensitive because they seem to have

„intimacy‟ before Therefore, we may draw a conclusion that „preface‟ is normally

used among people from a shared background or having a close relationship

c „Give an account‟

Discussing the third commonplace linguistic unit, i.e., „give an account‟, the writer of

the thesis is pretty concerned about the ways accounts or explanations are given in the

second turns in corresponding with other linguistic elements such as „delay/hesitate‟ [82‟], „preface‟ [83‟], „appeal for understanding‟ [86‟] or „apology‟ [88‟]

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

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

[83‟] Miss O‟Brien: Mr Crawley was his Lordship‟s cousin and heir to the title

Gwen: Well, but I thought Lady Mary was the heir

[86‟] Lady Sybil: I know you‟re sad about Patrick Whatever you say, I know it

Lady Mary: You‟re a darling But you see, I‟m not as sad as I should be

[88‟] Robert, EOG: You knew what you were doing when you came here You

encouraged Mary, all of us came to thinking

DOC: Forgive me, but I came to express my sympathies and my friendship,

nothing more.