London Transcript Analysis

Three Girls from HullThis conversation is an interview set out with a question and answer structure. The interviewer is asking the interviewees what they think of London. There are 4 participants in the conversation (including the interviewer) – three of which are female. Firstly, the interviewer says ‘Hello’ and all three girls reply by saying ‘Hi!’. This use of colloquial language relaxes all participants as this language is used in everyday language so they are used to hearing it – it sets an informal register for the rest of the conversation. The fact that the ‘Hi’ uses an exclamation also highlights the fact that the girls are perhaps excited to be in London and are enthusiastic about the city; suggesting that the interview will be a good one. The participants use adjacency pairs throughout the conversation – they take it on turns to speak. This suggests that the participants are all fully engaged in the conversation and there are no moments where no one was speaking. This may be due to the fact that the three girls were close friends and also again, because they are excited.

Firstly, the interviewer asks ‘So, where are you all from?’ – the fact that he uses an interrogative sets the conversation and gives the girls no reason not to reply; as he is asking them a question. The interrogative starts with a discourse marker, perhaps to highlight the fact that he was about to ask them a question and he wanted them to reply seriously. The conjunction choice of ‘so’ emphasises the fact that the interviewer does really want to know more about the girls. The interrogative is also an example of phatic talk; perhaps used by the interviewer firstly, to relax the girls and make them feel more comfortable to participate in the conversation. The girls reply to the question with ‘Erm, Hull’. The girls use a voiced pause here, which is a typically female feature of speech. It shows that maybe they feel slightly pressured and maybe they assumed that the question was going to be harder than it turned out to be; so it came across as if they had to think hard about where they lived.

Furthermore, the interviewer moves on and asks, ‘Hull? Ok, so how long have you been in London?’. The blonde girl then replies by saying, ‘We came yesterday’. The fact that she replied for the other girls, suggests that she is the most confident out of them. Also, when watching the transcript, when the interviewer asked the question the other two girls looked at the blonde girl as if to signal to her to answer it; perhaps suggesting that the other girls slightly rely on the blonde girl? This paralinguistic feature plays a big part in analysing how the girls represent themselves in conversation. The brunette girl seems to have the least turns speaking in the whole conversation (2 times in total) and the only times she does really speak are when overlapping the other girls. For example, the blonde girl says ‘It’s really busy’ and the brunette girl overlaps by saying ‘busy’. This suggests that the brunette girl may be insecure and hides behind others slightly in conversation – however, this may only be due to the fact that she is being interviewed and feels slightly pressured.

Carrying on from this, throughout the girls do tend to use overlaps – and very few interruptions. This highlights the fact that the girls know each other well and are sort of in a sense finishing each other’s sentences; strongly showing the relationship between them. Further on in the conversation, the interviewer says, ‘So, it’s better here than it is in Hull, is it?’. The use of a tag question suggests that he was just trying to keep the conversation going and it highlights the fact that he is interested in the girl’s opinions – reassuring them of this also.

Later on in the transcript, the interviewer asks, ‘Why? What’s wrong with the tube?’ and the girls reply with, ‘It’s too stressful’, ‘It’s too hot and busy’ and ‘and grimy’. This sense of taboo language and slang may be an indicator of the age of the participants. The adjective ‘grimy’ suggests the girl’s sociolect and perhaps highlights where they are from – it suggests they have the sociolect of the younger generation.

Finally, the transcript ends with the interviewer asking ‘Anything else to say to the people of the world?’ and the girls reply with ‘Come to London!’ and ‘Hiii! Come to Hull to go out with us’. This suggests the personality of the girls slightly – they come across as excitable and friendly. Overall, the conversation flows fairly well as there are no pauses throughout the whole transcript – the participants continued to turn take throughout. The features the girls use are fairly expected also as voiced pauses and overlaps are seen as typically female.

A Couple from the USAThis conversation is between an interviewer interviewing a couple from New York City in the USA. It is set out with a question and answer structure – with adjacency pairs throughout. The USA man seems quite patriotic and seems to have power over the conversation. Unlike the women who only says two things throughout the whole conversation.

Firstly, the interviewer asks ‘Hello. So, where are you from?’ and the USA man replies with ‘We’re from the good old USA, the biggest city in the world. New York…’. This suggests that the man, much like many other Americans is extremely patriotic. The superlative adjective ‘biggest’ is used by the man to emphasise how big his city which he lives in is, but to also almost show off about it; it highlights how proud he is of his home city. However, after this the interviewer replies and says, ‘oh, amazing’ but the USA man replies with, ‘but it cannot compare to London’ and he continues by saying, ‘I wanna just express our love for England’. The use of elision here with the lexis, ‘wanna’, shows where the couple are from and highlights their American accents. The noun, ‘love’ emphasises not only how enthusiastic the American man is for his own country, but for England too.

Furthermore, throughout the transcript, it is clear to see that the USA man, overpowers his wife in conversation; she sits back and lets him speak. This may be perhaps to do with gender? However, it could also just be about his personality; he comes across as enthusiastic and very friendly. He also uses a first person plural – ‘we’ve’ almost speaking for her in a sense. This contraction is significant as it shows the power the man has over the women. As well as this, later on in the transcript, the woman has a chance to speak so she says, ‘A wonderful experience’. However, a second later the man starts to speak and repeats exactly what she had just said – ‘A wonderful experience’. This suggests that maybe he felt a lack of power at that point and therefore repeated what she said to re-gain that power he originally had. By saying it after her, he had the final say.

Comparing this transcript to the one with the three girls, it is clear to see that interviewer has changed his language and the way in which he speaks. In the first transcript, he seemed more confident as he asks many questions such as ‘So, what do you think? What’s London like?’ and ‘Why? What’s wrong with the tube?’. Where as in this transcript he seems to be just replying to the man – as previously stated the USA man seems as though he likes to be in power. The interviewer in this transcript perhaps has a lack of quantity as he replies mostly with one word answers such as ‘Excellent’ and ‘That’s great’. This may be due to the fact that he feels quite intimidated by the man.

Overall, it is clear to see that the USA man is very confident and therefore he was able to have a sense of power over the conversation throughout – even over the interviewer. Towards the end of the transcript, the man even changes the subject himself with the use of discourse markers such as ‘now’ and ‘well’. The interviewer seems to have a lack of power towards the end shown though the use of his un-fluency features such as, ‘Err… it... it… I’m not sure’ – this use of hesitation highlights the fact that the interviewer perhaps feels slightly intimidated.