INTRODUCTION
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 post- Edwardian era (after Edward VII's death) and depicts how major historical events such 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 6 th 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 4 th 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”
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”?
(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
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
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
This study is presented into three parts in which part is divided into chapters that elaborate the investigated issues
Part 1, Introduction, states the rationale, objectives, research question, scope, and significance of the study
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.
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.
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.
Design of the study
This study is presented into three parts in which part is divided into chapters that elaborate the investigated issues
Part 1, Introduction, states the rationale, objectives, research question, scope, and significance of the study
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.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
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.
Speech Acts
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."
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
“Could you mail this letter for me?” Request
Conversation analysis
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 talk-in- 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
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 “non- 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
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
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
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
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
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?
Q3 A: What are you running on?
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
Preference organization refers to the notion that some second pair-parts of an adjacency pair are structurally preferred over others Yule (1996:79) indicates that
“preference indicates a socially determined structural pattern and does not refer to any individual‟s mental or emotional desires.” Similarly, Levinson (1983:307) shows the same concern about this idea as mentioning that the notion of preference is not a psychological one that depending on S‟s or H‟s personal motivations but a structural phenomenon corresponding closely to the concept of “markedness” In short, preference is an observed pattern of talk, regardless people‟s will
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
FIRST PARTS: Request Offer/Invite Assessment Question Blame SECOND
Preferred: acceptance acceptance agreement expected answer denial
Dispreferred: refusal refusal disagreement unexpected answer or non-answer admission
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:
Assessment Invitation Offer Proposal Request
Preferred Dispreferred agree accept accept agree accept disagree refuse decline disagree refuse
Table 2 – The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures
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
First part Second part a Can you help me? (Request) Sure (Acceptance) b Want some coffee? (Offer) Yes, please (Acceptance)
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
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
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
How to do a dispreferred Examples a delay/ hesitate b preface c express doubt d Token Yes e apology f mention obligation g appeal for understanding h make it non-personal i give an account j use mitigators 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
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
(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)
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.
THE STUDY
Research Methods
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
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
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.
Findings and Discussion
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
Figure 1: Percentage of frequency distribution
PreferredsDispreferreds express themselves Subsequently, deeper analyses into each kind of preference structure are provided
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
Figure 2: General patterns of preferred second turns
Assessment - Agreement Invitation - Acceptance Offer - Acceptance Proposal - Agreement Request - Acceptance
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
Figure 3: Linguistic features indicating preferred second turns
Saying 'Yes' as answer Expressing gratitude as answerNegative 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 cross- class lines: i.e., in conversations between the aristocrats [3], the servants [6] and 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
[6] Mrs Patmore: William, will you stop talking and take this kedgeree up, and mind the burners are still lit
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
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:
That explains for the appearance of „so‟ in the dialogue extracted from the film
[10] Mrs Hughes: I can‟t make myself believe it
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
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
Figure 4: General patterns of dispreferred second turns
Offer - Decline Proposal - Disagreement Request - Refusal
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
Figure 5: Linguistic features indicating dispreferred second turns
Delay/hesitatePrefaceExpress doubtToken YesApologyMention obligationAppeal for understandingMake it non-personalGive an accountUse mitigatorsHedge 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
CONCLUSION
Recapitulation
This study has been carried out with the objectives of exploring the general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures and the common linguistic features indicating them in the first episode of the film Downton Abbey The findings of the research can be condensed as follows:
Dispreferred second responses outnumber preferred ones 7 to 1 among 89 examined adjacency pairs
The results of the data analysis process states that merely four patterns of preferred seconds including assessment – agreement, invitation – acceptance, proposal – agreement and request – acceptance occurs in the selected movie episode The most widely used among them is assessment – agreement, followed by request – acceptance and proposal – agreement The least favored pattern is invitation – acceptance
1.2 Linguistic features associated with preferreds
It is revealed that the fundamental linguistic elements expressing preferred seconds which are respectively „saying „Yes‟ as answer‟, „expressing gratitude as answer‟,
„negative agreement‟ and „offer as answer‟ The outstanding unit to be used is „saying
„Yes‟ as answer‟, the next is „expressing gratitude as answer‟ with approximately 30%
In contrast, „negative agreement‟, together with „offer as answer‟ appears 2 times over
The most significant finding about how these four features work in the four patterns to create preferreds is pointed out that the linguistic unit of „saying „yes‟ as answer‟ appear in all the four mentioned kinds of paired utterances of preferreds regarding same-class and cross-class lines, i.e in dialogues of the aristocrat – aristocrat, servant – servant and aristocrat – servant
The statistic shows that all the five dispreferred patterns including assessment – disagreement, invitation – refusal, offer – decline, proposal – disagree and request – refusal appear in 89 adjacency pairs extracted from Episode 1 of the film series Downton Abbey Assessment – disagreement ranks as the most usual one with over
70% of all On the other hand, invitation – refusal occupies the position of the least favorably used pattern with a very limited frequency
1.4 Linguistic features associated with dispreferreds
Ultimately, the writer has managed to provide the prime elements of language use associated with dispreferred second turns in the aforementioned episode The widely used seven linguistic features are namely „delay/hesitate‟, „preface‟, „give an account‟,
„hedge the negative‟, „use mitigators‟, and „appeal for understanding‟ Among these seven features, „delay/hesitate‟ and „preface‟ are the two most frequently used in conversations while the five remaining elements, i.e., „express doubt‟, „token yes‟,
„apology‟, „mention obligation‟, „make it non-personal‟ are hardly seen in 121 synthesized features
Some prominent findings are discovered and presented after analyzing the data of how the seven common features operate in the five patterns to generate dispreferreds as follows:
(i) The feature „delay/hesitate‟, which takes up 26% of all elements, can be found in only four patterns in the form of pauses, stumbling repetitions, an „insertion sequence‟ or an unrequired-answer question, except for invitation – refusal Robert,
Earl of Grantham and Duke of Crowborough are those who use this kind of feature most and pauses are quite customary for interlocutors when talking
(ii) The element „preface‟ like „oh‟, „yeah‟ and „well‟ happens in four patterns
(like „delay/hesitate‟) It appears at the beginning of the second S‟s utterance and before delays, accounts given for disagreement or „make it non-personal‟ feature
(iii) Providing explanations is the third widely-used linguistic unit Here the second S gives the reason why he/she does not agree or accept the first S‟s utterance It is often accompanied with „delay/hesitate‟, „appeal for understanding‟, „apology‟ and so on
(iv) The feature „hedge the negative‟ like „not at all‟, „not much‟ makes its appearance in four patterns when the second S presents protest to the first S‟ saying and then mentions dispute
(v) As regards „use mitigators‟ such as „really‟ or „just‟, we can realize that it is applied to reveal the second S‟s confusion and reluctance, especially Lady Mary is the one who utters „just‟ the most to make excuses
(vi) Only in assessment – disagreement can „appeal for understanding‟ element be found in the form of „you see‟, „you know‟ It aims to share the knowledge with the first S and seek for his/her agreement
(vii) There is a combination of several features in an individual utterance at the same time to covey the S‟s disagreement/refusal/decline
(viii) Some linguistic units which are „preface‟, „give an account‟ are discovered in the same-class lines, i.e., people sharing similar background tend to use filler sounds and give explanations to others‟ saying In contrast, other elements are found in both same-class and cross-class conversations.
Limitations of the study
Due to the limitation of length and database, this work certainly has some unavoidable restrictions
The first one is that the data of this paper have been taken from a small scale of samples: 102 adjacency pairs from Episode 1, Season 1 of the series drama Downton Abbey Therefore, the findings of the expressions of preferred and dispreferred second responses cannot be sufficient or be applied into other film episodes
Furthermore, the source of data is from a movie so it cannot be considered „naturally occurring talk-in interactions‟ Hence, it would be much better if the author could get access to native speakers and record their conversations like in a party or a classroom background
Lastly, the theoretical framework of the research is from Levinson (1983) and Yule
(1996) so it might not be up-to-date enough to give the valid evaluation of the patterns and linguistic elements in preferreds and dispreferreds.
Implications for language teaching and learning
The research is carried out to investigate the general patterns and common linguistic features used in preferred and dispreferred second turns in a film Thus, the writer hopes that this thesis will serve as a reference for students who would like to enhance their knowledge about a British‟s movie masterpiece as well as the application of CA, Preference structure, Preferreds and Dispreferreds They can get inspiration from this work and take advantage of it during Pragmatics lessons
Also, it is such a suggested source to imitate the native speakers‟ pitch, intonation, facial expressions and language use as naturally as possible
Moreover, teachers can take illustrations from the movie to support vividly the lecture British History and get rid of tedious speeches
At last, hopefully this study would be of great assistance for anyone who wants to investigate the ways people response to an utterance.
Suggestions for further studies
First of all, in terms of Preference structure, the aspect of linguistic features in the late Modern period regarding preferreds and dispreferreds in contemporary movies can be examined more deeply and widely
Next, regarding Critical Discourse Analysis, we can look at how gender discrimination was generated during the 1900s and the social status gap regarding occupations at the same time For example, Robert, Earl of Grantham is highly respected while the solicitor or doctor like Matthew Crawley and his father are humiliated
Eventually, other fields of CA should also be paid attention to such as implicature, politeness and silence in order to write a satisfactory film analysis It would be amazing for the present researcher (or other researchers) to study those factors in parallel
We strongly hope that there will be works in the future to cover these recommended problems with much more useful and creative data and longer time to increase the validity and reliability of the studies
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ADJACENCY PAIRS OF PREFERRED SECOND TURNS IN EPISODE 1,
SEASON 1 OF THE FILM DOWNTON ABBEY
Mr Carson: They have, thank the
Mr Bates: We‟ve managed so far, haven‟t we?
Yes, we have Of course, we have
Cora, COG: You know my daughter, Mary, of course
Lady Sybil: You look beautiful
I can assure you the Duke very much appreciated his welcome
I can‟t make myself believe it
Is it true what they‟re saying?
Cora, COG: Will you stay for some luncheon?
I think I‟d rather like to go exploring
My lord, would it be acceptable for Bates to ride in front with Taylor?
William, will you stop talking and take this kedgeree up, and mind the burners are still lit
Oh, please, it won‟t take a moment!
All right, give it to me
Remember to help me with the luggage Don‟t go running off
ADJACENCY PAIRS OF DISPREFERRED SECOND TURNS IN EPISODE 1,
SEASON 1 OF THE FILM DOWNTON ABBEY
It seems James and Patrick were on board
What? They can‟t have been They weren‟t going till May
Cora, COG: But surely they were picked up?
(0.3) It doesn‟t look like it
Are we to be friends, then?
(0.5) We are allies, my dear, which can be good deal more effective
We shall do very well together, won‟t we ?
We must go and let the servants get in here
I should be grateful if we could stay just a minute more I have –
I have something to ask you
Well, aren‟t you coming into the drawing room?
I‟m – I‟m tired I – I think I‟ll just slip away
You‟ve got to I‟ll be hanged if you don‟t
I‟m John Bates, the new valet
And the new valet has arrived, my Lord
Has he? Er thank you, Carson
So, Murray, what have you to tell me about the lucky Mr
(.) I‟ve only made a few inquiries, but no, there‟s, er, not much to alarm you
Mathew Crawley is a solicitor based in Manchester
[ ] As you know, on your death the heir to the title inherits everything except for the sums set aside for your daughters and your widow
In fact, if you‟d be so good as to ask for the motor to be brought
They can‟t expect you to sit by silent as your fortune is stolen
He will not? (.) I bet your tanner [ ]
I understand what it must be like to have fought alongside someone in war
Oh, you understand that, do you?
You must form the most tremendous bonds Even with a servant
I don‟t mean to sound harsh
You may not mean to, but I bet you will
I hope I don‟t hear sounds of a disagreement
What? Is that what they call discussion in New York?
William, you mustn‟t let Thomas take advantage He‟s only a footman, same as you
Means you come from a happy home There‟s plenty of people here would envy
We were just looking around
What is there to look at but servants‟ room?
There is no reason why the eldest daughter and heiress of the Earl of Grantham should not wear a duchess‟s coronet with honour
Carson? Has it been decided?
I only meant her portion when she marries will be more than respectable
Oh, heavens I – I hope I haven‟t given the wrong impression
You know very well the impression
You said you‟d find me a job if I wanted to leave
I want to be a valet I‟m sick of being a footman
Yeah, Thomas, I don‟t need a valet I –I thought you were getting rid of the new one here?
Well, Grantham, this has been a highly enjoyable interlude
Has it? And I feared it had proved a disappointment b Preface
Her Ladyship was the colour of this cloth
Gwen: Well, it‟s a terrible shame if it‟s true
Mr Crawley was his Lordship‟s cousin and heir to the title
Can‟t you leave it for the next guest?
Well, only if you don‟t tell
Oh, I couldn‟t ask that, Mr bates, not in your condition
Well, it‟s certainly a great day for Downton to welcome a duke under our roof
Come on in, you must be worn out
Grantham I have a confession to make, which
I hope won‟t cause too much bother
Tell us when you‟re fixed
Well, but I thought Lady Mary was the heir
Well, I can‟t see that lasting long
If you‟re saying you do not wish to mourn Patrick as a fiancé, that is up to you
Well, no one knew about it outside the family
I‟ll get the hang of it
Yeah, you‟ll have to
Well, we can‟t have that reluctant to go into mourning
Well, she‟ll have to; we all will
Lord Grantham wanted to protect the estate It never occurred to him that you wouldn‟t have a son
I think we‟ve said everything we have to say, haven‟t we, my lord?
Oh, for the time being, yes
You mustn‟t take it personally
I do take it personally, Mrs
They‟re not our family
Well, they‟re all the family I‟ve got
I understand what it must be like to have fought alongside someone in war
Oh, you understand that, do you?
He‟s not optimistic that there‟s anything we can do
Well, I refuse to believe it
He feels he‟d be betraying his duty if Downton were lost because of him
Well, I‟m going to write to Murray
He won‟t say anything different
Well, we have to start somewhere
Our duty is to Mary Well, give him a date for when Mary‟s out of mourning
And Edith, but I don‟t believe you‟ve met my youngest, Sybil
I have a confession to make, which I hope won‟t cause too much bother
My man was taken ill just as I was leaving, so
Oh, well, that won‟t be a problem, will it Carson?
Oh, nonsense It‟s your father‟s house, isn‟t it?
It will be if there‟s any justice in the world
Well, we‟ll know soon enough
There‟s always a place for a man like you
I hope he proves to be perfect, but
Ha A very odd thing to joke about
I only meant her portion when she marries will be more than respectable
Oh, heavens I – I hope I haven‟t given the wrong impression
Well, believe what you like
I want to be a valet I‟m sick of being a footman
Yeah, Thomas, I don‟t need a valet I –I thought you were getting rid of the new one here? c Express doubt (2)
Well, Grantham, this has been a highly enjoyable interlude
Has it? And I feared it had proved a disappointment
Tomorrow we can just d Token Yes (3)
You know I don‟t care to talk about all that
Of course, I understand what it must be like to have fought alongside someone in war
Means you come from a happy home There‟s plenty of people here would envy that
There‟s always a place for a man like you
Something‟ll turn up e Apology
You knew what you were doing when you came here You encouraged Mary, all of us came to thinking
Forgive me, but I came to express my sympathies and my friendship, nothing more
Would you care to explore my room, my lady?
I‟m sorry to have bothered you We were just going down f Mention obligation
Anna: Could you give us a hand to take the other two up?
I‟ve got Her Ladyship‟s to carry g Appeal for under- standing
His special field is company law
His mother is alive and he lives with her, his father obviously is not; he was a doctor
I know It does seem odd that my third cousin should be a doctor
Your father tied the knots pretty tight; I‟d say it‟s unbreakable
Oh, he was Lord Grantham‟s batman when he was fighting the Boers
I know that, but even so
I know you‟re sad about Patrick
Whatever you say, I know it
But you see, I‟m not as sad as I should be
You know I don‟t care to talk about all that
Of course, I understand what it must be like to have fought alongside someone in war
But to lose Cora‟s fortune!
Really, Mama, you know as well as I do that
Cora‟s fortune is not Cora‟s fortune anymore
I‟ll just take Bates and stay at a club
I won‟t be more than a day or two
And I was eager that this should work
You see it is unlikely that I should find another position
Whoever marries her will be a lucky man He will not, however, be me
I see h Make it non- personal
If you‟re saying you do not wish to mourn Patrick as a fiancé, that is up to you
There‟s no obligation for the whole staff to be present outside the family i Give an account
I‟ll take it up there now
None of them will be up for hours and what difference will it make?
It seems James and Patrick were on board
What? They can‟t have been They weren‟t going till May
Mr Crawley was his Lordship‟s cousin and heir to the title
Well, but I thought Lady Mary was the heir
But you‟ll stay for luncheon?
Thank you, but no I‟ll eat on the train
Oh, I couldn‟t ask that, Mr
Bates, not in your condition
Did it make you feel better?
Not much, but it passed the time
It‟s time to let it go
Daisy: But all the people freezing to death in midnight icy water
There‟s no obligation for the whole staff to be present
Mr Murray, how lovely to see you
You‟re very kind, Lady Grantham, but I must get back to London
Come on in, you must be worn out
Oh, Lady Grantham I have a confession to make, which
I hope won‟t cause too much bother
My man was taken ill just as I was leaving, so
There‟s nothing we can do about the title
No She can‟t have the title But she can have your money
So, Murray, what have you to tell me about the lucky Mr
I‟ve only made a few inquiries, but no, there‟s, er, not much to alarm you
I know you‟re sad about Patrick
Whatever you say, I know it
But you see, I‟m not as sad as I should be
Well, it‟s certainly a great day for Downton to welcome a duke under our roof
We must go and let the servants get in here
I should be grateful if we could stay just a minute more I have –
I have something to ask you
You see it is unlikely that I should find another position
But surely in a smaller house where less is expected of you
You knew what you were doing when you came here You encouraged Mary, all of us came to thinking
Forgive me, but I came to express my sympathies and my friendship, nothing more
I want to be a valet I‟m sick of being a footman
Yeah, Thomas, I don‟t need a valet I –I thought you were getting rid of the new one here? j Use mitigators
You must form the most tremendous bonds Even with a servant
But to lose Cora‟s fortune!
Really, Mama, you know as well as I do that Cora‟s fortune is not Cora‟s fortune anymore
The the secret passages and the attics
It seems a bit add, but why not? I‟ll just tell Mama
Would you care to explore my room, my lady?
I‟m sorry to have bothered you We were just going down
Do you want to open the house?
No, no, I‟ll just take Bates and stay at a club I won‟t be more than a day or two
Can I help you, my lady?
We must go and let the servants get in here
I should be grateful if we could stay just a minute more I have –
I have something to ask you
Well, aren‟t you coming into the drawing room?
I‟m – I‟m tired I – I think I‟ll just slip away
I‟m afraid I‟ve worn you out
Really? What on earth does he want? k Hedge the negative
Well, I can‟t see that lasting long
My dear fellow I do apologise, I should have realised you‟d all be at luncheon
Mr Carson: Not at all, my lord
So, Murray, what have you to tell me about the lucky Mr
Oh, I couldn‟t ask that, Mr
Bates, not in your condition
Did it make you feel better?
Not much, but it passed the time
That when an extra footman is required, the cost would come out of my wages
Absolutely not I couldn‟t possibly allow that
Do me a favour, this is supposed to be sprinkled on the chicken
Isn‟t there more to go up?
I‟ve only made a few inquiries, but no, there‟s, er, not much to alarm you
That is it That is all of it
Robert, dear, I don‟t mean to sound harsh
I expect you saw worse things in South Africa, eh
Not worse, but pretty bad
Lady Grantham, this is so kind of you
Cora, COG: Not at all, Duke I‟m delighted you