Definition
Conversation analysis is an approach to the study of natural conversation, especially with a view to determining the following:
- Participants’ methods of
- turn-taking
- constructing sequences of utterances across turns
- identifying and repairing problems, and
- employing gaze and movement
- How conversation works in different conventional settings
Examples
Here are some examples of conventional settings in which conversation analysis could take place:
- Interviews
- Court hearings
- Telephone conversations
- Card games
Sources 2
- Levinson 1983, 294–296
- Hopper, Koch, and Mandelbaum 1986, 169–170, 173