Conversation and Dialogue

Conversation is a joint activity in which two or more participants use linguistic forms and nonverbal signals to communicate interactively. Dialogues are conversations between two participants (although the terms dialogue and conversation are often used interchangeably). Face-to-face conversation is universal—engaged in by all human cultures and providing an interactive context in which children learn their native languages. Conversation may also be mediated, such as when electronic technology is used for speech or text. This entry takes an interdisciplinary approach to defining conversation and its key characteristics.

A conversation is not simply a sequence of messages expressed as speaking turns, produced by speakers and received and decoded by addressees. Conversations are structured into adjacency pairs, with first and second parts produced by different speakers as in this example:

By itself, Juliet's utterance does not yet count as a question; she cannot be sure that the man lurking beneath her balcony has heard and understood her until she has the evidence from his response. And Romeo's answer ends up transforming what might have been left to stand as a yes/no question to something highly relevant to their situation, implicating both its interpersonal and familial risks. Utterances in conversation (whether spoken, typed, or produced manually using sign language) are contingent on one another, such that interpretation depends very much on context.

Real conversation is spontaneous rather than scripted in advance; it is shaped by the coordinated behavior of speakers and addressees. For these reasons, it differs considerably from edited texts. Utterances unfold over time; they are both planned and interpreted incrementally. Consider this excerpt from a telephone conversation between two British acquaintances (adapted from Svartvik and Quirk's London-Lund corpus):

Compared to Juliet and Romeo's dialogue, this excerpt seems rather disfluent, but it is actually the artifact of an orderly coordination process. Conversations do not begin and end abruptly but with opening and closing routines with which participants establish that they are willing to begin interacting or are ready to say good-bye. At first, it seems as if Brad is winding down the conversation by initiating a preclosing routine with “thanks for ringing.” This is followed by Amanda's too-abrupt “bye.” Apparently Brad recognizes that Amanda is not serious about hanging up, so he stays on the line even after responding with “bye-bye.” They proceed to draw things out over the next few turns, culminating in joint laughter that displays mutual awareness of this joint pretense. Amanda's attempt to chide Brad (“you're hopeless”) fails, [Page 203]apparently because Brad doesn't hear her (or perhaps can't believe what he is hearing). This leads to a repair sequence, during which Brad requests repetition and Amanda complies. Next, Brad (who by now may have figured out that he is being teased) chides her back with “no more than you,” and Amanda attempts further wordplay (“no more than usual …”). But Brad interprets this as her mishearing him. He attempts a hesitant (and unnecessary) repair, to which Amanda disclaims, “Oh I know” and then recaps her failed pun. Brad apologizes awkwardly (after an “ah” displaying his belated recognition of her little joke). Then the intrepid Amanda starts up the conversation again. Although only the participants know what they are thinking moment by moment, even an overhearer can recognize from this transcript that flirting is going on.

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