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Analysing Rita
Task B – Who speaks most, and how does this compare with our schematic
expectations?
Turn-length
Frank: 19 turns, 126 words, average = 6.6 words per
turn
Rita: 20 turns, 212 words, average = 10.6 words per
turn
We would expect Frank, as the most powerful participant socially, to
have more words per turn than Rita, but actually she speaks getting on
for twice as many words per turn as Frank. Moreover, the disparity is
arguably a bit bigger than the figures above suggest, as the counting
method we have used has benefited Frank’s count at the expense of
Rita’s. We have counted graphological words (words
separated by spaces in the text – this is what word count facilities
on word processors do) to arrive at the above figures. This means that
Frank’s four non-lexical hesitancy markers ‘erm’ have
been included as words, and that cliticised expressions (where one word
is reduced and attached to another e.g.’ I’ve’, ‘y’know’,
‘d’y’get’) have been counted as one word, not
two or three. Rita’s speech displays quite a bit more cliticisation
than Frank’s, as it is being used to mark her working class dialect.
Both these factors would increase the disparity if we had included them
in the calculations. Even simple things like word counts turn out to be
more complex than one might imagine at first glance . . .
This turn-taking pattern which goes against our schematic assumptions
helps us to see how the force of Rita’s personality is affecting
the turn-taking.
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