Topic 13 - Shared knowledge and absurdist drama (Session B) > Assumptions in Applicant > Task A > Answer

Assumptions in Applicant

Task A – Our answer

An interview situation is rapidly established. Miss Piffs asks the questions and so is the interviewer. She also appears to have Lamb’s application form (see the stage direction in turn 5), and assumes in turn 5 (cf. the reversed polarity tag question) that he is ‘applying for this vacant post’. It coincides with the interview schema that Miss Piffs is confident and efficient and Mr Lamb is nervous. He also seems a little naive (cf. the extra ‘It’s my whole life’ comment in turn 8 in addition to his answer to Piffs’ question. They are both polite to one another, as we would expect in an interview situation. They greet one another in turns 1 and 2, and their terms of address for one another ‘Mr. Lamb’ and ‘miss’ are conventionally polite. All of these features are consistent with an interview schema.

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