backchanneling&as&asignal&of&solidarity& ·...
TRANSCRIPT
Jenny, Anna, Sarah, and Angela use various forms of backchanneling to indicate engagement with the speaker, thereby displaying a sense of solidarity and friendship. This behavior indicates that in the specific culture of this friend group there is importance is placed on a?en@veness as well as deference to the dominance of the storyteller. The par@cipants in our group use three kinds of backchanneling. (1) Non-‐lexical backchanneling is when listeners respond to the main speaker with sounds or u?erances such as laughter, ‘uh-‐huh’, or ‘oh’ rather than words. (2) Listeners also employ simple words or phrases, like ‘really’ and ‘yeah’; these are known as phrasal backchannel responses and appear regularly throughout the data. (3) Comple@on of the storyteller’s sentence by a listener is a third form of backchanneling. The girls in these data repeatedly u@lize backchannel responses to indicate their engagement with the speaker without taking the floor.
Name Age Ethnicity Angela 18 White Anna 17 White Jenny 18 White Sarah 17 Mexican-‐American
Chade Bills, Isaiah Ichihara, Raisa Monroe-‐Yavneh, William Wong
617 Anna: You fancy huh? 618 No the, 619 The fancy one is, 620 Um, (Salzers), huh? 621 Or what’s that one, [Salzers]? 622 Angela: [Salzers]? 623 Jenny: [Xais]? 624 Anna: Xais! 625 Angela: Salzers is a -‐
• Angela and Jenny appear to interrupt, but ask ques@ons to clarify what Anna means • Jenny and Angela suggest possible comple@ons of Anna’s sentence, helping her perfect the details of her story • Con@nua@on of the conversa@on shows that these ques@ons did not disrupt Anna’s story or the current conversa@on roles • Indicates engagement with the speaker by displaying understanding of the subject manner
842 Jenny: I was gonna play volleyball my junior year but, 843 I hated the people who I was gonna play with. 844 I was on the team with Fiona: and all the like, 845 All the, 846 Those girls. 847 And then I tried to play volleyball my junior year, 848 And I was on JV with like, Fiona:, 849 Um, go:sh, a bunch of like, slu:?y girls. 850 And I didn’t wanna go through it. 851 And so I decided not to play. 852 I said, “So:rry, I cannot be with… these.” 853 Sarah: @@@
• Sarah laughs aner Jenny’s story at an appropriate transi@on relevance place, as signalled by Jenny’s falling intona@on at the end of line 853 • Sarah’s laughter doesn’t disrupt the speaker or switch the current conversa@onal roles • Indicates engagement with the speaker and displays appropriate affect
Backchanneling as a Signal of Solidarity
658 Anna: Well I mean it’s like, 659 Who raises you [you know]? 660 Jenny: [Yeah]. 661 Anna: Like, 662 Jenny: [Her last name]-‐ 663 Anna: [I would never]-‐ 664 I would never call my pop Richard. 665 Jenny: Yeah.
• Anna’s directed speech in line 659 requires a par@cular response, which Jenny provides • Anna reinforces the backchannel process by asking for engagement from the listener, Jenny • In line 665, Jenny displays engagement with the speaker at an appropriate TRP by saying “Yeah.” • In this context, “Yeah” is used as an interjec@on to display affect toward the speaker’s statement rather than taking a specific stance • This displays a sense of support and a?en@on without disrup@ng the status quo of the conversa@on
It appears that this friend group uses various forms of backchanneling during storytelling sequences to accomplish a number of goals. First and foremost, these backchannels, which are @med at appropriate transi@on relevance places, indicate ongoing engagement with the speaker without altering par@cipants’ current conversa@onal roles. Nonlexical u?erances such as laughter and small phrasal such as “yeah” or “oh”, while seemingly small, serve to indicate engagement and a?en@on without asser@ng specific stances. Comple@ng a friend’s sentence displays understanding as well as closeness. Even clarifica@on ques@ons, which in these data onen do not occur at transi@on relevance places but instead interrupt the flow of speech, serve to provide a sense of a?en@veness. It appears that within this friend group, there is heavy importance placed on a?en@veness, closeness, and deference to the conversa@onal status quo.