Prof. G. Steinberg
Conversation Exercise

For the following bits of conversation, describe what seems to be going on.  Note that often many things are going on.  For most of these conversational excerpts, there will be no one right answer.  But look specifically for adjacency pairs, repairs, opening sequences, closing sequences, insertion sequences, dispreferred responses, violations of the cooperative principle, speech acts, etc.

Anne: Ed?
Ed: Yeah?
Anne: Do you have a ruler?

Larry: Guess what.
Lauren: What?
Larry: Pat's coming tomorrow.

Ellie: What do they charge you for car insurance?
Ted: Two thousand bucks a year, but then there's a three-hundred-dollar deductible.  Three hundred or one hundred -- I can't remember.
Ellie: Probably one hundred, right?
Ted: Yeah, I think you're right.  One hundred sounds right.

Cindy: Heard from Jill recently?  She hasn't written or called in ages.
Larry: Yeah, she sent me a postcard from England.
Barb: From England?
Larry: Oh, maybe it was from France.  I can't remember.
Cindy: What's she doin' --
Barb: It must've been France 'cause she was gonna be there all year.
Cindy: What's she doin' in France?
Larry: Why are you asking about her?
Cindy: I don't know.  I've just been thinkin' about her.
Larry: She's on some sort of exchange program.  Studyin' French or somethin'.
Cindy: Sounds pretty nice to me.
Larry: Yeah.  Well, I don't know.  She said she was tired of Europe and wants to come home.

Cal: Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing after your surgery.
Phil: Well, that was really nice of you.

Jeff: Mornin', Stan.
Stan: Hi.  How's it goin'?
Jeff: Oh, can't complain, I guess.  Ready for the meeting this afternoon?
Stan: Well, I don't have much choice!

Deb: Excuse me.  I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help hearing that you were talking about Dayton, Ohio.

Steve: I really enjoyed the movie last night.
Mary: Yeah, I thought it was pretty good.

Tim: I think Ralph's a pretty good writer.
Lou: Well, I can see how you'd find his imagery interesting, but apart from that I don't really think he writes well at all.

Ralf: What's playing at the Rialto tonight?
Sarah: A film you haven't seen.

Bill: Would you like to go out with Andrea?
John: What do you think?

James: You're soaked!  It must be raining pretty hard outside.
Jerry: You're a regular Sherlock Holmes.

Jesse: I wonder why Dave didn't answer the phone.  I know he's home.
Lisa: It's Thursday night.
Jesse: So?
Lisa: ER is on.

Jane: How are your son and daughter doing?
Martha: Cindy is in her second year of med school -- she's doing fine. . . .


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