Third turn position in British election phone-in conversations
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Anisa Pinatih
Anisa Pinatih holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently an academic staff member at School of Entrepreneurship and Humanities, Universitas Ciputra, where she teaches language-related subjects. Her main research interests are Conversation Analysis and Genre Analysis. She has received sponsorship from Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education to study for a PhD in the field of Applied Linguistics in Australia.
Abstract
An election radio phone-in program is designed for questions and answers, thus providing a context for direct interaction where lay-participants can engage with politicians’ responses. The current study aims at examining the third position that follows a question-answer sequence in a phone-in conversation, when radio hosts and/or callers evaluate politicians’ answers. Previous research has shown that radio hosts may offer a comeback to the caller, terminate the call, or ask their own question; and that a caller may come back on their own initiative. The aim of this article is to discover if there are patterns that underlie this diversity in the third position in radio phone-in conversations. The data consist of 4 hours and 20 minutes of transcribed conversations from election phone-ins from the Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC) radiobroadcast prior to the 2015 general election. Using Conversation Analysis, this study looks at the sequential context and the substantive content of utterances to examine if the design and the content of the question and answer have bearing on the third position. The findings show that hosts either offered a comeback to callers or terminated the call right away when the politician’s answer was non-evasive and lacking opposition; that hosts or callers pursued an answer when evasion and opposition were apparent, and that callers pursued only when they showed oppositional stance taking in the questioning position.
About the author
Anisa Pinatih holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently an academic staff member at School of Entrepreneurship and Humanities, Universitas Ciputra, where she teaches language-related subjects. Her main research interests are Conversation Analysis and Genre Analysis. She has received sponsorship from Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education to study for a PhD in the field of Applied Linguistics in Australia.
Appendix 1 The database
| Program/Date | Guest/Party | Host |
| Phone-Farage/06-04-15 | Nigel Farage/UKIP | Nick Ferrari |
| Phone-Farage/23-03-15 | Nigel Farage/UKIP | |
| Call-Clegg/12-03-15 | Nick Clegg/Lib Dem | |
| Call-Clegg/19-03-15 | Nick Clegg/Lib Dem | |
| Election-Call/20-04-15 | Chuka Ummuna/Labour | Iain Dale |
| Election-Call/24-04-15 | Ed Miliband/Labour | |
| Election-Call/08-04-15 | Tessa Jowell/Labour | |
| Election-Call/13-04-15 | Neil Hamilton/UKIP |
Transcription Conventions (Hutchby and Wooffitt 2008)
| (0.5) | Lapsed time in half of a second |
| = | ‘Latching’ between utterances |
| [] | The onset and end of a spate of overlapping talk |
| hh | An out-breath, the more the h the longer the breath |
| heheh | Laughter particles |
| (()) | A non-verbal activity, for example ((clear throat)) |
| < > | Speeding up |
| : | The speaker has stretched the preceding sound or letter |
| () | The presence of an unclear fragment on the tape |
| , | A continuing intonation |
| ? | A rising inflection, it does not necessary indicate a question |
| ! | Animated/emphatic tone |
| word | Emphasis on that word |
| [––––] | More than five lines omitted because the stretch of talk could be very long. This being done, I tried to ensure that all the necessary elements for the analysis remain in the extract. |
Appendix 2: Sample Analysis
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
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- Legal constraints and judicial discretion in sentencing practice: Appraisal analysis of the sentencing remarks for Terri Palmer
- Reproduced, reinterpreted, lost: Trajectories of scientific knowledge across contexts
- Third turn position in British election phone-in conversations
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Legal constraints and judicial discretion in sentencing practice: Appraisal analysis of the sentencing remarks for Terri Palmer
- Reproduced, reinterpreted, lost: Trajectories of scientific knowledge across contexts
- Third turn position in British election phone-in conversations
- “To have or not to have a boyfriend?” Large identities in small stories
- ‘You wanted to know about expat life’: Authenticating identity in blogs about transnational relocation
- Language teachers’ narratives of professional experience in online class discussions
