39: How to rebalance a lopsided conversation

Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne

Science

4.8 • 743 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2019

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why do some conversations seems to flow really easily, while other times, it feels like you can’t get a word in edgewise, or that the other person isn’t holding up their end of the conversation? In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne have a conversation about the structure of conversations! Conversation analysts talk about a spectrum of how we take turns in conversation: some people are more high-involvement, while other people are more high-considerateness, depending on how much time you prefer to elapse between someone else’s turn and your own. These differences explain a lot about when conversations feel like they’re going off the rails and how to bring them back on track. — This month’s bonus episode is about onomatopoeia! We talk about words that take their inspiration from the sounds and experiences of the world around us, and how these words vary across languages. Support Lingthusiasm on Patreon to gain access to the onomatopoeia episode and 33 previous bonus episodes. patreon.com/lingthusiasm Lingthusiasm merch makes a great gift for yourself or other lingthusiasts! Check out IPA scarves, IPA socks, and more at lingthusiasm.com/merch For more links to everything mentioned in this episode, check out the shownotes at https://lingthusiasm.com/post/189762810146/lingthusiasm-episode-39-how-to-rebalance-a

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics.
0:21.6	I'm Gresham McCulloch.
0:22.5	And I'm Lauren Gorn, and today we're getting enthusiastic about analyzing conversation.
0:27.2	But first, thank you for spending another year with us traveling around the sun.
0:31.7	It's been so much fun doing this again for a third year, and thank you for sending in all of your
0:36.0	examples and quotes and fun facts for our anniversary. And we've also been enjoying so much seeing your photos of the
0:42.6	socks and the glottal bottles and the liquids for your liquids and the other Lengthiesm
0:47.0	merch in your lives. We're looking forward to bringing you another year of Lengthysiasm,
0:53.4	both our main episodes and our bonus episodes
0:56.0	in 2020. Our current bonus episode is about Onomatopoeia. And you can get access to the
1:02.6	Onomatopoeia bonus and 33 other bonus episodes at patreon.com slash linkthusiasm. Or follow the links
1:08.4	from our website.
1:25.7	So when we talk about kids learning language, we often get really excited about a baby's first word. But before kids can even
1:28.3	get to that first word, let alone first sentence stage, they're already doing something that's
1:32.9	really cool linguistically. And that's having conversations. I'm already having great
1:36.3	conversations with a kid who doesn't have any words yet. And that's because she can participate
1:42.6	in that back and forth and taking turns, and I make a noise, and then she responds, and that's because she can participate in that back and forth and taking turns, and
1:45.6	I make a noise, and then she responds, and then I, as a good supportive parent structuring
1:51.2	her through her language acquisition, will, you know, respond as though she's given some
1:55.6	kind of, I'll be, oh, really? I love it when grown-ups are like, oh, that's interesting at kids, because they're
2:03.7	kind of motivating them through this, learning this skill of having conversations.
2:09.6	Yeah, I love it. I mean, suddenly, all my friends are having babies now, so I've been getting
	...

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