The Role of Prosodic Features in Showing Interactional Negotiation among Participants in Selected American Political Interviews

Abstract

    In this study the relationship between prosodic features and interactional relations, turn taking, and sequence organization has been investigated. In any speech situation there are particular prosodic cues used by the speakers in communication to have their turns. These cues are just like signals to tell others that the speaker is having his/her turn in speech. The researcher has investigated the expected signals determined by the speakers and recognized by the listeners to have turns. It is significant to show that some prosodic patterns reveal the turn completion or continuation. It is hypothesized that prosodic orientation like intonation, pitch register, and stress patterns display information about participants whether they have matching and non-matching of a previous turn. The repeated use of the same pitch height shows that the participants have an agreement about a particular situation. Two selected interviews are analysed using the strategy of opening and closing conversation, as well as discussion part and question-answer pairs. The prosodic analysis is carried out by using a computer program called Praat for doing acoustic analysis following E. Couper-Kuhlen’s model.  It is concluded that prosodic orientation presents a remarkable background domain to reveal information about participants’ interaction. It is not only used in collaboration with other conversational accomplishments, but it represents an interactional domain in its own realm.