Preparatory, Phatic and Clarification Phases in Conversational Strategies

Abstract

In order to elucidate natural spoken conversation as a genre type, the characteristics of dyadic discourse as a ‘communicative genre’ is focused on by examining the primary intent of utterances and the four phases of the dominant exchange structure via an interactive functional analysis of an extensive database of ordinary conversations (student, family and general public interaction). A distinction between language forms and the interpersonal communication purposes (both transactional and interactional) is essential in delineating the spoken language as a genre type. The Talk Day database reveals not only general characteristics on the utterance level as well as in the exchange structure but also cross‐culturally significant variation in three of the major exchange structure phases (clarification, relationship bonding and preparatory expressions). Implications for varieties of English are presented.