Entry 3: The Other End of The Line

Week 4: Spoken Discourse

Let me first amuse my readers with a comic strip about a telephone conversation between 2 animals.

The focus of this week’s lecture is on understanding speech events involving a broad-spectrum use of spoken discourse in areas like narratives, telephone openings and use of listener responses in conversation.

My entry would focus on the Singaporean Phone Opening.

My family usually has our reunion dinner at my grandfather’s place. However, we decided to have it at our house this year and my mother wanted me to drop a phone call to my grandfather on Friday to remind him about the dinner before Saturday.

The telephone conversation below was translated from mandarin.

Opening of the phone call:

(Ring)

GP: Hello

Me: Hello, Ah-Gong ah?

GP: Guangyi! Have you eaten?

Me: Yes I have Ah-Gong. What about you?

GP: I have already eaten. What are you doing now?

Me: Oh I am watching TV. My mother wants me to remind you…

Based on Sun (2004), the above conversation would be classified as other-orientated inquires. This is because the above telephone conversation focuses on the addressee’s general state and current activities.

My phone conversation with my grandfather might not be truly representative for all phone conversation that takes place between all grandfathers and grandchildren, but I feel that the general pattern is pretty similar to the eight moves that Sun (2004) identified in his study.

I shall now attempt to break down my phone conversation using Sun’s interactional moves framework.

(1) Greeting: Hello?/Hello, Ah-Gong ah

(2) Addressing: Hello, Ah-Gong ah

(3) Identification: Guangyi!

(4) Question-after-you: Have you eaten?

Like pointed out in Sun’s study, this demonstrates the phatic nature of the inquiry and these inquiries indicate to the addressee that the speaker is ‘‘favorably disposed to him’’. Like in my case, I would believe that my grandfather is favourably disposed to me.

(5) Affirmation of reconnecting: Yes, I have Ah-Gong. What about you?

I believe my reply constitutes to what Sun mentioned in his article that when that both participants appreciate their relationship and any efforts at maintaining the bond can be picked out in (5). He also mentioned that these comments also legitimized the foregrounding of such remarks at the beginning of their interaction prior to phatic inquiries such as ‘Have you eaten’, given the equal relationship between these conversational partners.

(6) Voice recognition comments: Not applicable.

Although the caller (me) did not offered self-identification, the callee (my grandpa) made it clear that he had actually know who was calling him by acknowledging my name in (3).

(7) Disturbance Check: What are you doing now?

In Chinese culture, asking what the caller could be one of the means of starting telephone conversations between familiar counterparts. Or in my grandfather’s case, he might just want to find out if I any other important things to attend to. If not, he could chat a little more with me on the phone.

(8) Prioritized communicative acts: My mother wants me to remind you…

Overall, I agree with Sun that small talk in Chinese discourse is both constitutive and reflective: through linguistic choices, callers and callees project their perceptions of the relationships between them and construct discourse interactions accordingly, like in the case of my telephone conversation with me and my grandfather.

Now let me end my entry, with a movie trailer from this 2008 movie called "The Other End of The Line".

I watched this movie quite a while ago (on YouTube... and it's still on YouTube!). I was not particularly inspired by the movie, but I thought the inter-cultural relationship concept that transpired based on a telephone call was a interesting one, though unconvincing in real life. Well for anyone who might be suffering a writer's block after the festive holidays, maybe watching this movie might give you some inspiration. Ha Ha!

Happy Lunar New Year to all!