A Dynamic Dyadic Systems Approach to Interpersonal Communication

This article articulates conceptual and methodological strategies for studying the dynamic structure of dyadic interaction revealed by the turn-to-turn exchange of messages between partners. Using dyadic time series data that capture partners’ back-and-forth contributions to conversations, dynamic dyadic systems analysis illuminates how individuals act and react to each other as they jointly construct conversations. Five layers of inquiry are offered, each of which yields theoretically relevant information: (a) identifying the individual moves and dyadic spaces that set the stage for dyadic interaction; (b) summarizing conversational units and sequences; (c) examining between-dyad differences in overall conversational structure; (d) describing the temporal evolution of conversational units and sequences; and (e) mapping within-dyad dynamics of conversations and between-dyad differences in those dynamics. Each layer of analysis is illustrated using examples from research on supportive conversations, and the application of dynamic dyadic systems analysis to a range of interpersonal communication phenomena is discussed.

Peculiarities of the conversation vocabulary functioning in the ukrainian language

The research is carried out from the focus on the analysis of the main lexical and semantic characteristics of the borrowings from the English language in the modern Ukrainian language. It is found out that the results of such researches are of considerable importance both from the theoretical and practical point of view as they give the opportunity to outline the interaction between linguistic, social and cultural aspects. The increasing number of the borrowings in the Ukrainian language and the features of their functioning within a new linguistic situation condition the urgency of the research. The article clarifies youth conversational vocabulary as the key linguistic environment for its use. The article also covers the main types of the borrowing words (direct borrowing and calquing). In the work are considered the new meaning, characteristics and connotation the borrowing words can get in a new language. The basic lexical-semantic features of the modern conversational units are outlined(namely lots of connotations, multi-functionality, synonymizing, polarization; the elimination of certain features of words; giving or removing the emphasis to the word). It is proved that constant change, laconism, smartnessare specific to slang; communicative, emotional and assessing functions of the slang are also specified in the article. Key words: conversational vocabulary, interaction, linguistic, social and cultural aspects, semantic changes, stylistic features.

Using large corpora of conversation to investigate narrative

This article describes a hybrid corpus linguistic approach to conversational storytelling, whereby one first identifies a feature of interest in a small set of narratives, then moves to a general investigation of this feature in large corpora of transcribed conversation, focusing only later on the distribution and functions of this feature within narrative portions of the corpora investigated. Interjections are conversational units par excellence with no syntactic relation to adjacent clauses, so that investigation of large corpora is particularly vital for determining their patterning and functions in conversation. I show that interjections play a number of important roles in the organization of conversational storytelling, first in justifying tellability, next in marking narrative climaxes, particularly within constructed dialogue, then in evaluating the narrative point, and finally in receiving and commenting on the storytelling performance. I further describe combinations of interjections and the interaction of interjections with exclamative clauses.