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The questions in this exercise relate to the following extract, which follows on from the WhatsApp example in Section 8.12. It takes place late on the following day and involves Participants 1, 2, 3 and 4. (There are no further messages that evening.)

turn	time	participant
1	23.14	P2	Still trying to assemble my new bike x
2	23.14	P3	That sounds VERY exciting! Come whizzing last at some point… xxx
3	23.15	P2	> posts photo of the unfinished bike Tomorrow is another day x
4	23.15	P2	I will x
5	23.16	P3	Past! God, my typos!! Love the colour! I couldn’t even BEGIN to put that together. I’m very impressed! Xx
6	23.21	P2	It arrived partly made and the tutorial is on YouTube
7	23.27	P4	P2: It arrived partly made and the tutorial is on YouTube Nonetheless. We meant to get bikes when we moved but didn’t get round to it. Regretting that at the mo. Xxx
8	23.27	P2	Order on eBay and they deliver
9	23.47	P1	Looks a fab bike – I must pump up the tyres on mine … X
10	23.53	P4	Specs??

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Question 1 (Consolidate)

To what extent does the structure of this sequence mirror face-to-face synchronous conversation? You might find it easier to identify the adjacency pairs and any follow-up turns in diagrammatic form.

Answer/discussion

In the diagram below, eight adjacency pairs (APs) have been identified. The downward arrows ↓ indicate first pair parts and the upward arrows ↑ indicate second pair parts.

turn/ participant		AP1	AP2	AP3	AP4	AP5	AP6	AP7	AP8
1 /P2	Still trying to assemble my new bike x	↓
2 /P3	That sounds VERY exciting!	↑
	Come whizzing last at some point… xxx		↓
3 /P2	> posts photo of the unfinished bike Tomorrow is another day x			↓
4 /P2	I will x		↑
5 /P3	Past! God, my typos!!
	Love the colour!			↑
	I couldn’t even BEGIN to put that together. I’m very impressed! Xx			↑	↓
6 /P2	It arrived partly made and the tutorial is on YouTube				↑
7 /P4	P2: It arrived partly made and the tutorial is on YouTube					↓
	Nonetheless.					↑
	We meant to get bikes when we moved but didn’t get round to it. Regretting that at the mo. Xxx						↓
8 /P2	Order on eBay and they deliver						↑
9 /P1	Looks a fab bike –			↑
	I must pump up the tyres on mine … X							↓
10 /P4	Specs??								↓

As you can see, most of the pairs are complete. (This may be partly the result of the sequence happening over the relatively short space of 39 minutes.) There’s an interruption to AP2 caused by Turn 3 appearing almost simultaneously with – but just before – turn 4. The first pair part of AP3 receives three responses, one of them not until turn 9 (32 minutes later) when P1 joins the conversation, and has had the opportunity to look at the photo of the bike. In turn 7, P4 re-posts P2’s previous turn, effectively turning it into the first pair part of a new AP. At the end of the conversation, there is no response to P1’s comment about her tyres, possibly because P2 and P3 have now left the conversation, and P4 decides not to complete that AP but to resume the conversation of the previous day and ask P1 (unsuccessfully) if her glasses have been found!

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Question 2 (Explore)

We have seen throughout this chapter the way in which text and context interact. Can you identify ways in which this conversation is affected by the fact that it isn’t face-to-face?

Answer/discussion

The electronic medium means not only that there will be gaps between the turns and some disruption to the adjacency pairs, but also that participants are not always aware who else is ‘in the room’, so to speak. This is clearly demonstrated at the end when P4 asks P1 about her ‘specs’ and receives no reply.

The fact that participants can post images and videos during a conversation can mimic a face-to-face situation. Here, for example, the participants can all see P2’s bike. Before the photo of the bike appears, P3 comments that it sounds very exciting, but once the photo has been uploaded, P1’s comment is that it looks a fab bike. This visual element also gives rise to the use of deixis with the bike being referred to as that in turn 5.

In face-to-face spoken conversation, participants can self-correct when they make slips of the tongue or false starts. In a messaging context, typos often go uncommented on if the meaning is still clear. In turn 5, however, P3 chooses to correct and comment on her typo. Often in face-to-face talk, participants wish to return to an earlier subject, and do so by using a discourse marker such as going back to what you were saying. In the electronic medium, the re-posting of a message can also serve this purpose.

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