Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

8 Jagdish Kaur
06 K: → socially [responsible company=
07 M: [ah yes
08 K: =that is the company that we want to do business with
09 M: yeah okay
K (Cambodian) and M (Burmese) are going over a paper they have jointly
produced for a particular course. In this extract, K suggests that they add a further
point regarding a ‘socially responsible company’, i.e. a company that contributes
to the community (lines 3 and 4). M, in line 5, signals trouble in hearing and/or
understanding K’s suggestion through the use of an open class repair initiator in
the form of ‘sorry?’. In response, K produces a partial repeat of the trouble source
turn, focusing on the key point of his suggestion (line 6). M’s response in line 7,
which partially overlaps K’s repeat, suggests that it was the word ‘socially’ that
had posed a problem to M. By providing M with the opportunity of re-hearing the
item in question, understanding is achieved and the interaction proceeds on.
In the next example, M (Burmese), D (Indonesian) and S (Cambodian) are
talking about the lecturer of a particular course:
(7) [T1/SB/C10-M(BUR):D(IND):S(CAM)/25-26]
01 D: er: today the Caballero, Caballero class
02 S: yeah=
03 M: =was he famous something like that uh?
04 D: → huh?
05 M: → was he famous something like that uh?
06 D: like law I think he is a: …(0.9) law maker in Madrid from Madrid,
07 Madrid [University
08 M: [yeah Madrid yeah yeah Madrid.
In line 3, M enquires about the lecturer’s ‘fame’ in what must be his field of
expertise. D’s response in line 4, i.e. the repair initiator ‘huh’ produced with a
rising intonation, suggests that D’s hearing and/or understanding of M’s enquiry
is in some way incomplete. M addresses D’s display of a possible problem of
hearing/understanding by providing a repeat of her enquiry. A second hearing of
M’s enquiry appears sufficient to enable D to respond accordingly (lines 6 and 7)
as evidenced by M’s own response in line 8.
In example (8) below, S (Thai) is telling A (Malaysian-Malay) about the
proposed area of research for a paper he has to write.
(8) [T2/SA/C3-S(THA):A(MAL-M)/35-37]
01 A: okay your topic is what uh?
02 S: I have many thing in mind lah …(1.1) I want to do: think about
03 Indonesia: or Malaysia:
04 (2.2)
05 A: you: you’re doing qualitative lah means …(1.5) [or:
06 S: [yeah