A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

114 conversational turn
conversational turn
see turn
conversation analysis (CA) A term used in linguistics and associated disciplines
to refer to a method of studying the sequential structure and coherence
of conversations (in their everyday sense), usually employing the techniques of
ethnomethodology. The approach studies recordings of real conversations,
to establish what properties are used in a systematic way when people linguistically
interact. Conversation analysis is basically an empirical, inductive study,
and a contrast is often drawn with the deductive approach characteristic of
discourse analysis.
converseness (n.) A term often used in semantics to refer to a sense relation
between lexical items. Converse terms display a type of oppositeness of meaning,
illustrated by such pairs as buy/sell, parent/child, employer/employee and
above/below. Buy is said to be ‘the converse of’ sell, and vice versa. In such a
relationship, found especially in the definition of reciprocal social roles, spatial
relationships, and so on, there is an interdependence of meaning, such that one
member of the pair presupposes the other member. In this respect, converseness
contrasts with complementarity, where there is no such symmetry of dependence,
and with the technical sense of antonymy, where there is a gradation
between the opposites.
conversion (n.) A term used in the study of word-formation to refer to the
derivational process whereby an item comes to belong to a new word-class
without the addition of an affix, e.g. verbs/nouns: smell/taste/hit/walk/bottle/
brake; adjectives/verbs: dirty/empty/lower. Some grammars distinguish between
full conversion and partial conversion – the latter being cases where only some
of the characteristics of the new word-class are adopted (e.g. the rich). Other
terms used for this phenomenon, which is very common in English, include
‘zero derivation’ and ‘functional shift’.
co-occurrence (n.) A term used in linguistics and phonetics to refer to the
permitted syntagmatic combination of units, according to the grammatical
and lexical rules of a language. For example, a co-occurs with boy, but not
with information; eke co-occurs with out, but not with in. The constraints
involved are known as co-occurrence relations or restrictions, and are often
specified in the form of context-sensitive or tactic rules. The dependencies
involved may be unidirectional (e.g. adverbs co-occurring with verbs, but not
necessarily the other way round), bidirectional (e.g. transitive verbs and
objects), and mutually exclusive (e.g. a cannot co-occur with an in the same
noun phrase).
co-operative principle A term derived from the work of the philosopher H. P.
Grice (1913–88) and now frequently used in linguistics as part of the study of
conversational structure. At its simplest, the principle states that speakers try
to co-operate with each other when communicating: they will, in particular,
attempt to be informative, truthful, relevant and clear (maxims of ‘quantity’,
‘quality’, ‘relation’ and ‘manner’ respectively). Listeners will normally assume
that a speaker is following these criteria. Speakers may break these maxims (in