Advances in Spoken Discourse Analysis

Caught in the act 117

Realized by a closed class of items— ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘good’, ‘fine’, and

repetition of pupil’s reply, all with neutral low fall intonation. Its function

is to indicate that the teacher has heard or seen that the informative,

reply or react was appropriate.

(ibid.:20)

This does not cover the teacher’s follow-up in the example given. In addition
to this, accept in the model is described as a pre-head and not a head act.
This means that it cannot stand on its own. It must be followed by a head,
in the case of an eliciting exchange by an evaluate.
There is, however, another candidate which might function as the head
of a Follow-up move in an eliciting exchange. In an informing exchange the
head of the Follow-up move may be an acknowledge:

realized by ‘yes’, ‘OK’, ‘cor’, ‘mm’, ‘wow’ and certain non-verbal gestures

and expressions. Its function is simply to show that the initiation has been

understood, and, if the head was a directive, that the pupil intends to react.

(ibid.:20)

If we extend the scope of this act and allow it to stand as the head of a
Follow-up move in an eliciting exchange we can offer an alternative analysis.
The phrase ‘Good gracious me’ can be analysed as an acknowledge standing
as the head of the Follow-up move. The supporting ‘... that’s fairly recently’
can be analysed as a comment:

realized by statement and tag question. It is subordinate to the head of

the move and its function is to exemplify, expand, justify, provide additional

information.

(ibid.:20)

We now have an IRF exchange. The I is realized by a pupil elicit which is
in turn realized by a single act—elicit. The R place in the exchange structure
is filled by an Answering move which is realized at the rank of act by a
reply. The F is now filled by a Follow-up move made up of an acknowledge
as head and a comment as post-head.
By allowing for an acknowledge as head of a Follow-up move we have
an analysis which allows us to distinguish between exchanges which, in
Berry’s terms are initiated by a DK1 and those which are initiated by a K2.
If at the rank of act we have an evaluate as head then the exchange has a
DK1 initiation, as in:

Father: What time did you get in last night?

Son: Eleven o’clock.

Father: Yes.

Here the father reveals his opening move as DK1 by evaluating the son’s
reply. He is in effect saying ‘I knew all the time that you came in at eleven.
I was just checking to see if you would give me an honest answer.’