140 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
p. 159), where A says: ‘Did you enjoy last night’. The information supplied
by intonation is reinforced by the obvious ‘topic-change’ occurring at this
point.
In all cases, in fact, the identification of a transaction boundary should
be consistent with considerations of topic, since the transaction is basically
a topic-unit. We do not propose here to go into the thorny question of
‘topic’, which must remain a pre-theoretical and intuitive notion. It must
be stressed, however, that the linguistic signal (framer or intonation
contour) is necessary but not entirely sufficient evidence for a transaction
boundary.
The transaction differs from units lower down the rank scale in that
while we can identify its boundaries, we can say little about its internal
structure. We do not know how the various Conversational exchanges
realizing the Ms combine, or even whether the structure of a transaction
can be described in terms of linguistic patterning. Moreover, since we
can suggest no impossible combination of exchanges, one of Sinclair
and Coulthard’s four criteria for a linguistic system (1975:16–17) cannot
be met.
The transaction, then, is a less satisfactory unit altogether than those
lower down the rank scale.
Interactions
Transactions combine to form the highest unit on the rank scale, the
interaction. Again, however, little can be said about the internal structure
of an interaction.
One problem which has been raised concerns the defining of its limits.
Coulthard suggests (1981:14) that perhaps greetings and leave-takings should
not be seen as part of the structure of a particular interaction, but rather as
markers of the beginning and end of situations during which interactions
occur. In the course of a project which involved asking doctors to record
their interviews with patients, it was noted that ‘one doctor... decided that
the greetings were not part of the interview and only turned on the tape-
recorder after these preliminaries, while another turned off the tape-recorder
before he dismissed the patient.’ Secondly, Coulthard argues, primary-school
pupils usually begin and end their day by greeting and taking leave of their
teacher, while in the course of the day a number of interactions—or lessons—
take place which are not marked in this way.
We would not, however, wish to place greetings and leave-takings outside
the limits of the interaction on the grounds that, if they are seen simply as
marking the beginning and end of situations, they can no longer be subjected
to internal analysis. In our data sample, there is one transaction (the last
one) which is made up entirely of three Greet exchanges and one Structuring.
To see a closing transaction like this (and it clearly qualifies as a transaction)^2
as part of a situation but not as part of an interaction would be to ‘jump’