104 John Connolly
As may be apparent, the above list strongly echoes the work of Firth (1957:
203) and Hymes (1972).
Let us illustrate this with the help of the following brief excerpt from a
conversational dialogue:
(12) Hugh (making move M 101 ): ( = P 1 )
Jay likes Kay. ( = Message m 151 )
He dates her. ( = Message m 152 )
Irene (making move M 102 ): ( = P 2 )
Gosh! ( = Message m 153 )
Ella told me that he didn’t go for tall women. ( = Message m 154 )
(Ella = AV 1 , i.e. additional
voice 1)A possible contextual description of this interactive discourse could be
the following, which contains information (that will here be assumed to be
true) along the lines suggested above:
(13) P 1 = Hugh
P 2 = Irene
AV 1 = Ella
All have equal social status
All are from the USA
All have conventional American social attitudes towards romantic involve-
ments
No bystanders
Participants are using normal phonation
Participants are smiling
Time = 09.40 p.m., 4 February 2000
Place = Irene’s apartment in Kansas City
Setting is an informal dinner party
Prevailing communicational conventions are those of English-speaking
Americans
Referents of:
x 251 (JayN)
x 252 (KayN)
x 253 (EllaN)
x 254 (womanN)