118 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
If, on the other hand, we have an acknowledge as head then we have a
K2 initiation, as in:
A: What’s that you’ve got?
B: A pair of scissors.
A: Oh.There is, then, no need to distinguish initially between K2 and DK1. The
nature of the exchange is revealed later by the head of the Follow-up move.
The roles of teachers and quizmasters will be marked by the fact that they
regularly evaluate responses. Eliciting exchanges outside the classroom and
the quiz show, which are typically initiated by Berry’s K2, will normally have
an acknowledge as head of the Follow-up move. But if they are DK1 exchanges
they will have an evaluate. This marks the initiation retrospectively as DK1.
The DK1 and K2 tags have become redundant. The information they carried
is now carried in the analysis at the head of the Follow-up move.
It may be argued, however, that the analysis is still incomplete. There is
a difference between the son’s ‘Eleven o’clock’ and the quiz contestant’s
‘Salisbury’. The difference is that the son is operating in the K1 and not the
K2 role. But this is a difference which is concealed by the Berry analysis too.
There is another point to make here. In the classroom or the quiz show
situation respondents may regard themselves as K1 without challenging the
status of the teacher or the quizmaster. There is no reason why we should not
have a pupil or contestant with confidence in their ability to provide the
information requested. They may show this confidence by replying with falling
intonation so that their response has the status of an inform. If, however, they
have no such confidence they may reveal this by using rising intonation:
A: Which cathedral has the tallest spire?
B: Salisbury?
A: Yes.Alternatively they may reveal it by answering a question with an overt
interrogative:
A: Which cathedral has the tallest spire?
B: Is it Salisbury?
A: Yes.If we introduce another act as a possible head and classify ‘Salisbury’ or ‘Is
it Salisbury’ as an offer we have taken the analysis a stage further. We can
now distinguish between an exchange in which the respondent accepts the
role of K2 and one in which he lays claim to the authority of a K1.
I am, therefore, proposing two amendments to the original Sinclair/Coulthard
model:
1 acknowledge should be acceptable as the head of a Follow-up move in
an eliciting exchange.