TheConversationAnalysesofToKillaMockingbird

Zhangyixin

【Abstract】Conversation analysis （CA） mainly studies the interpersonal communication in two or more than two people of a dialogue. Conversation analysis is a very useful analysis framework about actual discourse. This paper chooses an excerpt of To Kill a Mockingbird to analysis the relationships and characters among the people.

【Key words】Conversation analysis； Relationships； Characters

Ⅰ. Introduction

Conversation analysis （CA） mainly studies the interpersonal communication in two or more than two people of a dialogue. Scholars who began to engage in this research are mostly not linguists， although more and more linguists have joined them. The founder of conversation analysis is mainly sociologists. In 1960s， sociologists Garfinkel and Sacks， began to focus on the analysis of natural conversation. Turn taking is one of the core concepts in the discourse analysis of drama style， the flow of conversation participants and the continuous interaction between the characters. It provides the ideal framework and methods on studying the dramatic dialogue.

This paper chooses an excerpt of To Kill a Mockingbird to analysis the relationships and characters among the people. The dialogue happened in the court.

Ⅱ. The Distribution and Length of the Turns

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful， winning the Pulitzer Prize. The main character Atticus Finch is a widowed lawyer with two young children. The background of this dialogue is that， a white woman Mayella framed the black man Tom raped her. In court， Mayella told Tom hit her， and leave the left hand fingerprints， but Tom has a disabled left hand since he was a little boy. Obviously， a black man with a disabled left hand can not do such a thing， but the jury were white， and black person could not enjoy the rights as white person. Although Atticus know this case must be fail， he still defense the black man.

According to Sacks et al， at the end of a sentence， there are three kinds of situations： 1. The first speakers choose the next speaker； 2. The audience choose themselves and get the opportunity to speak； 3. The first speakers continue to say. In this dialogue， the first situation dominated.

III. Relationships and Characteristics

Analysis Atticuss words： “Tom， will you catch this， please？ Thank you. Now， then， this time， will you please catch it with your left hand.” “Tom， youve sworn to tell the whole truth. Will you do it？” We can see that he is a justice and kindhearted people， he shows his respect to the black man， help and encourage the black man fight for himself， when asking questions， he tries to use short and accurate words to lead to the truth of the case. And when ask Mayella question， “Do you want to tell us what really happened？” Atticus knows what is the truth， so he use soft but serious words to ask question.

To Tom， among his turn takings， such as： “one day she asked me to come inside the fence...for her.” “Well， I said something like...” He had a pause， but his answer were very clear and concrete， it shows that Tom is a smart， earnest person. He can remember all the details and describe them clearly. At the end of his speeches， he used the word “sir”， it means he respect and believe Atticus very much. These speeches can show that Tom is a real kindhearted and friendly man， he likes to help other people without any pay. And at last， “I did not， sir.” “I did not， sir.” Tom is strong and honest ， his answer is very firmly. And he is the symbol of the pure bird “Mockingbird”.

To Mayella，“I dont know how. He done it. He just done it.” “I got something to say...and then I aint gonna say no more！ Youre just a bunch of lousy， yellow， stinking cowards！” The words spoken by Mayella shows that she is a rude and selfish woman， she could not say the real details clearly， so she uses shameless way to escape interrogation.

Conclusion

Based on conversation analysis， we can analysis the relationship and characters of each people in a dialogue， we can even know the background social information among the speeches. Analysis a dialogue of To Kill a Mockingbird， we can see the sense of worth and characters of the three people， and we can understand the thoughts and feelings about the main characters deeply. With conversation analysis， it can help us to get a deep understanding， and learn a systematic way to know how to begin a conversation and how to move it effectively.

References：

[1]任曉飛，馮慶華.戲劇對白翻譯中的話輪轉(zhuǎn)換[J].外語教學(xué)理論與實踐.2010，（1）.

作者簡介：張藝欣（1991.2-），女，漢族，內(nèi)蒙古包頭為，內(nèi)蒙古師范大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院碩士研究生，外國語言學(xué)與應(yīng)用語言學(xué)。