Turn and Move in Casual Conversation
Eggins and Slade 1997: 184 say that there is one feature of turn that has to be mentioned before the rules can be presented, namely the possibility of invited to speak
next. The turn can be described by the speakers in conversation by using speech function pairs. For examples:
1 a : i “Who wrote Laskar Pelangi?” question
2 b : i “Andrea Hirata.” answer
If a select b in current turn for his question “who wrote Laskar pelangi?”, so
a must stop speaking, and b must speak next by answering the a ‟s question.
1a D: i “I mean, ii the man love you.” 1b iii “I think, iv you must be happy marry with him.”
We can see that D is a single turn at talk. This change clearly indicates that D is making a number of moves in single turn, and expresses a statement. But, the moves are
still in one meaning of D. However, the turn can still happen even when the hearer responses the speaker means of requests. For example, we can already point out that there
are the other speaker responses to D‟s first move, she is actually is a single turn:
2a S: i “I don‟t think so.” 2b ii “I just regard him as my friend.”
The fact the two rather than just one task are being performed here can be seen by realizing that S could have stopped at the end of his first move. She both declares
disagreement by adopting a confronting speech function response that is contradiction 2.4.2
Move in Casual Conversation
A move is a unit after which speaker change could occur without turn transfer being seen as an interruption. Move is the unit which expressed in speech functions in
discourse. It is closely related to the turn-taking organization of conversation. The move is a unit of discourse organization, not grammar, and is therefore a
separate unit from the clause. However, while the clause and the move are distinct units, move is realized by a clause: that is, most clauses are moves, and most moves are clauses,
so fundamental to language structure. Martin in Eggins and Slade 1994: 187-188 says that a move as a clause which
selects independently for mood is a useful point of departure, although not sufficient on its own. The determining whether in a particular instance a clause is move, the grammatical
independence or dependence of the clause must be considered. The grammatical dependence or independence of the clause is consists of:
1. Embedded clauses is a clause operating within another clause, e.g. as a post- modification or noun clause. For example:
a. Jane i you met his brother that night we were doing this and passing up.
2. Dependent clauses and the main clause on which they depend. When the dependent clause occurs in first position, it carries strong structural implications that the speaker has
not yet finished their move. Hence examples such as the following are easy to treat as single moves:
a. Jane i if you have much money ii you should by your father a new house. 3. Quoting and reporting clauses, both direct and indirect. Where one clause involve a verb
of thinking or saying and the next or previous clause includes what was said or thought, the two function together as a single move, as again such clause are grammatically dependent.