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A: Do you love me? B: 5 Uh-uh.
A: So, would you marry me? B: Yes.
From the above example, B pauses for five second, before her “uh-uh”. It indicated with number five which is in the brackets. The “uh-uh” is an attributable
silence because it comes after the pause.
b. Adjacency pairs
Adjacency pairs are a pair of utterances that occur in conversation. In a conversation the utterance of the first speaker may lead to particular response of
the second speaker. The conversation then consists of a first part and a second part, that the first part may create an expectation of particular second part. These
parts are produced by different speakers. According to Levinson 1984:303, adjacency pairs are sequences of two utterances that are adjacent; produce by
different speaker; ordered as a first part and a second part; and typed, so that a particular first part requires a particular second or range of second parts
– e.g. offers require acceptance or rejections, greetings require greetings and so on. The
following is a few examples taken from Cutting 2003:30. a question
has preferred response of an answer
an offer an acceptance
an invitation an acceptance
an assessment an agreement
a proposal an agreement
a greeting a greeting
a complaint an apology
a blame a denial
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In adjacency pairs, when the first speaker produces the utterance, it must be recognizable so the second speaker can produce a recognizable second part as
the response of the first part. The following are some examples of adjacency pairs that have the first part and the second part. There are also some optional second
parts for some examples. a. Greeting
- Greeting A: Hi.
B: Hi. b. Summons - Answer
A: Barbie B: Coming mother.
c. Question - Answer
A: Do you like those cookies? B: Yes, I do.
d. Farewell - Farewell
A: Ok, goodbye. B: Bye.
e. Compliment - Acceptance A: That‟s a nice watch.
B: Thanks. - Agreement
B: It is quite nice, isn‟t it. - Rejection
B: Well, I think it makes my arm looks big. - Shift
B: My mother bought it yesterday. - Return
B: Thanks, I like yours too. f. Complaint - Apology
A: You ate the pudding I left in the fridge B: Sorry.
- Denial B: No, I didn‟t. It must have been Barbie.
- Excuse B: You shouldn‟t have left it there.
