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4  Activity‐based corpus analysis and design of Phrases 1

4.5  Result of the sorting

4.5.4  Representatives

With a representative the speaker to some degree commits to the truth of what is expressed. Some of the labels in this group contain only a few expressions, and it is hard to really know how to fit them into a vocabulary for VOCAs. Other groups, on the other hand, contain a lot of expressions that are internally very different, and for this reason can be hard to handle. This is the case for the overlapping groups Statement and Provision of information.

The customers’ use of Informing  

The group Informing contains 32 expressions by customers that have to do with buying or selling games, two expressions that belong to a more general discussion about games, and four expressions where a customer tells something about a person he knows.

It means that an overwhelming majority of the 215 expressions in this group come from the sales assistants, something that was to be expected since the customers to a high degree request information from the sales assistants. Many of the expressions are very specific, while others could well be useful in a vocabulary for VOCAs.

Examples: “Sen detta har jag inte köpt här, utan jag köpte det på Tradition tror jag (Then this I have not bought here, but I bought it at Tradition I think)”, “Det var mina det (These were mine there)” and “Och ett sånt också (And one of these as well)”. The latter expression looks like it should have belonged to the group Request for item, but it was uttered while the customer mentioned the various accessories to games that he wanted to sell. Then there is an expression, “En bok (A book)” that belongs to a short sequence that looks like this:

Sales assistant: Du vill ha (You want) Customer: En bok (A book)

Sales assistant: En liten bok (A little book) The customers’ use of Statement

Statement is a group that to a certain extent overlaps Informing, and shares with it the fact that there are more sales assistants than customers who provide expressions to the group. Some of the expressions belong simultaneously to the group Appraisal or Request.

About seventy expressions by customers have been counted as statements.

Examples: “Får jag leta mer (Have to look more)”, “Det är blandat (It varies)”, “Ja det är för eh spelledarpersoner (Yes it is for eh game leader persons)”, “Dom borde sänka priserna till dom gamla (They ought to lower the prices to the old ones)”, “Jag var inne på Wettergrens och dom kollade konstigt på mig bara (I was at Wettergren’s and they just looked at me strangely)”,

“Jag plockade ut lite kort (I picked out some cards)” and “Jag har så det räcker (I have enough)”. Just like for Informing most expressions in this group are so specific that it is hard to see how to include them in a vocabulary for VOCAs. What could be done is to leave space for them and encourage the users to enter information themselves, about specific things and events that interest them and that they would like to talk about.

84  The customers’ use of Description 

Description contains expressions like “dom är ungefär likadana (they are about the same)”,

“nästan ett huve längre än vanliga (almost a head taller than usual)”, “avancerat ska det vara (advanced is what it should be)”, “ja men tunn, som bara skyddar lite (yes but thin, that just protects a little)”.

The customers’ use of Elaboration

Looking at the expressions by customers that are sorted under Elaboration, it is hard to see the coherence in them, but this may be due to the fact that many of the expressions are continuations and elaborations of what the speaker has already started to say. That start is not immediately traceable in the groups. Examples: “men nu fick jag två stycken, ett var det nu, och jag har aldrig fått något förr (but now I got two, one was it now, and I have never got any before)”, “till PC, sånt (for PC, like these)” and “eller dom har plockat undan (or they have put them aside)”.

The customers’ use of Specification 

Specification has been used when the speaker has specified something or made it more explicit. Many of the expressions in this group belong to other groups as well, something that challenges the meaningfulness of having a group like Specification. Examples: “Den första. Den andra har inte kommit, men den första (The first. The second has not come, but the first)”, “Dom här fyra (These four)”, “Ja men tunn, som bara skyddar lite (yes but thin, that just protects a little)” and “En vanlig jolle (an ordinary jolly boat)”.

The customers’ use of Explanation 

Explanation has been used when an expressions contains an explanation for a previous utterance. Example: “Nej det behövs inte, jag har en väska (No that’s not necessary, I have a bag)”, “Det låg inte kvar något Göteborgskort här? För jag råkar inte hitta mitt (There was no Göteborgs card left here? Because I can’t seem to find mine)” och “Ja det är kompisens, så det är (yes it’s my friend’s, so it is)”, “Jamen, färgen var slut (Yes but, we were out of the colour)” and

“Jaså, det är till min bror (Well, it’s for my brother)”.

The customers’ use of Objection 

Objection is often expressed through “men (but)”: “jaja, ja men jag tänkte sälja det om du, om det kan gå för sej (yes yes but I was planning to sell it if that’s all right with you)”, “jo, men det är också kaos (yes but that’s chaos too)”, “ja men det är det ju inte (yes but that’s not what it is)”, “jo jo men (yeah yeah but)”, “ja men det är ju lite jobbigt att veta när ni beställer och det (yes but it’s a bit hard to know when you are ordering and that)”, “men (but)” and “inte så (not so)”.

85  Own communication management in the games shop 

Correction is a small group that only contained six expressions. After further

examination, two of the expressions were instead transferred to the group Reformulation, due to a stricter definition of what was meant by correction in the classification. The expressions that still belong to the group Correction are of the following type:

Sales assistant: Nej tyvärr, det är Magic, Nihad och Star wars. Eller (No sorry, it is Magic, Nihad and Star wars. Isn’t it)

Customer: Star Wars (Star Wars)

Sales assistant: Nej, Star Trek (No, Star Trek)

With Correction is meant what in other contexts is called “Other-initiated repair”

(Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1998; Plejert, 2004). The other three instances consist of correcting the name, in two of the cases followed by a clarification. “Skandinavien. De har höjt hela skandinavien (Scandinavia. They have elevated all of Scandinavia)” and “Delphi Queue, det var den som var billig då (Delphi Queue, that’s the one that was cheap then)”.

Reformulation stands in this classification for what is called “Self-initiated repair” (ibid.), as well as for what Allwood and associates call “Own Communication management (OCM)” (Allwood, 2001b). Examples of Reformulation: “De här våldsamma

prishöjningarna, är det, gäller det även England? (These violent price increases, are they, do they also affect England?)” och “Jag träffade honom för nå+, våras, en gång (I met him for so+, this spring, once)”. It is hard to find a reason to add this kind of reformulations to a vocabulary for VOCAs, more than to add a general expression like “Jag menar... (I mean...)”. This construction appears once in the transcription from the games shop, and is maybe not quite obvious as means for or reformulation, but rather to buy time to formulate an expression and to keep the floor: “Jaha och sen eh, öh, vad har dom för specifikationer, jag menar, äh kan man läsa och se hur dom fungerar eller sånt (Well and then eh, uh, what do they have for specifications, I mean, uh, can you read and see how they work or something)”.

Hesitation is also a part of OCM. In this group are expressions where the speaker seems to hesitate. It is expressed through words that indicate hesitation, before the speaker gets going with the expression: “ja okej, eh, för... (yes okay, uh, for...)”, “eh, ja tack (uh, yes thanks)”, “hm, eh” etc.

When it comes to OCM (here registered as correction, reformulation and hesitation), it is quite probable that the occurrence is much higher than has been registered in the classification, because it did not seem to be important to include in the vocabulary for VOCAs that was the ultimate objective of the classification.

Interactive Communication Management (ICM) in the games shop 

The instances of ICM that have been coded, have been put into the group Discourse marker, that is a type of utterance that helps structure the speech (Lindström, 2008;

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Ottesjö, 2005). Discourse markers function as signals for the keeping or handing over the floor, and the changing of topic. Examples of discourse markers by customers in the games shop are: “sådär ja (there yes)”, “som sagt (as I said)”, “ja just det (yes that’s right)”,

“förresten (by the way)”, “ja okej (yes okay)”, “jag bara undrar (I was just wondering)”, “då så (well then)” and “en annan grej (another thing)”.

Comment own action 

Comment own action is an interesting group. It consists of the comments a person is making regarding something he/she is currently doing, and these remarks do not always seem to be addressed to a conversation partner. Sometimes it seems like the person is speaking to him/herself, but other times it could at the same time contain an implied request for confirmation by the other: Example: “Ja jag lämnar det här här, så (Yes, I’ll leave this here, like this)”, that has been coded as both Comment own action and Request for confirmation. The same is the case for: “Slänger in den här så (Throwing it in here like this)” and “Jag går in här och kollar lite (I’m going in here to check a little)”, that are also expressions by customers. Other expressions by customers are comments with regard to handing over money to the sales assistant: “Hundraåttio, och tie (Hundred-eighty and ten)”

and “Ja just det, sextio, åttio och så (yes that’s right, sixty, eighty and so)”. More Comment own action-expressions have been registered from sales assistants than from customers.

An expression that is used by both is “sådär (there)”. A customer says: “Sådär ja, tack (There yes, thank you)”. Sales assistants also comment the handing over of money, and use the expression “sådär (there)”: “Sådär varsågod (there, here you are)”, “Sådär ja (there, yes)”,

“Får du en hel krona där (You get a whole crown there)”, “Nä trehundraåttionio får du tillbaka där (No three hundred eighty-nine you’re getting back there)”. Other expressions where sales assistants comment their own action are: “Ska vi se om det inte är slutsålt (Let’s see if it’s not sold out)”, “Sätter en tejpbit på den här så (Putting a piece of tape on that like this)”.