The Analysis Of Turn-taking System In House Of Cards

Discourse analysis is the area that linguists have been studying these years. Turn-taking theory occupies an important place in it. Linguists abroad have studied turn-taking in conversations for a long time and formed a rich set of turn-taking theories. However, the contributions to the researches of turn-taking theory at home lie mainly in the introductions to these theories from the west to China. In addition, the domestic studies are on the application of turn-taking rules in everyday conversations, such as conversations between teachers and students, between doctors and patients, and telephone conversations. Little study has been found on the literature works, even less on US TV series. Recently, US TV series are popular in China, especially among youngsters. The new values and social concept brought by these TV series have influenced the young generation. Thus, a study on the conversations between the main characters in House of Cards, from the angle of turn-taking theory, is of theoretic and practical significance.This paper tries to study the turn-taking system in the conversations between the main characters in House of Cards, with the turn-taking theory by the American linguist, Sacks, as the theoretic framework in order to find out whether the conversations in the literary work also abides by the turn-taking rules. The specific research questions are as follows:(1) How are turn-constructions and turn-allocations reflected in the conversations of House of Cards?(2) In the conversations of House of Cards, how are these turn-taking rules realized?(3) Do all the conversations in House of Cards follow the turn-taking rules? If not, what are the reasons?This paper has analyzed the monologues (Frank’s own words),conversations by two participants and conversations between more than two participants. The videos are downloaded from the Internet and the related conversations are listed. Because of too many conversations between the two participants, only those by the two leading roles are chosen at random for this study.The results show that turns can be constituted by a word, a phrase, a simple sentence and a complicated sentence in House of Cards. Turn-allocation includes two situations:the choice of the next speaker by the current speaker; the conversationalists’ self-selection. (1) (a) In the conversations by the three participants, at the current turn, the current speaker selects one as the next speaker. Then the one selected has the right to speak and must speak, while the one, not selected, has no right to speak and must remain quiet, (b) If the current speaker does not select the next speaker, then one of the other participants can be the next speaker by self-selection (not a must). The first speaker can claim the turn, (c) If the current speaker does not select the next speaker, he can continue his talk (not a must) unless the speaking right is claimed by others. (2) If the current speaker does not choose the next speaker and the other two participants keep quiet at the first transitional relevant place of the first unit of turn construction, it comes to 1(c). The current speaker can continue his talk. Thus Rules 1(a)-1(c) occur recursively at every relevant transitional place.The study also finds that some of the conversations do not follow the turn-taking rules. The turn takings which do not follow the turn-taking rules are called abnormal turn-takings. The main causes of the abnormal turn-takings are as follows: (1) Take the speaking right to change to another important and related topic; (2) Claim the next speaking right to express approval; (3) Give up the speaking right because of a surprise; (4) Give up the speaking right on account of tacit permission; (5) Give up the speaking right to avoid something unbeneficial; (6) Take up the speaking right to respond to the last speaker; (7) Break the conversations for disagreement; (8) Give up the speaking right as a sign of protest; (9) Claim the speaking right from the last speaker by saying something unrelated to avoid conflict; (10) Failure of the current speaker to finish his turn because of embarrassment so that the last speaker may continue his talking to make the conversation more efficient; (11) Give up the speaking right because of antipathy toward the current speaker; (12) Seize the speaking right to give new information related with the topic; (13) Take the speaking right to release one’s anxiety and mistrustful feelings.Meanwhile, a distinctive characteristic of its language is power relation, which decides who starts and ends the turn, the amount of turns’ distribution and speaker’s political stand.The analysis of turn-taking in House of Cards enriches the study of turn-taking and makes contribution to the development of interactive sociolinguistics. In addition, the study on the causes of the abnormal turn-taking is conducive to the understanding of the background information of political trick drama of the White House and helps the US TV series lovers better understand the dramas of this kind and social values behind them.