A CONVERSATION ANALYSIS IN THE SHORT STORY ENTITLED ​THE

CONCENTRATION CITY​ BY J.G. BALLARD

Hilda Fakhiroh
Fani Maslukhah
Fad’jriha Noer Alifah
English Department, Trunojoyo University of Madura
fanimaslukhah@gmail.com

Abstract:

The short story entitled ​The Concentration City is one of

the best short stories written by J.G. Ballard. The most part
of this short story is conversation. To achieve this, two
research question is formulated, that is, how the
conversation can be managed well ? and how the
conversation can represent speech and thought well? To
answer these, the analysis applies conversation analysis
approach. The analysis is the qualitative study because of
it analyzes the text of The Concentration City short story
by J. G. Ballard. The short story uses some aspects of
spoken discourse in conversational analysis, such as turn
taking, feedback, adjacency pairs and repair. This short
story also analyze the representation of speech and
thought. Its make the short story interesting.

Key words​: ​Conversation Analysis, Turn Taking,

Feedback, Adjacency Pairs and Repair.

Introduction

For conversation analyst, conversation is the main way in which people come together,

exchange information, negotiate and maintain social relations. Conversation analyst, rather,

look for phenomena which regularly occur in the data and then make that the point of further

investigation. Interest is, in particular, in fine-tuned analysis of the sequence, structure and

coherence of conversations.A key issue in conversation analysis is the view of ordinary

conversation as the most basic form of talk. A further key feature of conversation analysis is

the primacy of the data as the source of information.

The conversational interactions in ​The Concentration City uses many aspects in how

the conversation can be managed well and how the conversation can represent speech and

thought well. There are many methapors used to decribe conversation structure, that is, what

we have been assuming at familiar throughout much [Pragmatics 1996:71]. That’s why in the

conversational interactions, it’s indeed to understand some aspects that can make the

conversation run well. There is also the way for representing speech and thought in the

conversational interactions. Beginning with the categories of ​speech ​presentation, the

‘baseline’ form against which other forms are often measured is ​Dircet Speech (​ DS)

[Stylistics 2004:31].

The basic rule in English conversation is that one person speaks at a time, after which

they may nominate another speaker, or another speaker may take up the turn without being

nominated [Sacks et al 1974; Sacks 2004]. There are some aspects that included in the spoken

of discourse, that are, ​turn taking​: that is, through the completion of syntactic unit, the use of

falling intonation, pausing, eye contact, body position and movement and voice pitch,

feedback​; that is, the ways in which listeners show they are attending to what is being said,

adjacency pairs; that is, ​are utterances produced by two successive speakers in a way that the

second utterance is identified as related to the first one as an expected follow-up to that utterance and

repair; ​that is, a generic term used in conversation analysis to cover a wide range of phenomena, from

seeming errors in turn-taking to any of the forms of what is commonly called ‘corrections’- that is,

substantive faults in the contents of what someone has said.

Discussion

Conversational analysis is an approach to the analysis of spoken discourse that looks at the

way in which people manage their everyday conversational interaction. It examines how

spoken discourse is organized and develops as speakers carry out these interactions.

[Discourse Analysis 2007:107].

Based on conversation approach, the analysis of the short story entitled ​The

Concentration City can examine the aspect of spoken discourse such as sequence of related

utterances (adjacency pairs), preferences for particular combinations of utterances (preference

organization), turn taking, feedback, repair, conversational openings and closing, discourse

markers and response tokens.

It also can be analyzed through the way the conversation represent its speech and

thought. An important preoccupation of moder stylistics has been its interest in the way in

which speech and thought is represented in stories. The presentation of speech and thought is

not straightforward. There is an array of techniques for reporting speech and thought

[Stylistics 2004:30].

The source of data for the analysis is the short story entitled ​The Concentration City.​

Data for the analysis is the text of ​The Concentration City short story. Actually, it is one of

the best short stories written by J. G. Ballard. The analysis is the qualitative research.
Qualitative resesarch is specially important in the behavioural sciences where the aim is to

discover the underlying motives of human behaviour [Research Methodology 2004:3].

The data for the analysis is collected by doing three steps, those are, reading the

source of data (​The Concentration City short story), selecting the theory that is responsible to

answer the research question, and applying the method based on the data. The method that is

appropriate for the analysis is the qualitative research. It can be analyzed through the various

factors which motivate people to behave in a particular manner or which make people like or

dislike a particular thing.

There are 5 approches for answering the research question. The approaches that are

appropriate to elaborate how the conversation in ​The Concentration City short story can be

managed well are taken from Stylistics approach: Representing Speech and Thought,

Discourse Analysis approach: Discourse and Conversation, Pragmatics approach:

Conversation and Preference Structure. The data that is appropriate for the research method is

Research Methodology handbook.

The discussion of conversation analysis of ​The Concentration City short story is based

on the references taken from ​The Best Short Stories by J. G. Ballard ​‘The Concentration

City’, Discourse Analysis ‘Discourse and Conversation’: a Handbook ​by Brian Paltridge,

Stylistics ‘Representing speech and thought’: a Handbook by Paul Simpson, ​Pragmatics

‘Conversation and Preference Structure’: a Handbook by George Yule and ​Research

Methodology: a Handbook by C. R. Kothari. They elaborate the conversation analysis list in

The Concentration City short story.

The most dominated part of ​The Concentration City short story is conversation. Then,

it can be analyzed throughthe conversation analysis that has examined aspects of spoken
discourse such as sequence of related utterances (adjajency pairs), preferences for particular

combinations of utterances (prefence organization), turn taking, feedback, repair,

conversational openings and closings, discourse markers and tokens. Conversation analysis is

an approach to the analysis of spoken discourse that looks at the way in which people manage

their everyday conversational interaction.

In this view, conversation is seen as being ‘context-shaped’ and ‘context-renewing’ in

the sense that ‘anything anyone says in conversation both builds on what has been said or

what has been going on... [as well as] creates the conditions for what will be next’ [Gardner

1994: 102]. Conversation analysis has also examined how people take and manage turns in

spoken interactions [Discourse Analysis 2007:113]. This may be through the completion of

syntactic unit, the use of falling intonation, pausing, eye contact, body position and

movement and voice pitch. Some parts of coversation in The Concentration City short story

uses body position and movement for managing the ​turn taking in the conversation, for

example of the use of eye contact as the indication the end of a turn, ‘​He dropped his eyes

from the glare and waited as the sergeant paced over to his desk, tapped his fingers on the

edge, and swung around on him again. "You talked it over with your friends?"’. “Sorry, these

are the West millions. You want 97753335th​ East.” I​ n this sentence, the full stop indicates the

completion of syntactic unit, and creates a TRP of Transition Relevance Place. Another

evidence is in the sentence: ​“You say the idea came to you in a dream? The voice jabbed

out.” I​ t can be seen through voice pitch, the jab or a kind of question is delivered by the

speaker so it used to wait the answer given by the addressor of this question.

Another aspect of spoken interactions that has been examined by conversation

analysts is the ways speakers provide each other with ​feedback; t​ hat is, the ways in which
listeners show they are attending to what is being said [Discourse Analysis 2007:119]. This

can be done by the use of ‘response tokens’, paraphrasing what the other person has just said,

the repetition of key words, body position and eye contact. The example of a ​feedback

through paraphrasing the other person has just said in the conversation of ​The Concentration

City ​short story is ​‘"I was afraid they wouldn't understand what I meant." The sergeant

laughed sourly. "You mean they would have thought you really were crazy?" ​M. shifted

uncomfortably onthe stool.’​The ‘M’ tries to paraphrase what ‘The Sergeant’ has just said. Another

example of ​feedback is ​"Forty-five dollars; that should be enough for t​ hree or four weeks."​ "Where?"

​ hree or four weeks!

Gregson asked. "On a Supersleeper." "Super-!" Gregson broke off, alarmed. "T

What do you mean?" "There's only one way to find out," Franz explained calmly.’ ​and ​"That

wouldn't be large enough. I was really thinking of an area of totally f​ ree space.​ In three

​ ree space?​ Isn't that a con-

dimensions, as it were." Sanger looked at Franz curiously. "F

tradiction in terms? Space is a dollar a cubic foot." He scratched his nose. "Have you begun

to construct this machine yet?" "No," Franz said.’​ . The ​feedback ​in the both conversationare

through the repetition of the key words. The first one is the words ‘three or four weeks’ and the

second one is the words ‘free space’.

Another fundamental unit of conversational organizations is ​adjacency pairs. Adjacency pairs

are utterances produced by two successive speakers in a way that the second utterance is identified as

related to the first one as an expected follow-up to that utterance [Discourse Analysis 2007:115].

Pragmatically, adjacency pairs are not simply contentless noises in sequence. They represent social

actions, and not all social actions are equal when they occur as second parts of some pairs [Pragmatics

1996:78].​Adjajency pairs a​ re divided into two groups, namely ​adjajency pairs across cultures ​and

​ or example, in ​The Concentration City ​short story,

adjejency pairs and stage of the conversation. F

"And if you do find free space? Will you come back then?" "If I c​ an.​ " Franz patted Gregson

on the shoulder reassuringly, waved and disappeared among the commuters.” This example
shows a similar pattern in that once a point of view has been expressed, a possible follow-up

is a ‘challenge’ followed by a ‘response’ through the word ‘can’ as the second pair parts: an

unexpected answer.

Another example is, ‘​"Coming out for a drink?" a Fire Captain across the aisle

asked. "We have a ten-minute break here." "​ No thanks," Franz said. "I'll hold your seat for

you." Dollar five a cubic foot. Free space, he knew, would bring the price down. There was

no need to leave the train or make too many inquiries. All hehad to do was borrowa

​ his example also shows ​adjacency pairs,​ where, the

paperand watch the market averages.’. T

first pair part is a request and the second pair part is dipreferred second pair, refusal. This

following example also show preference organization, where, the first pair is a question and

the second pair is unexpected answer ​"Can you try that on the Supersleepers?" "Why not? If

they query it I'll say I'm going back the long way around. Greg, ​will you?""I don't know if I

should." Gregson played helplessly with his coffee. "Franz, how can there be free space?

How?" "That's whatI'mgoing to find out," Franz said. "Thinkofitas my first physics

​ nd also, “​Which way is this train going? West? The attendant shook his head.
practical.". A

“East, sir. It’s always been going east.” ​In this sentence shows the dispreferred social act

because it is structurally unexpected next act. The man thought that the train was going west,

and he assess it to someone but in fact his thought was false, the train was going east.

Another aspect in corversational analysis is repair. ​Repair is a generic term used in

conversation analysis to cover a wide range of phenomena, from seeming errors in

turn-taking to any of the forms of what is commonly called ‘corrections’- that is, substantive

faults in the contents of what someone has said. ​Repair ​is also the way speakers correct

things they or someone else has said, and check what they have understood in a conversation.
It is often done through ​self repair a​ nd ​other repair. Self repair i​ s divided into ​self-repair

self-initiated a​ nd ​self-repair other-initiated​. ​Other repair i​ s divided into ​other-repair

self-initiated a​ nd ​other-repair ​and ​other-initiated. F

​ or example, ​"Are you sure you weren't

swimming?" "No," M. said. '1'm certain I wasn't. All around me there was free space. That

was the most important part about it. There were no walls. Nothing but emptiness. That's all I

remember.". ​This example includes a ​repair-self repair other initiate, w

​ here is, carried out by

the speaker of the trouble source but initiated by the recipient. The next example is, ​"Tell me

about this dream," he said slowly, idly flexing a steel rule between his hands as he looked

across at M. "I think you've heard everything, sir," M. said. "In detail.II M. shifted uneasily.

l'There wasn't much to it, and what I do remember isn't too clear now." The surgeon yawned.

The text of ​The Concentration City s​ hort story also uses the ​Indirect Speech (IS)

category of speech presentation. Direct speech is a sentence (or several sentences) that reports

speech or thought in its original form phrased by the original speaker. It is usually enclosed in

quotation marks. The cited speaker is either mentioned in the inquit or implied

[en.m.wikipedia.org]. While ​Indirect Speech i​ s a means of expressing the content of

statements, questions or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct

speech. From the beginning until the end of the conversation in ​The Concentration City ​short

story. For example, ​"You say the idea came to you in a dream?" the voice jabbed out. "You're

sure no one else gave it to you?" "No," M. said flatly. A couple of feet away from him a spot

lamp threw a cone of dirty yellow light into his face. He dropped his eyes from the glare and

waited as the sergeant paced over to his desk, tapped his fingers on the edge, and swung
around on him again. "You talked it over with your friends?" ."Onlythefirst theory," M.

Explainedquietly.”

In addition, through the conversation analysis the text of ​The Concentration City s​ hort

story can categorized as short story that has some aspects of spoken discourse. It also applies

representation of speech and thought. Structurally, ​The Concentration City i​ ncludes many

aspects of spoken discourse, such as turn taking, feedback, repair, adjacency pairs, and etc.

Conversation analysis, then, provides a way of carrying out fine-grained analyses of

spoken discourse which can help not just describe the social word, but understand how,

through the use of language, it is constructed. There are differing views, however, as to

whether looking at the data alone is sufficient to explain what is going on in conversational

interactions. Many conversation analysts would argue that is. Others, however, suggest

combining conversation analysis with more ethnographic description in a kind of

‘multi-method or multi-level’ analysis which combines the strengths of insights that can be

provided in conversational analysis with data that can be gathered using procedures such as

interviews, questionnaires and participant observations (Wodak 1996).

Conclusion

As the inferences of analyzing the conversation and the representation of speech and thoughts

in the text of ​The Concentration City s​ hort story, it is stated that the conversation analysis has

examined aspects of spoken discourse such as sequence of related utterances (​adjajency

pairs​), preferences for particular combinations of utterances (​prefence organization)​ , ​turn

taking, feedback, repair, conversational openings and ​closings, discourse markers and
tokens. Conversation analysis is an approach to the analysis of spoken discourse that looks at

the way in which people manage their everyday conversational interaction.

Conversation analysis , then, provides a way of carrying out fine-grained analyses of

spoken discourse which can help not just describe the social word, but understand how,

through the use of language, it is constructed. There are differing views, however, as two

whether looking at the data alone is sufficient to explain what is going on in conversational

interaction [Discourse Analysis 2007: 125].

The Concentration City a​ lso examines how does the conversation represent speech

and thought in the conversational interactions. Beginning with the categories of ​speech

presentation, the ‘baseline’ form against which other forms are often measured is ​Dircet

Speech (​ DS). An important preoccupation of moder stylistics has been its interest in the way

in which speech and thought is represented in stories. The presentation of speech and thought

is not straightforward. There is an array of techniques for reporting speech and thought.

References

​ S: Holt, Rinehart, Winston

Ballard, J. G. 1997. ​The Best Short Stories.U

​ ew Delhi: New Age

Kothari, C.R. 2004. ​Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. N

International (P) Limited

http://en.m.wikipedia.org

Paltridge, Brian. 2007. Discourse Analysis: An Introduction.​London: MPG Books, Ltd,

Bodmin, Cornwall
 ​ ondon: Routledge
Simpson, Paul. 200. ​Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. L

Yule, George. 1996. ​Pragmatics.​New York: Oxford University Press