Topic 11 - Conversational structure and character (Session A) > Conversational structure and power > Task B

Conversational structure and power

Task B - How is power reflected in conversational turn-taking?

[picture where someone is clearly hectoring someone else in a conversation?]

Now let's have a look at our prototypical or schematic assumptions about the relation between turn-taking patterns and power.

Imagine that you overhear a conversation between three people, where one person is more powerful than the other two. What would you expect their conversational behaviour to be like? To spell this out, answer the questions in the table below by putting a tick in the relevant column. Then, after you have completed the table, click on the 'compare' button after it to compare your intuitions with ours.

Remember that we are talking about generalisations here, and you may well be able to think of particular situations where what usually happens doesn't apply. If you do, make a note of them for Task C.

Most of the questions should be clear enough, but we have also provided explanatory information for the terms we think you may possibly not be sure of. You can access these explanations by clicking on the relevant question.

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