C9
EXPLORING DIALOGUE
An important organising principle across this thread has been the working
assumption that dialogue occurs in a discourse context and that the structures and
strategies of dialogue need to be investigated with reference to this context. Awareness
of context, in its physical, personal and cognitive dimensions, and the forms of
communication that are appropriate to it, is what constitutes part of a speaker’s
communicative competence (see A9). This unit develops a practical activity around
this intersection between dialogue, context and communicative competence. In
keeping with work in this branch of discourse stylistics (B9), the activity is designed
to provide an analytic method for exploring fictional dialogue. By looking at
unusual
dialogue, it also seeks to highlight the underlying patterns of non-fictional interaction
through the analysis of fictional communication. It has not escaped discourse stylis-
ticians that the analysis of unusual dialogue is both an important critical tool in its
own terms and a useful way of bringing into sharper focus the commonplace routines
of discourse that often pass us by in everyday social interaction.
Discourse and context
Not exactly drama dialogue, the passage selected for analysis is part of a well-known
comedy sketch from the television series
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
. Before the
text is introduced, it will be worth undertaking a short contextualising exercise as
a preliminary to the analysis. To a certain extent, this is an exercise in communica-
tive competence because it requires the matching up of appropriate forms of
discourse to a specific set of contextual variables (see A9). Consider the following set
of instructions:
Think about the sort of verbal interaction that would typically take place in the
following contextual circumstances:
A.
The participants in dialogue are two white middle-class, middle-aged
English males. They have never met before. Both are dressed reasonably
formally and they both speak with relatively high-prestige southern
English accents. These are the only obvious features that they have in
common.
B.
The physical context of interaction is a plush English public house. The
pub is busy, and most seats are taken. Having just brought drinks from
the bar, the two strangers end up sitting side-by-side at the same table.
Working from this contextualisation and drawing on the ideas developed in A9
and B9, try to predict:
(i)
what sort of dialogue would be likely to ensue between the two men
should they decide to talk to one another.
(ii)
what sorts of discourse strategies are likely to be used by the respective
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