Features Of Conversational Repair In English Sitcom

This thesis studies the conversational repair in English sitcom The Big Bang Theory based on the theory of Schegloff et al. from conversational analysis perspective, aiming at analyzing its conversational feature and its repair process. By watching the videos repetitively, repair excerpts are extracted and then are transcribed in order to analyze the features of repair including repair types, initiating placements, initiator techniques, and the preference. The results of the present study are:Firstly, six types of repair exist in The Big Bang Theory: self-initiated self-repair, self-initiated other-repair, other-initiated self-repair, other-initiated other-repair, self-initiated failure-repair, other-initiated failure-repair. This finding is coincident with the research result of Schegloff et al. The frequencies of six types of repair are different. The frequency of self-initiated self-repair is the highest and the frequency of self-initiated other-repair is the lowest except for few failure-repairs. The study also finds some new features, such as multi repair of a trouble source, and multi repair in a single sentence and so on.Secondly, repairs initiate in four placements involving within the same turn, in the turn?s transition space, in the turn just subsequent to the trouble-source turn, in the turn subsequent to that which follows the trouble-source turn. Specifically speaking, self-initiated self-repairs initiate repairs in three placements, that is, within the same turn, in the turn?s transition space, in the turn subsequent to which follows the trouble-source turn; self-initiated other-repairs only occupy one position, in the turn subsequent to which follows the trouble-source turn; two types of other-repair both initiate repair in the turn just subsequent to the trouble-source turn. Also, every type of repair initiates repair in different placements, and their repair trajectories are different as well.Thirdly, the initiator techniques which are adopted by different types of repair have the same ones and also different ones. The initiator techniques for self-initiated self-repair consist of non-lexical, lexical perturbations and no explicit initiators, besides the most frequently used non-lexical perturbation including sound stretching, cut-off and so on. Self-initiated other-repair also adopts many non-lexical perturbations, but the most frequent adopted is disjunctive questions, and few other expressions exist; other-initiated self-repair adopts many initiator techniques including a n interrogative sentence without question words, a single interrogative word which is adopted most frequently, partial repeat and few other expressions; other-initiated other-repair always doesn?t adopt explicit initiator techniques, and seldom uses cut-off and other expressions to initiate repair.Fourthly, the frequency of self-repair is much higher than other-repair, and the frequencies of self-initiated and other-initiated are almost identical. Thus, the preference for self-repair does exist, but no preference for self-initiation. This result is a bit inconsistent with the finding of Schegloff et al. who proposed the preference for self-initiation and self-repair.Generally speaking, this thesis deepens the theory of the features of repair, studies the features of repair in English sitcom and the process of accomplishment, also supplies some implication for conversational researches of sitcom.