CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF PRIME MINISTER IMRAN KHAN’S INTERVIEW WITH VRT CHANNEL JOURNALIST

Abstract

“Conversation Analysis of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Interview with VRT Channel Journalist” aims to analyze the conversation of the Prime Minister Imran Khan with VRT Channel Journalist Steve Decraene. This is qualitative research which utilizes the Stephen C. Levinson’s Theory regarding Preference Structure and Adjacency Pairs. The study focuses on identifying preference structures, the pattern of adjacency pairs and the reasons behind using particular structures in the conversation. The findings of this study reveal that the most occurring conversational structures are question-answer pattern of adjacency pair and the preferred responses in the conversation of the Prime Minister. There are eight pairs of question-answer pattern and seven preferred responses out of which five patterns of assessment- agreement pair and two patterns of question-expected answer pair are observed. This study has documented that the preferred responses such as question-answer pattern and assessment- agreement patterns are mostly found in the conversation and the least found pattern is assessment- disagreement pair. These conversational patterns in the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s talk reflect his control, authority and composure in his temperament: clarity and credibility in his views. His utterances have forceful but accommodative tone.

Keywords: Conversation Analysis, Preference Structure, Adjacency Pairs, Levinson Theory.