A Comparison of Talk-in-Interaction in Persian and English Casual Conversation

The aim of the current study was to compare some of the theoretical tenets of conversation analysis (CA) in talk-in-interaction in casual conversation between Persian and English language systems. Based on the theoretical framework of Sack, Schegloff, and Jefferson, the researchers conducted the current study in non-English language (Persian language). As CA only uses data from recordings of situations in people daily lives, data were drawn from a tape recorded of telephone calls between two Iranian women who talked about daily’s matters. All data were transcribed (or re-transcribed) by the authors using Jefferson’s notation system and transcripts were checked by at least one other trained conversation analyst to ensure their reliability. The gathered data were compared to two language systems (English and Persian) based on their structural features of talk-in-interaction in casual conversation and their transcriptions. For achieving the aim, the researchers provided each episode of conversation in its origin (Persian language) and then presented English equivalent in the form of literal and free translation for each episode. Results indicated that there were many similar strategies in six structural features of talk-in-interaction (turn-taking, action formation, repair, word selection, sequence organization, overall structural organization) between Persian and English language in holding the casual conversation. However, some differences were observed in syntactic order in transcription of conversation as an English as a pro-drop language and Persian as a non-pro-drop language.