Talk Show Hosting Turn-Allocation Techniques in Jimmy Kimmel Live

I Gusti Ngurah Ratnadi; Putu Nur Ayomi; Putu Devi Maharani

doi:10.24071/joll.v22i2.4365

Talk Show Hosting Turn-Allocation Techniques in Jimmy Kimmel Live

I Gusti Ngurah Ratnadi⁽¹⁾, Putu Nur Ayomi^(2*), Putu Devi Maharani⁽³⁾,

(1) Mahasaraswati Denpasar University
(2) Mahasaraswati Denpasar University
(3) Mahasaraswati Denpasar University
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Engaging in a conversation is crucial to people as social beings, in which turn-taking is one of its core elements. As a cooperative activity, it requires an orderly turn distribution, especially in TV talk shows where the host and the guests cooperate to distribute turns led by the host. This phenomenon can be observed in Jimmy Kimmel Live, a late-night talk show that highlights conversational activities to incorporate its entertainment bits. This study investigates turn-allocation techniques used by Jimmy Kimmel as the host of the talk show to manage a multiparty conversation with the Avengers: Endgame cast. The analysis is based on Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson’s theory concerning the systematics for turn-taking organization along with Lerner’s elaboration on Sacks et al.’s turn allocation. To extract the data, Jeffersonian conventions are used, then the descriptive qualitative method is exercised to analyze the data in two levels: providing context and theoretical elaboration. It is found that the host only uses current-selects-next techniques (i.e., gaze, addressing, context-tied), in which context-tied becomes the most common technique practiced creating an exclusive connection that effectively allocates turn to the prospective speaker. Other techniques: gaze and addressing are also used by mutual gaze and address term positioning. Meanwhile, self-selection techniques (i.e., starting first and overlapping talk) are absent because of the unequal share of power and role of the host compared with the guests.

Keywords

talk show; host; turn allocation; conversation analysis

Full Text:

PDF

References

Ali, H. K. (2018). Conversation analysis of the structural units of interaction in American and Iraqi TV talk shows: The Doctors and Shabab Wbanat. International Journal of Language Academy, 6(2), 311–333. https://dx.doi.org/10.18033/ijla

Auer, P. (2020). Turn-allocation and gaze: A multimodal revision of the “current-speaker-selects-next” rule of the turn-taking system of conversation analysis [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of German, University of Freiburg.

Cameron, D. (2001). Working with Spoken Discourse. London: SAGE Publications Limited.

Clayman, S. E. (2012). Address terms in the organization of turns at talk: The case of pivotal turn extensions. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(13), 1853–1867. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.08.001

Goodwin, C., & Heritage, J. (1990). Conversation analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 19, 283–307. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.001435

Greatbatch, D. (1988). A turn-taking system for British news interviews. Language in Society, 17(3), 401–430. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500012963

Hamo, M. (2006). Caught between freedom and control: ‘Ordinary’ people’s discursive positioning on an Israeli prime-time talk show. Discourse and Society, 17(4), 427–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0957926506062361

Hanna, J. E., & Brennan, S. E. (2007). Speakers’ eye gaze disambiguates referring expressions early during face-to-face conversation. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(4), 596–615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.01.008

Hayashi, M. (2013). Turn allocation and turn sharing. In J. Sidnell, & T. Stivers (Eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis (1st ed., pp. 167–190). West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Limited.

Ibraheem, S. J. (2017). Turn-taking strategies in English language teaching (ELT). Dirasat Tarbawiya, 10(40), 291–308. Retrieved from https://iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=135181

Ilie, C. (2001). Semi-institutional discourse: The case of talk shows. Journal of Pragmatics, 33(2), 209–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00133-2

Ilie, C. (2006). Talk show. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed., Vol. 12, pp. 489–494). Oxford: Elsevier.

Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In J. M. Atkinson, & J. Heritage (Eds.), Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 13–31). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Khan, S. A., Qadir, S. A., & Aftab, R. (2019). Managing agenda setting in Pakistani political talk-shows: A functional analysis of interruptions. Global Regional Review, 4(1), 43–54. https://dx.doi.org/10.31703/grr.2019(IV-I).05

Lee, J. (2017). Multimodal turn allocation in ESL peer group discussions. Social Semiotics, 27(5), 671–692. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2016.1207353

Lehtimaja, I. (2011). Teacher-oriented address terms in students’ reproach turns. Linguistics and Education, 22(4), 348–363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2011.02.008

Lerner, G. H. (1993). Collectivities in action: Establishing the relevance of conjoined participation in conversation. Text, 13(2), 213–245. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1993.13.2.213

Lerner, G. H. (2003). Selecting next speaker: The context-sensitive operation of a context-free organization. Language in Society, 32(2), 177–201. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740450332202X

McHoul, A. (1978). The organization of turns at formal talk in the classroom. Language in Society, 7, 183–213. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500005522

Novick, D. G., Hansen, B., & Ward, K. (1996). Coordinating turn-taking with gaze. Proceeding of Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, 3, 1888–1991. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSLP.1996.608001

Oyeleye, A. L., & Olutayo, O. G. (2012). Interaction management in Nigerian television talk shows. International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(1), 149–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v2n1p149

Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696–735.

Wang, J., & Chen, M. (2016). Turn-control strategies in TV talk show. Canadian Social Science, 12(5), 68–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/8375

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v22i2.4365