D-2 A Conversational Analysis of Mix Marital Couples Conversation

Buller Room 208

The present study analyzes three Brazilian mix-marriage couples’ conversations on a private sphere speech situation, to understand the overall conversational behavior speech of male and female on conversational features, such as, word distribution, topical organization, topic shift, interruptions and back-channeling signals in order to grasp their conversational style. Overall, findings reveal that male and female conversations have more equal contribution, however different styles emerged. Women develop a conversational style based on solidarity and support to men statements, especially evident in the way they use back-channeling signals, interruptions, turn shifts and short responses. They constantly attend to what the current speaker is saying and work to maintain the conversation, developing most of their participation on the extended topics. On the other hand, man participate more on the main topics and are less eager to drop their topics and maintain interactions.