TURN-TAKING STRATEGIES IN THE SECOND AMERICAAoS
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE 2020: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Nadha Jelang Ramdhany Universitas Putera Batam.
Batam.
Indonesia e-mail: pb191210049@upbatam.
Ambalegin Ambalegin Universitas Putera Batam.
Batam.
Indonesia e-mail: abhi140475@gmail.
ABSTRACT
Turn-taking is a way that can be referred to as the change of position when the speaker becomes the listener and vice versa in the conversation.
This research aims to identify the turn-taking strategies utilized by the debate participants in the second AmericaAos presidential debate 2020.
The researchers adhered to the theory of Stenstrym regarding turn-taking strategies.
The research design was qualitative.
The observational method and note-taking technique were employed to collect the research data.
The analytical technique of discourse analysis and coding were performed to analyze the data.
The results of this research were displayed descriptively in the form of words to sentences.
The turn-taking strategies were taking the turn, holding the turn, and yielding the turn.
The results revealed that the taking the turn strategy was frequently utilized by all of the participants in the debate.
The interrupting strategy was commonly used by Donald Trump.
Joe Biden with starting up strategy.
Kristen Welker tended to perform a prompting strategy.
Moreover, the silent pauses as the sub-strategy of holding the turn, appealing, and giving up as part of yielding the turn strategy were not found in the data The participants tended to avoid silent pauses and tried to take the floor to speak in order to show their dominance.
The nature of the turn-taking system is in line with the existence of power between participantsAo relationships.
Keywords: conversation analysis, discourse analysis, debate, turn-taking INTRODUCTION Humans as social creatures cannot be separated from any interactions in They build a conversation so that their intention and certain goals can be achieved according to its discourse.
To perform a conversation, language is the main tool of communication used among the participants involved.
Communication is an interchange of ideas and feelings between people that requires language skills (Pradipta & Sugiharti, 2.
Further.
Liddicoat .
explained that conversation is a way for people to socialize, develop, and sustain their relationships with each Usually, a conversation occurs between two or more people.
A good conversation is usually supported by a participants, understanding the topics that are being discussed, and managing the turn to speak (Natalia, at al.
, 2.
Page | 111 Evidently, there is a system in the conversation called turn-taking.
Turn-taking is a conversational organizing technique (Sari, at al.
, 2.
It denotes the ability to notice and recognize the exact time to begin or give a turn while doing the conversation.
actuality, it is one of the small units of conversation to control the flow in switching the floor (Sinaga, at al.
, 2.
By comprehending the turn-taking system, could help people to build good communication skills in society.
People who know how to do turn-taking in a conversation will be able to deliver their The phenomenon of turn-taking can be found on social media such as YouTube.
The researchers found one general phenomenon in the AuThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonAy talk show with the guest star actor Jason Bateman.
It was posted on April 23rd, 2022 with the title AuJason Bateman Talks OzarkAos Finale.
Spoilers & the ShowAos Cryptic SymbolsAy.
In the video, the host Jimmy Fallon interviewed Jason Bateman who is one of the famous Hollywood actors.
They were talking about how Jason Bateman accidentally spoiled the plot of his upcoming movie.
Ozark, and talked about the meaning of the symbols of the opening show.
Jimmy : SheAos the greatest.
Jason : She does try toJimmy : Oh, because you know? Because then sheAoll be in trouble, because sheAoll go to a dinner or something, then she has to lie and go.
AuI canAot tell youAy.
Jason : Right, right.
:28 Ae 00:.
From that dialogue, when Jason was talking about his wife and made up a story then Jimmy cut off his talk and the conversation continued by Jimmy instead of Jason.
It can be seen from the utterances AuOh, because you know?Ay.
shows the phenomenon of turn-taking because the speaker succeeded in taking over the conversation even though another speaker was not finished As stated by Stenstrym .
interrupting is used to take over the conversation by directly talking without waiting for the previous speaker to finish his turn.
In line with this.
Liddicoat .
pointed out there are three broad areas in a conversational organization, and they are about how the participants organize the structure of turns at talk, the forms in which turns at talk are taking place and organized into conversation arrangements, and the last is about the instrument for producing an orderly talk.
Moreover.
Coulthard .
averred that turn-taking is a normal thing that is considered the basic rule in the conversation when the speakers and listeners change their roles to start their own speech.
The participants of the conversation tend to give a signal every time one of them will come to finish the talk so that the other participant will notice it and begin to talk (Cook, 1.
Besides, turn-taking as believed by Yule .
is an activity to take control of the conversation in any situation and if it cannot be done, anyone involved in the conversation can attempt to take the floor and control the talk.
How participants manage their turn is conforming to their power relationships (Fairclough, 2.
Page | 112 Counting on the growth of various studies and interests, there are many ways to analyze the conversation that exists in daily life, and one of the sciences is discourse analysis (Aulia & Simatupang, 2.
According to Yule .
Aos explanation, discourse analysis is also associated with the study of language in use.
As explained by Amir and Jakob .
, conversation is a spoken discourse that may occur a form of discourse that has significant problems in terms of analysis given its apparently instructed naturally.
focuses on the inspection of the intercourse between language and the contexts where the language is applied as well (McCarthy, 1.
It can be understood that discourse analysis is all about how language, the contexts, and interactions happened at the same time and work in the general or specific context under consideration.
Significantly, a study of discourse analysis that focuses on the system of conversation or spoken discourse is conversation analysis.
As claimed by Liddicoat .
conversation analysis is an analysis activity to expand the accounts of language for social Also on the statement of Reay .
, conversation analysis is a kind of relatively developed technique with the purpose to examine and explore all about spoken language.
It is an activity of methodical examination of the outcome of the conversation in daily human interaction by communication or can be said a talk-in-interaction (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1.
Moreover, this research is related to several previous studies.
Ashidiq .
investigated the types and strategies of turn-taking found in Warren Edward Buffet Interview.
The investigation was conducted by expounding Stenstrym .
Aos theory of turn-taking strategies.
The results showed that there were 15 data of starting up, 9 data of taking over, 13 data of interrupting, 13 data of holding the floor, 7 data of prompting, 5 data of appealing and the last was 5 data of giving up.
On the other hand.
Aulia & Simatupang .
explored the classification of turn-taking strategies found in the interview of AuSpiderman:
No Way HomeAy movie casts.
The researchers adopted the theory of Stenstrym .
regarding the turntaking strategies.
The results displayed that the three strategies of turn-taking appeared and there were 32 of holding the turn, 13 of taking the turn, and two of yielding the turn.
Owing to the background of this study triggered the researchers to conduct this research to find out how turn-taking strategies occur in the this research is using the same theory by Stenstrym .
to find out and define the strategies of turn-taking.
However, compared with the previous research, this research chose the Second Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden 2020 as the data Additionally, this research revealed how the turn-taking strategies influenced the politeness of each LITERATURE REVIEW There are three turn-taking strategies introduced by Stenstrym .
and they are taking the turn, holding the turn, and yielding the turn.
1 Taking the Turn It is a strategy that is being used by someone to take their turn to speak and Page | 113 state their statement to open the There are three substrategies as follows:
Starting up There are two sorts of starting up called hesitant start and clear start.
The hesitant start is a situation where a speaker starts his turn but takes a long time or is not ready to take over.
overcome this, a speaker tends to use markers like filled pauses .
, o:.
and verbal filler (I mean, a sort of, well, you On the other hand, to perform a clean start, speakers tend to use the word "well" to start their utterances or say their words directly and precisely.
Taking over Taking over is a strategy used when one speaker has finished his speech and the next interlocutor continues the conversation by utilizing uptakes or It is usually spoken by the first speaker, starting with appealer .
, you kno.
and followed by uptake .
eah, oh, well, ah, no, ye.
by the next speaker.
Further, the usage of links in the taking over is to initiate a main act with the selected form to produce the intended move in a turn.
The links can be used for instance, to define an object by using the word AubutAy, as an informed statement with AucosAy, or even a question by the word AusoAy.
Interrupting The interruption usually occurs when one speaker speaks but the other speaker also utters his utterance at the same time.
As a consequence, it is causing an overlap then the turn is shifting from the speaker to the hearer.
1 Holding the Turn This strategy can be used when the speaker is facing difficulty in talking.
Holding the turn means that the participants are trying to maintain their turn in the middle of the utterances.
some of the speakers who face this problem tend to try to fill the silent pauses to avoid another speaker taking the turn to their unfinished talk.
Stenstrym .
enumerated its three sub-strategies as follows:
Filled pauses/verbal fillers It is usually utilized to show that the speaker is not aiming for a turn but is planning or thinking about what to say To maintain the turn, a speaker better avoid a pause that is too long because it shows an opportunity for the next speaker to take over his turn.
Nevertheless, a speaker can perform the filled pauses/verbal fillers to prevent the long silent pauses.
Silent Pauses Silent pauses act as a turn holder or as an effort to keep other speakers from taking their turn until the first speaker finishes his speech which is usually marked with long pauses.
However, a silent pause is usually placed where it proves that there is still more to say in the speaker's utterances.
Lexical Repetition According to Aulia & Simatupang .
, the speaker tends to utilize lexical repetition by repeating the same word until they figure out the right word to say.
It can be done in three ways such as single word, clause partials, and combination between single word and clause partials.
New Start When a speaker is still unable to continue the conversation and has trouble making up his mind after doing a repetition, silent pauses, and filled pause, then the new start is the last Page | 114 option that can be used.
It is the best solution to avoid an empty gap while The speaker can start the conversation all over again with a new 3 Yielding the Turn This strategy applies when the first speaker gives a turn as a chance for the next speaker to talk voluntarily.
There are some ways to perform this strategy and they are prompting, appealing, and giving up.
Prompting Prompting is a way for speakers to give their turn to the interlocutor by pointing them directly.
To do this, speakers can use several prompting acts namely apology, greeting, invite, object, offer, question, and request.
Appealing Appealing is another way for speakers to give their turn to the The speaker explicitly signals the hearer to provide feedback by using question tags and words such as Auright, all right, ok, you know, you seeAy.
Giving Up One way to give a turn to speak is usually done when the speaker has nothing to say.
At the same time, the interlocutor realizes it so he immediately chooses his interlocutor as the next speaker which is marked at the end of his speech, namely a long pause.
RESEACH METHOD
This research used the type of research in descriptive form and studied a case with a qualitative approach followed by the purpose of descriptive research to describe things that exist related to the study.
Miles, at al.
addressed that qualitative technique describes how individuals interact, act, and handle events in specific settings.
Through qualitative research, meanings can be explored and comprehended by the individuals or organizations assign to a social or human issue (Creswell & Creswell, 2.
The aim of this research was to analyze and identify the strategies of turn-taking in the Second 2020 Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
To collect the data this research introduced by Sudaryanto .
The expert claimed that the observational approach is a way to gather the data by observing it.
Hence, to do the observation to collect the data, there are some requirements that will be experienced by the researchers such as the use of sight and hearing senses.
Furthermore, the note-taking technique was used when marking the data in order to apply the observational Creswell and Creswell .
explained that the data might be recorded as memos-note during the research process that offers reflections on the process or help to create codes and themes according to its context.
The researchers analyzed the data with the use of the analytic approach in discourse analysis.
As stated by Flick .
, analytical strategy concentrated on the text's internal structure.
Its positioning as a discursive text and how it is constructed are of interest.
Thereto, the researchers employed the process of By giving a mark or a sign in the selected data, it helped the researchers to classify and group the data Miles.
Huberman and Saldana .
explicated that codes are identifiers that provide the descriptive or inferential data gathered during a Page | 115 study a symbolic meaning and believed that coding is analysis.
At last, in qualitative research, data displays typically come up in what is known as a narrative or analytical text.
Analytic narrative highlights the characteristics of the displayed data, gives them meaning, connects them, and enables the analyst to make inferences and enhance interpretations (Miles, at al.
, 2.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
1 Result The researchers found at least 188 data in total related to the theory of this research.
Nonetheless, the researchers did not examine the whole data due to data repetitions discovered in the data source.
Hence, data reduction transpired in this research to avoid mass data and reiterative analysis.
Several activities of data reduction simplifying, outlining, and converting the data which showed up in the written transcription (Miles & Huberman, 1.
Therefore, with the application of data reduction, the researchers then proceeded to examine 30 data that were found typical and infrequently arose in the data source.
There are 20 for taking the turn strategy, followed by seven for holding the turn strategy and three for yielding the turn strategy.
However, the researchers displayed the analysis per The numbers of the data are enumerated in table 1 below.
Table 1.
The Result No.
Turn-Taking Strategies Total Taking the Turn:
Starting Up Taking Over Interrupting Holding the Turn:
Silent Pauses Filled Pauses/Verbal Fillers Lexical Repetition New Start Yielding the Turn:
Prompting Appealing Giving Up Total 2 Discussion Taking the Turn - Interrupting .
:31:58 - 00:32:.
Context: In the conversation that was previously excerpted below, both candidates of the debate were answering the question given by the moderator regarding Covid vaccine that will be distributed to Americans.
Biden was the first speaker to answer the Biden : AuAWeAore about to go under a dark winter.
dark winter.
And he has no clear plan and thereAos no prospect that thereAos gonna be a vaccine available for the majority American people before the middle of next year.
Ay Welker : President Trump, your reaction he says youAove got no planTrump : AuI donAot think we will have a dark winter at all.
WeAore opening up our country, weAove learned and study then understand the disease which we didnAot at the beginningA Page | 116 When Welker asked for feedback from Trump.
Trump did not wait until the moderator finished and started to talk.
AuI donAot think we will have a dark winter at allAy, then the turn is shifting from Welker to Trump because of the By means of this.
DT performed interrupting within the taking the turn strategy as his strategy to take over the conversation.
Taking the Turn Ae Starting Up .
:32:23 Ae 00:34:.
Context: Following the previous topic about the distribution of vaccines in the middle of the catastrophe of the Covid19 virus, the moderator gave the turn to deliver the speech after Trump to Biden.
Welker : AuVice President Biden, your response.
Ay Biden : AuMy response is, he is xenophobic but not because he shut down access from China and he did it late after 40 countries had already done thatAAy The moderator asked Biden to give a response to TrumpAos previous speech by saying AuVice President Biden, your responseAy.
With confidence.
Biden took his turn in talking immediately without stuttering, by delivering his opening speech with AuMy response isAy.
The way Biden started his talk, showed the strategy of turn-taking, namely taking the turn specifically starting up and classified into a clean start.
According to what is described by the expert.
Stenstrym .
, a clean start in the starting up indicates that the speaker is ready and sure of what he will say.
Taking the Turn Ae Taking Over .
:34:29 Ae 00:35:.
Context: The debate below held a discussion about the condition of the US community in the midway of Covid-19 and the shutdown plan.
The first speaker who delivered the speech was Trump.
his speech, he stated that even though the virus is harmful but most people recovered and survived.
He also said that the nation did not need to fully Trump : AuAWe have to recover.
We can't close up our We have to open our school and we can't close up our nation, or you're not going to have a Ay Welker : AuAnd of course the CDC has said young people can get sick with Covid-19 and can pass it.
Vice President Biden.
I want to talk broadly about strategy.
Ay Right after Trump ended the talk.
Welker conversation by responding to TrumpAos speech by saying AuAnd of course the CDC has said young people can get sick with Covid-19 and can pass itAy before she moved on to the next speaker.
In order to take over the turn in talking.
Welker performed one of the turn-taking strategies scilicet taking the turn specifically taking over with links.
It is proven by the word AuAndAy used by Welker to start her turn to talk after the previous speaker finished talking.
With the use of the word AuAndAy as the link.
Welker was showing the significant act to start her turn with identify an object which is TrumpAos speech.
Page | 117 Holding the Turn Ae Lexical Repetition .
:35:48 - 00:36:.
Context: It was BidenAos turn to deliver his opinion regarding the spread of Covid-19 At the near end of his speech, he blatantly blames Trump because Trump said the virus was not dangerous and did not take any responsibility for that.
The moderator.
Welker, then took over the turn in talking and wanted to ask about TrumpAos strategy.
Biden : AuAWe dangerous, you tell whoAos dangerous now? What should they do about the danger? And you say AuI take no responsibilityAy.
Ay Welker : AuLet me talk about your strategy very quickly.
Ay Trump : AuExcuse me.
I take Ae I take Ae full responsibility.
ItAos not my fault that it came here, itAos ChinaAos fault, and you know what, itAos not JoeAos fault that it came here eitherAAy Trump turn-taking strategy namely holding the turn.
Trump tried to carry on his talk to take over the conversation with lexical repetition.
AuI take Ae I take AeAy.
That was intended so that the turn to speak remains on Trump and will not get interrupted by the other speakers while he tried to continue his As explained by Stenstrym .
, lexical repetition is one of the ways for the speaker to keep his turn in talking and it is part of the holding the turn strategy.
The lexical repetition uttered by Trump is clause partials.
Holding the Turn Ae New Start .
:38:17 Ae 00:39:.
Context: In the snippet of the conversation above, the moderator asked about their shutdown plan during the Covid-19 pandemic.
KW asked JB to deliver his speech first and after he finished talking.
KW instantly responded to his statement regarding JBAos shutdown plan.
Biden : AuAhe should have been negotiating with Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats Republicans about what to do about the acts they were passing for billions of dollars to make sure people had the capacity.
Ay Welker : AuBut you haven't ruled out more shutdowns.
Ay Biden : AuWell, no.
IAom not shutting down the nation but there are, look, they need standards.
The standard is, if you have a reproduction rate in a community that's above a certain level, everybody says, slow upAAy Biden employed a turn-taking strategy in order to maintain his speech.
It can be seen from this line Aulook, they need standardsAy after a brief pause.
Biden decided to talk about something new instead of explaining his shutdown plan asked by the moderator.
This occasion indicates that Biden was doing the holding the turn strategy, specifically a new start.
It is clear to see how the conversation brought by JB is changed to a new conversation about the standards of living with the Covid-19 virus.
Page | 118 Holding the Turn Ae Filled Pauses/Verbal Fillers .
:04:32 Ae 01:05:.
Context: The conversation was about the restlessness of nuclear tests by North Korea that happened in the era of Obama.
The moderator asked Biden about his thoughts on governing in the middle of the constant threat of nuclear.
After Welker gave the question.
Biden took the turn of the conversation to answer the question given accordingly.
Welker : AuAVice President Biden, to you.
North Korea conducted four nuclear tests under the Obama Why do you think you would be able to reign in this persistent threat?Ay Biden : AuAI made it clear, and as a spokesperson in the administration when I went to China, that they said.
AuWhy are you moving your missile defense up so close? Why are you moving more forces here? Why you continue to do Aey Ae y:m Ae y Ae y Ae y:m Ae y:m Ae military maneuvers with South Korea?Ay I saidAAy It can be seen from the piece of the script where Biden smoothly delivered his speech.
However.
Biden seemed like he forgot his line which is to be uttered in the middle of the oration, and said AuAe y Ae y:m Ae y Ae y Ae y:m Ae y:mAy.
In order to avoid the opponent of the debate snatching his turn due to a long pause.
Biden decided to keep his turn by doing verbal fillers.
From the aforementioned data.
Biden performed a turn-taking strategy called holding the turn, filled pauses/verbal fillers.
As comprehended in the theory of Stenstrym, it can be understood that filled pauses/verbal fillers generally denote that the speaker has no purpose to give the turn to the next speaker, instead planning the next words to be said.
Yielding the Turn Ae Prompting .
:43:26 Ae 00:45:.
Context: In the snippet of the dialogue above, the discussion was about the effect of shutdown due to Coronavirus spikes in the US.
Responding to TrumpAos speech.
Welker as the moderator wanted to ask for clarification of TrumpAos statement in the previous debate where Trump called Dr.
Anthony Fauci the nationAos disease expert AuidiotsAy.
Welker : AuAPresident Trump, this week you called Dr.
Anthony Fauci, best-known infectious disease expert quote Aua disasterAy.
You described him and other medical experts as quote AuidiotsAy.
If you're not listening to them, who are you listening to?Ay Trump : AuIAom listening to all of them, including Anthony.
I get along very well with Anthony.
But he did say.
AuDon't wear masksAy.
did say, as you knowAAy Previously.
Trump said that the government should protect the people from the danger of the virus yet he also thought that the disease expert is an It led the moderator to give Trump a question by asking AuIf youAore not listening to them, who are you listening to?Ay.
In this case.
Welker gave Trump Page | 119 space to talk and a turn to speak.
shows that Welker used yielding the turn strategy by giving her turn to speak in the form of a question.
More precisely, the method of the strategy is called Stenstrym, the expert on turn-taking strategy, declared that prompting is the way for a speaker to give their turn by directly pointing at another speaker in order to continue the CONCLUSION This study testifies that a kind of system exists in the spoken interaction to exchange the speaking turn.
Therewith, it revealed that taking the turn strategy is the most frequent strategy employed by both debate candidates and the moderator in the As a matter of fact, the usage of the turn-taking strategy evidently affects the continuity of a conversation and its Unconsciously, each participant involved in a conversation has their own strategy and strength that may vary and it depends on its discourse and where the interaction is held.
In political discourse, the candidates tend to convince the public.
Hence, the ability to master the floor and show dominance is a common thing that happened in a debate.
It is proven that the nature of the turn-taking system is in line with the existence of participantsAo Eventually, this kind of study is essential to be observed for development of interaction that perpetually changing in every era or Perhaps there will be another point of view, motives, or even span- new knowledge discovered from the forthcoming research.
REFERENCES