Conversation analytic study of non-straightforward answers in political debates:“First of all, I have to say, as a businessman, I get along with everybody”

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

Abstract. This thesis is a study of two different political debates which took place before the United States presidential election of 2016: a Republican debate that took place in South Carolina and a Democratic debate that took place in Nevada. The aim of this study was to discover how well/well, first of all/first of all-prefaced responses are used during the debates. The method used in this study was Conversation Analysis that has been used before when analyzing institutional settings as a debate is.

During the initial phase of the research it was quickly discovered that there were three main subsets of well/well, first of all/first of all-prefaced responses which were named as follows: the addition (giving additional information before answering a question), ‘not answering the question’ or NATQ, and ‘commenting on a prior question’ or CPQ. All the subsets represented different non-straightforward responses and they were analyzed individually. Three types of features were observed when looking at the responses of each subset: is the response straightforward, is the response pair-conforming (does the response have the excepted form) and is the response sufficient. It was revealed that none of the subsets were systematically similar in their form throughout the debates. However, multiple convergent features were discovered.

Additions were either used as a circumbendibus back to the original topic, a diversion that enables avoiding the question, or an additional information that amplifies the following statement. When the debaters performed a NATQ they either first spoke topically and moved on to a different subject, answered a different question and moved to a different subject, or blatantly skipped the question in its entirety. The third subset CPQ was used when the debaters really wanted to comment on something before giving an elaborative answer. They usually gave a brief answer, commented on a prior question and moved back to the original question to elaborate their short answer. However, there was a case where this exact form did not occur, thus, the form is only the most common form that occurs.

In addition to the findings on the verbal aspect of well/well, first of all/first of all-prefaced answers, it was revealed that topic shifts are often accompanied by different sorts of gesticulation. The debaters often performed for example beat gestures, pointing gestures or shifted their gaze during the shifts. This study could not go deep into the details of why this happened, but it would be an interesting topic for future research.Tiivistelma. Tassa gradussa tarkastellaan kahta poliittista debattia ennen vuoden 2016 Yhdysvaltain presidentinvaaleja. Ensimmainen debateista kaytiin demokraattiehdokkaiden valilla Nevadassa ja toinen republikaaniehdokkaiden valilla Etela-Carolinassa. Taman gradun tavoitteena oli saada selville, miten well/well, first of all/first of all-alkuisia vastauksia hyodynnettiin debattien aikana. Metodina gradussa on kaytetty keskusteluanalyysia, jota on kaytetty ennenkin…