Turn Management in Drama - Research Paper Example

s Turn Management in Drama The essence of a compelling drama lies in the quality of dialogues presented by the characters. Dialogue constitutes the verbal exchange of thoughts between two or more than two people to reflect a conversation. Though the written premise of the dialogues is important, yet the nature of delivery of these dialogues. In other words, to construct a dialogue the characters negotiate their share of conversation and while exchanging verbal content, they have to follow a system of taking ‘turns’. Turn in a drama signifies exactly when a character speaks, or when he/she chooses to take a turn to speak, also how the terms of speech are altered by the characters and which character is placed where in the conversational spectrum (Herman 1998). The paper will analyze the process via which turn-taking takes place by demonstrating turn grabs, turn allocation, turn order, and turn size and texture. The paper will also attempt at explaining how the interactions in a conversational dialogue are controlled to make the drama compelling. The phenomenon if turn taking implies that one party must speak at a time, also the speakers would change and depending on the dialogue the speakers may also change (Schiffrin 1986). Moreover, the size of the turns alongside the order of each turn must vary and be in coherence with the theme exhibited in the drama. Furthermore, the transitions in the turns of the drama must be carefully coordinated so that the characters are in sync. In other words, the interaction taking place in a drama is coordinated beforehand to assess and identify the turn-taking process amongst the characters to ensure coherence and consistency in the theme. The turns are managed by the set of rules governing the dialogue which determine the order of conversation and ensure that the gaps and overlays are minimized. In order to understand the process, the following concepts need to be understood. Turn Grabs Turn-Grabs in itself implies the episode where a character grabs the turn of another speaker, either on purpose or impromptu. The turn grabs can have distinct functions for instance, a speaker may be exhibiting influence or power, or making an uninvited entry into a drama, or in another case a speaker may be overcoming an error in communication or a gaps in turns to keep up the flow of the drama (Schiffrin 1986). For instance, during the events of the dialogue, one of the speaker stumbles upon a few lines, another speaker may take over and present a dialogue impromptu to prevent the entire play from de-escalating. However, turn grabs may also be consciously incorporated into the drama to manage the turn taking process. A character may exhibit turn grab to stop an ongoing argument in a play or to make a point by self-imposing himself in the middle of a conversation. Turn Allocation Turn allocation is a technique which implies that a character intentionally allocates his turn to speak to another character. Turn allocation is one of the most significant ingredients, which determines the change-over of the turns amongst the speakers for regulation of conversation. There are two components associated with turn-allocation i.e. the first one being where the current speaker allocates the turn to another speaker, and the second one being where the turn is allocated via self selection. Also, there are certain rules associated with turn allocation. Firstly, the current speaker is expected to select the next one, secondly, if the speaker doesn’t choose the next speaker, self selection can be done. Thirdly, if none of the above mentioned scenarios take place, current speaker may also continue. These rules allow smooth transition of dialogues from one speaker to another. Turn Order The rules for turn orders are determined to ensure smooth transition and to organize chaos in the turn taking process. The turn orders depend on the turn allocation strategies since it effects the entire situation in a drama (Herman 1998). For instance, characteristics in language for instance false starts, interruptions, overlaps, pauses and gaps contribute in effect management of turn taking process. Moreover, sometimes turn order ensures equal distribution of turns amongst characters in the drama. The distributional patterns of turns can be well-managed by managing the turn order, thus assigning the turns in the most appropriate order directly implies the smooth delivery of dialogues. Also, variation in turn orders also determines an inherent quality and a particular situation in the turn taking process. For this reason, the semiotics conduct an analysis of turn order to comment on the various perspectives of the drama presented. Turn Size & Texture The size of the turn, that is, the duration assigned to a particular character in the drama is another signification ingredient of the turn taking process. Also, the kind of content or in other words, the quality of the dialogue is yet another way of determining the influence and power attributed to a character. Both size and texture combined, in reality, demonstrates the role playing amongst the speakers involved in the play. For instance, a character may be assigned to speak only a few lines with huge gaps in his turn order, yet the texture of the speech may be appealing enough to exhibit the strength of the character. At the same time, if a character is allocated with an expanded duration of turns with extended dialogues, it automatically shifts the focus towards that particular character since he is the one around which the role of the other speakers in depending. Similarly, the supporting roles are also equipped with a certain turn size and a particular texture of speech which makes their patterns of speech as appropriate. Thus, all concepts combines, that is, the turn grabs, turn allocation, turn order and the turn size and structure express the true picture in a play. The power and influence of the characters are determined single handedly by the expressions determining how the turns are allocated in a drama to other speakers, also, how a speaker intrudes by grabbing a turn. More so, the order in which the speech of the characters is arranged also delivers the intended message, alongside the size and the texture of the message delivered. Thus, the turns are managed essentially by virtue of the concepts identified. Conclusively, a drama is a blend of various ingredients; however, dialogues are the sole focus of the paper. Dialogue can be explained as a series of interaction patterns or communication paradigms to express the thought process verbally. Thus, clearly, the quantity, quality and the texture of the turns in a drama must be synchronized conveniently to avoid chaos and interruptions. The various concepts described in the paper tend to explain how the turns can be managed by using various techniques. The turn may be grabbed unexpectedly by a character to exhibit power or an element of surprise. Similarly, turn may be allocated conveniently to another one, to further exhibit certains patterns in the theme. More importantly, the order in which the characters take their turns also explain the strength of the characters. More so, the appearance of speech patterns of various characters after repeated intervals of time may contribute towards effective management of turns. Also text size and the texture may reveal hidden meanings or convey certain messages in a drama. Thus, by virtue of the aforementioned concepts, a mechanism and an in-built system of turn taking can be developed by virtue of which the dialogue can very well be managed. On the other hand, in the absence of these paradigms, even though the content may be enriched, yet effective organization and management of the drama would go missing, deeming the entire context meaningless. References: Herman, V. (1998) ‘Turn management in drama’. In J. Culpepper, M. Short and P. Vedonk Exploring the Language of Drama: From Text to Context (London: Routledge). Schiffrin, D. (1986) ‘Turn-initial variation: structure and function in conversation’. In Sankoff, D. (ed.) (1986) Diversity and Diachrony (Amsterdam: Benjamins). Read More