Conversational Analysis Prime Ministers Questions - Case Study Example

Conversational Analysis (Prime Minister’s Questions) First Last Name Name of Institution Date Conversational Analysis (Prime Minister’s Questions) The Prime Minister’s Question Time also known as the (PMQs) is an occurrence that takes place in the House of Commons every week. It usually takes place on each Wednesday between noon and thirty minutes past noon (Dunleavy, Jones and O’Leary, 1990). Mainly, David Cameron, the prime minister, takes various questions from the other members of parliament and then gives answers to them. It would be right to say that this conversation in the House of Commons is usually globally managed in that; one person is usually in charge of allocating turns to the holding of the floor. John Becrow, who is the speaker of the House of Commons, is the one who is in charge of allocating turns to the speakers during the PMQs. The turns allocated by the speaker are usually one by one but as we will see in further discussion of this meeting, cooperative principle is not an area that is observed. As opposed to this, members of parliament respond by cheering or heckling such that the holder of the floor is usually forced to negotiate with the audience in order to receive their time on the floor. This is completely out of line with the cooperative principle (Dunleavy, Jones and O’Leary, 1990). The study below will discuss some of the turn taking mechanisms that are involved in the PMQs, how the audience influences the speaker and the roles of the participants and the rights they have to the floor. Further into the discussion the study will investigate the ways in which the audience affects the speaker and the ways in which the speakers usually try to counter the noise and the opposition they face from the other members of parliament. How turn taking unfolds during PMQs There are various different turn taking mechanisms that are applied by the participants in the conversations that are held during PMQs. Current Speaker Selects One of the most common turn taking mechanism that is used in the House of Commons is the Current Speaker Selects mechanism. This is the one that forms the entire formula for participation in the PMQs (Moncrieff, 2011). We could say that this is what it is “supposed” to be. Since the PMQ is a globally managed conversation, the current speaker selects mechanism is applied by the speaker. The chair has the power over the floor such that when he stands to call for order or to call another speaker the current speaker sits down. This form of turn taking is quite effective in that it allows for the floor to be allocated alternatively to the speakers thus enabling turn taking. Participants in the House of Commons don’t usually seem to have a problem with the systematic allocation of turns by the chair. It becomes a problem when turn taking is required in the content of their turns (Moncrieff, 2011). Next Speaker Self Selects Another turn taking mechanism that is seen to be applied in the PMQs is Next Speaker Self Selects. This is the most commonly used formula for turn taking in the House of Commons. It can also be known as interruption. This is where a participant in the conversation may automatically decide to take a hold of the floor without a specific procedure of allocation. Most times, as observed form the PMQ sessions in the House of Commons, more than one participant may interrupt. This usually results in noise sometimes in the form of heckling or cheering. As a result of this self allocation of turn taking it has been noted that the PMQ has been compared to an unruly football match or a game where the members of parliament compete to score their points (Moncrieff, 2011). An example of this is seen in the part; 1. Dr. Tonge (Richmond Park) (Lib Dem): in view of recent press reports, which quote government sources, about the inevitability of a fifth terminal at Heathrow airport and in view of the on-going public inquiry, which is costing many millions of pounds, will the Prime Minister tell us the government’s position regarding a fifth terminal? 2. The Prime Minister [Tony Blair]: the position is that we have always said that we will await the outcome of the inquiry—[Interruption.] That is not just our position; it was also the position adopted by the previous government. It is really the only sensible thing to do. If an inquiry is established to determine whether planning consent should be given, it is only sensible that one should await the outcome of that inquiry before making a decision. (Bates et al. 2012) Current speaker may continue The final form of turn taking that is observe d from three sessions of the PMQs is the current speaker may continue. This form of turn taking is rare since the members of the House of Commons are seen to be unruly for a greater percentage of the time they spend in the PMQ. It occurs only when the next speaker does not self select or when the current speaker does not select the next speaker (Norton, 1993). In as much as this should be the most observed turn taking mechanism in the House of Commons, it appears to be the least used. Here, a speaker continues to speak undisrupted for a lengthy period of time. Though it has been observed sometime, as mentioned earlier, it is quite rare. For example, 1. The Prime Minister [David Cameron]: I can absolutely give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. We support the national minimum wage, we support its regular updating and that is one of the many good things set out in our coalition agreement (Bates et. al 2012). Roles of participants and the rights they have to the floor There are various significant participants in the PMQs. Some have significant roles and others have minor roles in the proceedings. Speaker The most indispensable participant of the PMQ is the Speaker. He is in charge of globally managing the session. He is in charge of allocating the floor to the members (Norton, 1993). Members of the chamber The other participant in the PMQ is the members of the chamber. These are the individuals who mostly take part in the conversations during the PMQ. They are usually in charge of constituencies and they ask questions that are usually answered by the prime minister in the House of Commons (Moncrieff, 2011). Prime minister The Prime Minister is a paramount participant in the PMQ. He usually has the power in the conversation though this is not normally observed in the PMQs. The opposition usually asks questions and the Prime Minister gives answers to these questions (Moncrieff, 2011). All the members of the chamber have a right to the floor. Members in the House of Commons are supposed to have their turn on the floor until their turn is yielded however we see that this does not usually happen since in most cases the speaker is usually interrupted. Normally, the speaker manages the conversation by allocating the floor to one member of the chamber (Dalyell, 2000). When this member gets hold of the floor he should have power of the floor such that he should go uninterrupted. In most cases, a member is usually cheered on by other members thus violating the whole concept of the member having the hold of the floor independently at a certain time. Sometimes, it is even possible that the conversational floor is abandoned for a certain period of time because the members tend to practise skip connecting over very large distances. It usually leads to a complete veer off the topic of discussion. Sometimes the loss of the conversational floor occurs due to members giving dispreffered responses to some of the issues at hand (Borthwick, 1979). The Prime Minister also has his specific right to the floor in that he is allocated his own uninterrupted time of the floor so that he is able to address some of the questions that are directed to him. Though he should have the current speaker continue speaking turn taking mechanism we see that the members of the House of Commons give various reactions to some of his statements. In most occasions the Prime Minister is forced to find a way to negotiate with his audience in order that his point is passed across. The Prime Minister in most occasions is required to seek ways to overcome the noise and the barracking (Borthwick, 1979). How the audience can influence a speaker as they try to establish the floor The audience has so much power when it comes to establishing the conversational floor. This is mostly observed in the PMQs. Most times, the audience usually results in unbecoming noise that needs moderation or else a logical flow of the conversation would not be established. The audience most times influences a speaker by causing interruption (Dalyell, 2000). Most often than not, an audience will cause interruption by reacting to a particular section of the speakers words. However, there are times when a speaker may display some transition relevant places. These transition relevant places can be in the form of pauses, statements that seem like complete clauses, the rhythm and the stress that a speaker puts in their words or the conjunctions that a speaker uses. The audience might interpret this as an avenue to interrupt (Moncrieff, 2011). It has been observed that sometimes the speaker usually gets frustrated by the audience such that they are unable to pass on the point they intended to in its completion (Irwin et. al, 1993). We see that due to the disorderliness of the audience sometimes the speaker is unable to go hand in hand with the cooperation principles. The speaker may say something untrue just to keep the audience calm. In other scenarios, the speaker is completely frustrated such that they are completely put off from going on with their statements. Strategies that speakers employ to overcome the audience In either of these scenarios, a speaker feels the need to control the audience in order to pass on their message. Often, speakers tend to raise their voice in order to counter their audience. Most times this approach usually causes more disorder than was initially present. When the speaker raises their voice, the audience mostly becomes more unruly than it initially was. Speakers are usually advised not to take this course when it comes to taking control of an audience. The saying to not fight fire with fire is usually applied to support this statement (Irwin et. al, 1993). Speakers during the PMQs have been seen to look for exit strategies to deal with a noisy audience. There are those who have been seen to say statements like “ I am sure your issue would be dealt with in a better way if you presented it before the people” (Sedgemore, 1980) This usually creates an avenue for them to escape the heckling that is usually received from the audience. Sometimes the chair usually takes this strategy by saying statements like, “Please rise and air your view in a better manner...” This is a proper exit strategy that most of the speakers have been observed to use. The PMQs is a good illustration of bad conversational strategies. They observe neither turn taking nor any cooperative principles (Sedgemore, 1980). References Borthwick, R. L. (1979) ‘Questions and Debates’. In Chester, N. (ed.) The House of Commons in the Twentieth Century, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 476–526. Borthwick, R. L. (1993) ‘On the FLOr of the House’. In Franklin, M. and Norton, P. (eds) Parliamentary Questions, Oxford, Clarendon Press, pp. 73–103. Dalyell, T. (2000) ‘On the Decline of Intelligent Government’. In Mosley, I. (ed.) Dumbing Down: Culture, Politics and the Mass Media, Thorverton, Imprint Academic, pp. 11–18. Dunleavy, P., Jones, G. W. and O’Leary, B. (1990) ‘Prime Ministers and the Commons: Patterns of Behaviour, 1868 to 1987’, Public Administration, 68, 123–140. Irwin, H., Kennon, A., Natzler, D. and Rogers, R. (1993) ‘Evolving Rules’. In Franklin, M. and Norton, P. (eds) Parliamentary Questions, Oxford, Clarendon Press, pp. 23–72. Jones, G. W. (1973) ‘The Prime Minister and Parliamentary Questions’, Parliamentary Affairs, 26, 260–273. Sedgemore, B. (1980) The Secret Constitution, London, Hodder & Stoughton. Shaw, S. (2000) ‘Language, Gender and Floor Apportionment in Political Debates’, Discourse and Society, 11, 401–418 Moncrieff, C. (2011) ‘50 Years of PMQs’, The Independent. Norton, P. (1993) ‘Introduction: Parliament Since 1960’. In Franklin, M. and Norton, P. (eds) Parliamentary Questions, Oxford, Clarendon Press, pp. 1–22 Bates, R., Peter K.,Christopher B., and Liam S.,(2012) Questions to the Prime Minister: A Comparative Study of PMQs from Thatcher to Cameron. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, pp 8-9 Read More

This form of turn taking is quite effective in that it allows for the floor to be allocated alternatively to the speakers thus enabling turn taking. Participants in the House of Commons don’t usually seem to have a problem with the systematic allocation of turns by the chair. It becomes a problem when turn taking is required in the content of their turns (Moncrieff, 2011). Next Speaker Self Selects Another turn taking mechanism that is seen to be applied in the PMQs is Next Speaker Self Selects.

This is the most commonly used formula for turn taking in the House of Commons. It can also be known as interruption. This is where a participant in the conversation may automatically decide to take a hold of the floor without a specific procedure of allocation. Most times, as observed form the PMQ sessions in the House of Commons, more than one participant may interrupt. This usually results in noise sometimes in the form of heckling or cheering. As a result of this self allocation of turn taking it has been noted that the PMQ has been compared to an unruly football match or a game where the members of parliament compete to score their points (Moncrieff, 2011).

An example of this is seen in the part; 1. Dr. Tonge (Richmond Park) (Lib Dem): in view of recent press reports, which quote government sources, about the inevitability of a fifth terminal at Heathrow airport and in view of the on-going public inquiry, which is costing many millions of pounds, will the Prime Minister tell us the government’s position regarding a fifth terminal? 2. The Prime Minister [Tony Blair]: the position is that we have always said that we will await the outcome of the inquiry—[Interruption.

] That is not just our position; it was also the position adopted by the previous government. It is really the only sensible thing to do. If an inquiry is established to determine whether planning consent should be given, it is only sensible that one should await the outcome of that inquiry before making a decision. (Bates et al. 2012) Current speaker may continue The final form of turn taking that is observe d from three sessions of the PMQs is the current speaker may continue. This form of turn taking is rare since the members of the House of Commons are seen to be unruly for a greater percentage of the time they spend in the PMQ.

It occurs only when the next speaker does not self select or when the current speaker does not select the next speaker (Norton, 1993). In as much as this should be the most observed turn taking mechanism in the House of Commons, it appears to be the least used. Here, a speaker continues to speak undisrupted for a lengthy period of time. Though it has been observed sometime, as mentioned earlier, it is quite rare. For example, 1. The Prime Minister [David Cameron]: I can absolutely give the hon.

Gentleman that assurance. We support the national minimum wage, we support its regular updating and that is one of the many good things set out in our coalition agreement (Bates et. al 2012). Roles of participants and the rights they have to the floor There are various significant participants in the PMQs. Some have significant roles and others have minor roles in the proceedings. Speaker The most indispensable participant of the PMQ is the Speaker. He is in charge of globally managing the session.

He is in charge of allocating the floor to the members (Norton, 1993). Members of the chamber The other participant in the PMQ is the members of the chamber. These are the individuals who mostly take part in the conversations during the PMQ. They are usually in charge of constituencies and they ask questions that are usually answered by the prime minister in the House of Commons (Moncrieff, 2011). Prime minister The Prime Minister is a paramount participant in the PMQ. He usually has the power in the conversation though this is not normally observed in the PMQs.

The opposition usually asks questions and the Prime Minister gives answers to these questions (Moncrieff, 2011).

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