Initiations and responses in “Larry King Live”

ABSTRACT

People are persistently involved in conversation in daily communication of their lives. Two important elements they should notice well to have a communicative conversation are initiation and response. Initiation refers to what the first speaker speaks to start exchange of conversation, while response is the reaction of the second speaker to what was said by the first speaker in initiation. These elements play crucial role in carrying conversation forward, so the speakers can exchange the meaning they convey.

This study is intended to define linguistic phenomena of initiations and responses in Larry King Live show. The research problems are formulated on the types and functions of initiations and responses produced in the talk show. The objectives of the study are to get descriptive knowledge on the types and functions of initiations and responses in Larry King Live.

The method used in the study is descriptive method with qualitative approach. It is expected to comprehensively describe initiations and responses naturally obtained in talk exchange of the talk show. This study adopts and develops the theory of moves structure proposed by Stenstrom to help the researcher understand linguistic phenomena of the research and do data presentation

The results of the study show that the types of initiation generated by the host on the show are identification question, opine, polarity question, inform, action request and thanking. Identification question functions to elicit information and greet the guests, opine is used to report feelings about the show and the guests, polarity question is purposed to ask for the guests’ confirmation, inform functions to give information on the show, action request brings function to require the guests do action, and thanking functions to express the host’s gratitude for the guests’ attendance. Meanwhile, the types of responses of the guests are identified in nine types. Complying and implying answer that function to give adequate answers, responding to thank to express gratitude for the guest’s chance of being on the show, agreeing to inform that is used to approve the host’s statement, acknowledging to inform whose function is to accept the host’s statement, accepting request to show willingness of doing request, objecting to opine aims to disagree the host’s judgment, identification question to turn the question back and opinion that functions to show the interest. Most identified initiations picture the host’s strategies to have efficient techniques to elicit lots of information from the invited guests, and the dominant responses illustrate that the guests typically give their best responses to what the host said by providing adequate information.