 This module will introduce you to this process of conversation. Meaning of sequences. Sequences are order terms we have already defined. What are their meanings? It depends on sequence meaning dependent on utterance meaning. Meaning of an utterance is indicated by words or the gestures which accompany the words. For example, I am talking but I am also moving my hands. I have my facial expressions which accompany my speech. So all these things determine the meaning of utterances and meaning of utterances determine the meaning of sequences. Part of an utterance meaning lies in the prior utterances. First we talked about meaning that comes from inside utterances and now we are talking about that part of meaning of utterance that lies in prior utterances. When we talk, we move forward in talk, we are leaving behind utterances. These preceding, these foregoing utterances which forego what? Are current utterances. They also contribute to the meaning of our current utterances. They become its background, its context. So when we try to understand its meaning, we related which utterances went before and which possible utterances will follow it. So every utterance is in this way interwoven, interconnected with preceding and following utterances. So in this way utterance meaning is localized. What do we mean by this? The meaning of the utterance comes from inside the utterances with which it is related. This meaning does not come outside the conversation. When we talk about context in conversation analysis, we talk about internal context. We never talk about external context that lies outside the conversation. Now to understand it further, we see how conversation moves on, how it proceeds. That is the topic of our module. The first step is that the next speaker understand what is conveyed by the preceding speaker. Otherwise, conversation would flop. It won't move. If the next speaker, the listener, I mean, if that person doesn't understand what you have talked about, what you have said, the conversation would break. Number two, the next speaker shows virtually through gestures or through verbal means like absolutely, surely, etc. Or eye-raising or sometimes we react through our facial expressions to show our disapprover, to show surprise, etc. So all these we have called them back channels. These back channels give feedback to the speaker that the next speaker understands what you have said. So if this happens, they are involved, they give feedback, then conversation will move on. If they are not back channeling, it means they don't understand or they are not interested, your talk is meaningless for them. The third thing is that the current speaker clarifies wrong interpretation of the next speaker. There is also space for clarification. In conversation, definitely what you are talking about, that may be something new for the listener. Your language may be difficult, your topic may be difficult. You may belong to some foreign culture. So all these things make something difficult to understand by the listener or next speaker. So you allow the speaker, next speaker, I mean listener to ask question for clarification. If you allow this, your conversation will move on. Any utterance can have multiple interpretations. Now what we have been calling so far, meaning of sequences, meaning of utterances or interpretations. From now onwards, we will use a more technical term for this. We would call them conversational actions or functions. And in coming modules, we will be calling them speech acts. The acts we perform through speech, but wait for that. So the interpretations may be multiple. For example, what you utter, it may be taken as request, it may be taken as threat, it may be taken as promise. So these are conversational functions. CA, what conversation analysis does? Conversational analysis gathers evidence from your conversation to support which interpretation, which conversational function is conveyed to you. You means the listener, the next speaker. For example, see here, speaker A says, can I just grab, just grab, therefore repetition is allowed in spoken language, you know. B says sorry about that. Now this following utterance shows that the previous utterance is a request. And the previous utterance shows that the following utterance is refusal to that request. And that is polite refusal, sorry about that. And then speaker A says that's okay. It means the refusal, polite refusal is accepted. So in this way you see how conversational functions are understood with the help of proceeding in following utterances in a conversation. We conclude then that conversation moves on if social functions of utterances are conveyed successfully and are understood by the speakers. The functions depend on the internal context, the preceding utterances and the following utterances.