Conversational Structure in Market Place Discourse

Abstract

This paper looks at the peculiarities of the conversations between buyers and sellers in the market place with an emphasis on the structure. In examining the interactions in this setting, attention is paid to the use of adjacency pairs, turn-taking management, the use of discourse-markers as a signpost and instances of overlaps that correlate the idea of power as they constitute the
conversational structure prevalent in a market place discourse. The live data is collected at three specific markets - New Benin Market, Oba Market, and Student Union Government- in Benin City, Nigeria through the use of a tape-recorder which is later transcribed using the transcription symbols devised by Gail Jefferson.