Conversational Analysis is a theoretical approach created by American sociologist Harvey Sacks. Sacks began collaborating with Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel in the late 1950s. Sacks and Garfinkel, who developed their approach known as ethnomethodology, jointly published the article "On Formal Structures of Practical Action" (1970). In this article, they argue that the division into "indexical" expressions (the meaning of the statement comes from the context in which it is given) and "objective" statements (meaning is free of context) is wrong, because, even supposedly objective expressions always depend on situations in which they are used. It is necessary to introduce "ethnomethodological indifference", meaning that in the process of the analysis of speech, we should not assess the status of objective expressions, in the context of their adequacy, value, and consequentiality. They believe that the "orderliness" - the practical means that are used for those expressions to attain their sense - of all human expressions should be explored.

Over the next few years, Sacks and his collaborators Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson developed an approach to speech analysis that differed in several significant respects from the ethnomethodological approach. Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson called this approach "conversation analysis," and the first paper to lay the groundwork for this new approach was "Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation” (1974). Sacks died a year after the article was published, but Schegloff continued to develop conversational analysis, and, years later, he published and edited Sacks' lectures in the book Language Lectures on Conversation (1992).

Conversation analysis rejects the idea of ​​using pre-composed categories to codify social meaning in conversation, but focuses on the structure of conversation, to arrive at meaning. This approach rejects the existence of a universal intersubjective meaning of words and symbols. The goal of conversational analysis is to develop a methodology for analyzing conversations through a sequential approach. Everyday conversations should be analyzed through “membership categories”, as means by which verbal interaction is made meaningful. The method developed by these authors consists of compiling detailed transcripts of recorded conversations, which are then analyzed in detail by recording each aspect of the conversation: intonation, pauses, taking order in the conversation, moments when two or more interlocutors speak at the same time and other details. Using this method of analysis researchers obtain sequential organization of talk in interaction.

The goal is to determine how the participants in the conversation related to the speech of other interlocutors, and how that relationship changes at every moment of the conversation. Every part of the conversation is important, from the way the conversations start and end, the turns of speakers, to the interaction problems that need to be overcome in the conversation. Nonverbal communication (body language) is also analyzed. In the end, there are rules, patterns, and structures that form a dynamic (because the situation is constantly changing during the conversation) "sequential ordering" of the conversation. The mechanisms that speakers use to organize a conversation are independent of the cognitive disposition and motivation of any speaker, but also of the broader social context of the conversation or physical limitations. In addition to the organization of the conversation itself, this approach seeks to determine how intersubjective understanding occurs in the conversation.

The most important sequences in a conversation are called "adjacency pairs", and are composed of two speaking activities, in which the first activity, performed by the first speaker, directly invites the second actor to respond with complementary speaking activity. Examples of adjacency pairs are: question-answer, greeting-greeting, request-grant/refusal, and invitation-acceptance/declination, etc. adjacency pairs very often serve as a basis for further expansion of conversations. The turn of speakers in the conversation, and the rules that regulate that change, are also very important fields of analysis. Usually, each speaker is entitled to one “constructional unit” of conversation (the smallest unit of speech that can be considered as a whole – one turn). When one such speech unit is completed, other speakers can start their own, or if no one steps in, the first speaker can continue with the next speech unit. The mechanism that controls the turns (who speaks) is called "recipient design". The ability of speakers to recognize and respect the rules of turns is the basis of intersubjective understanding.

Authors: Sacks Harvey.  Coulter, Jeff; Drew, Paul; Heath, Christian; Heritage, John; Jefferson, Gail; Maynard, Doug; Pomerantz, Anita; Psathas, George; Schegloff, Emanuel; ten Have, Paul; West, Candace; Zimmerman Don.

Books:

Atkinson, J. Maxwell, and Paul Drew. Order in Court: The Organization of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings (1979);

Atkinson, J. Maxwell, and John Heritage (eds.). Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis (1984);

Bales, Robert F. Interaction Process Analysis (1950);

Button, Graham, and John R. E. Lee (eds.) Talk and Social Organization (1987);

Couper-Kuhlen, E. & Selting, M. (eds.). Prosody in Conversation (1996);

Davidson, Judy ‘‘Subsequent Versions of Invitations, Offers, Requests, and Proposals Dealing with Potential or Actual Rejection’’, in J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage (eds.) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis (1984);

Drew, P. & Heritage, J. “Analyzing Talk at Work: An Introduction”, in Drew, P. & Heritage, J. (eds.) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings (1992);

Ford, Cecilia E., and Sandra A. Thompson. ‘‘Interactional Units in Conversation: Syntactic, Intonational, and Pragmatic Resources for the Management of Turns’’, in Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff and Sandra A. Thompson (eds.) Interaction and Grammar (1996);

Garfinkel, Harold. Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967);

Garfinkel, Harold, and Harvey Sacks. “On Formal Structures of Practical Action”, in Tiryakian, Edward and John McKinney (eds.) Theoretical Sociology (1970);

Goodwin, C. Conversational Organization: Interaction between Speakers and Hearers (1981);

Goodwin, Charles.  ‘‘Professional Vision’’, in American Anthropologist (1994);

     -     Gesture, Aphasia, and Interaction. In: McNeill, D. (ed.) Language and Gesture (2000);

Heath, Christian C. Body Movement and Speech in Medical Interaction (1986);

Heath, C. & Luff, P. Technology in Action (2000);

Heritage, J. Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology (1984);

Heritage, J., and David Greatbatch. ‘‘On the Institutional Character of Institutional Talk: The Case of News Interviews’’, in Deirdre Boden and Don H. Zimmerman (eds.) Talk and Social Structure (1991);

Lerner, Gene H. ‘‘On the ‘Semi-Permeable’ Character of Grammatical Units in Conversation: Conditional Entry into the Turn Space of Another Speaker’’, in Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson (eds.) Interaction and Grammar (1996);

Maynard, Douglas W. ‘‘The News Delivery Sequence: Bad News and Good News in Conversational Interaction’’, in Research on Language and Social Interaction (1997);

Maynard, D. Bad News, Good News: Conversational Order in Everyday Talk and Clinical Settings (2003);

Ochs, Elinor, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson (eds.). Interaction and Grammar (1996);

Pomerantz, A. M. “Telling My Side: ‘‘Limited Access’’ as a ‘‘Fishing Device’’”, in Sociological Inquiry (1980);

Sacks. „Sociological Description”, in Berkeley Journal of Sociology (1963);

     -     „On Formal Structures of Practical Actions”, in McKinney, J. D. (ed.) Theoretical Sociology (1970);

     -     „An Initial Investigation of the Usability of Conversational Data for Doing Sociology”, in Sudnow, D. (ed.) Studies in Social Interaction (1972);

     -     „Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation”, in Language (1974);

     -     „The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation”, in Language (1977);

     -     Language Lectures on Conversation, 2 vols. (1992);

Schegloff, Emanuel A. ‘‘Turn Organization: One Intersection of Grammar and Interaction’’, in Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson (eds.) Interaction and Grammar (1996);

     -     ‘‘Harvey Sacks—Lectures 1964–1965. An Introduction/Memoir’’, in Human Studies (1989);

     -     ‘‘Goffman and the Analysis of Conversation’’, in Paul Drew and Anthony Wootton (eds.) Erving Goffman: Exploring the Interaction Order (1988);

     -     ‘‘The Relevance of Repair for Syntax-for-Conversation’’, in T. Givon (ed.) Syntax and Semantics 12: Discourse and Syntax (1979);

     -     ‘‘Sequencing in Conversational Openings’’, in American Anthropologist1968

     -     , Gail Jefferson, and Harvey Sacks  ‘‘The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation’’, in Language (1977);

     -     The Routine as Achievement”, in Human Studies (1986);

      -     “Introduction”, in Jefferson, G. (ed.) Harvey Sacks: Lectures on Conversation, Vol. 1 (1992a);

     -      “Repair After Next Turn: The Last Structurally Provided Defense of Intersubjectivity in Conversation”, in American Journal of Sociology (1992b);

     -     Sequence Organization in Interaction (2006);

     -     , and Sacks, H. “Opening Up Closings”, in Semiotica (1973);

Schenkein, Jim. (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction (1978);

Silverman, David. Harvey Sacks: Social Science and Conversation Analysis (1998);

Suchman, Lucy A. Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication (1987);

Sudnow, David (ed.) Studies in Social Interaction (1972);

ten Have, Paul, and George Psathas  Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organization of Talk and Embodied Activities (1995);

Whalen, Jack  ‘‘A Technology of Order Production: Computer-Aided Dispatch in 9-1-1 Communications’’, in ten Have, Paul and George Psathas (eds.) Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organization of Talk and Embodied Activities (1995).