Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Bc. et Bc. Veronika Válkyová

Aspects of Conversation in a Talk Show Discourse Master‟s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr., Jan Chovanec, Ph. D.

2015

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author‟s signature

I would like to express my gratitude to Mgr. Jan Chovanec Ph.D. for taking a chance on me. I would also like to thank Lenka for her never ending support and encouragement and Marika, my fellow traveler.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 1 1. Media Discourse ...... 2 2. Spoken Discourse Analysis ...... 4 2.1 Conversation Analysis ...... 5 2.2 Gricean Pragmatics ...... 7 2.3 Interactional Sociolinguistics ...... 8 3. Talk Show Characteristics ...... 9 3.1 Talk Show vs. Television Talk ...... 9 3.2 History ...... 11 3.3 Late Night Talk Show Format ...... 13 3.4 Daytime Talk Show Format ...... 15 4. Selected Features of Talk Shows ...... 16 4.1 Institutional vs. Non-institutional Nature ...... 16 4.2 Spontaneous vs. Purposeful Talk ...... 18 4.3 Topic and Turn-taking ...... 20 4.4 Roles of Talk Show Participants ...... 22 4.5 Interlocutor-oriented, Message-oriented and Multiple Audience Oriented Talk 23 4.6 Closings ...... 25 5. Description of the Methods ...... 29 5.1 Corpora Description ...... 30 5.1.1 Brief Introduction of the Hosts and Talk Show Concepts in Focus 31 6. Studio Setting Description ...... 32 6.1 The Talk ...... 33 6.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show ...... 34 6.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ...... 34 6.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ...... 35 7. Aspects of Structure ...... 35 7.1 Chronological Structure of the Episodes ...... 36 7.1.1 Announcements ...... 37 7.1.2 Opening Lines ...... 39 7.1.3 Closings ...... 39

7.1.4 Commercial Breaks ...... 40 7.2 Topic Structure of the Shows ...... 42 7.2.1 The Talk: Thomas Lennon, Elisabeth Hurley, Fall Out Boy ...... 42 7.2.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show: cast of Glee, Ne-Yo ...... 44 7.2.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live: Barack Obama, Sean Penn ...... 44 7.2.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Hugh Jackman, Tiffani Thiessen, Hozier ...... 46 8. Aspects of Talk Structure and Interaction ...... 47 8.1 Scripted vs. Unscripted Questions ...... 47 8.1.1 The Talk ...... 48 8.1.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show ...... 49 8.1.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ...... 50 8.1.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ...... 51 8.2 Turn-taking & Interaction ...... 52 8.3 Laughter ...... 55 8.3.1 The Talk ...... 55 8.3.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show ...... 55 8.3.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ...... 56 8.3.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ...... 57 8.4 Interruptions ...... 58 9. Aspects of Intimacy and Politeness ...... 60 9.1 Addressing System ...... 60 9.2 Compliments ...... 61 9.3 Private Life Stories ...... 62 10. Conclusion ...... 65 Bibliography ...... 68 Primary Sources ...... 68 Secondary Sources ...... 69 Summary ...... 72 Resumé ...... 73 Appendix 1: List of Symbols and Abbreviations ...... 74

Introduction

The incredibly advanced level of technological innovativeness and constant progression in the field of information technology has been the intermediary for an unstoppable advancement in the media communication possibilities. Language of the media has been developing hand in hand with the technology itself. Despite the fact that this broadcast evolution started with audio transmitting, video enhancement was not far behind. In all likelihood no one could anticipate the enormous popularity and exploitation the video broadcast would have. Audio and video is no longer brought to the audiences in their inceptive form. The worldwide usage of internet, television, radio, computer and mobile phone, all of these gadgets represent fast growing and developing industries which have set the ground for the creation of a variety of new genres within the discourse of broadcast media. One of them is the discourse of television talk show.

Over the years the concept of talk show has not been invariant. Its structure and rules have acknowledged the society and changing environment.

People not only grew more interested in this type of program but also more invested in its content. The thesis aspires to take a look at the variety of contemporary talk shows in North America. The aim is to investigate the conversational aspects of talk show speech as well as examine the tendencies and preferences of hosts towards the spontaneous and more intimate approach to talk show speech. Accordingly, the thesis concentrates on selected American talk shows that are being presently broadcasted.

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1. Media Discourse

Essentially, scholars are required to distinguish between the concept of

„discourse‟ without an article that “refers to language use […], a piece of text, an instance of discursive practice, and an instance of social practice" (Ilie, 2001, p. 213). On the other hand, the term 'a discourse' with an article “refers to a relatively discrete subset of a whole language used for specific social or institutional purposes” (Ilie, 2001, p. 213). In contrast, Fairclough divides the meaning of discourse into three levels. In an abstract sense, “discourse refers to „language use as social practice‟. […] Secondly, discourse is understood as the „kind of language used within a specific field‟, such as political or scientific discourse. And thirdly, in the most concrete usage, discourse is used as a count noun […] referring to a „way of speaking which gives meaning to experiences from a particular perspective‟” (cited from: Jorgensten & Phillips, 2002, p. 66-

67).

Discourse does not have one strict specific definition. It is connected to the manner in which individuals and groups communicate. A more specific definition can refer to the systems of thoughts and beliefs that determine how individuals understand and interpret the world. If perceived in the broader sense, media discourse includes various channels such as newspapers and magazines, television, radio, and the Internet. Jorgensen & Phillips (2002) understand discourse as “the general idea that language is structured according to different patterns that people‟s utterances follow when they take part in different domains of social life” (p. 1).

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O‟Keeffe (2011) focuses on media discourse specifically and suggests it

“refers to interactions that take place through a broadcast platform, whether spoken or written, in which the discourse is oriented to a non-present reader, listener or viewer” (p. 441). For a considerable amount of time, a problem used to arise concerning the inability of recipients to “make instantaneous responses to the producer(s) of the discourse, though increasingly this is changing with the advent of new media technology” (O‟Keeffe, 2011, p. 441). Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram or YouTube have become essential elements of talk shows.

Talbot (2007) expressed an intention to take the definition of media discourse to the next level when she suggests that “media discourse circulates in and across institutions and it is deeply embedded in the daily life and daily interaction of almost everyone (p. 5). The connection between media and everyday life is undeniably more intense nowadays than it has been before, whether the focus is on work environment or personal life. The growing need for constant renewal of information at one‟s disposal has undeniably contributed to the scholarly attention media discourse has been getting.

Since the focus of this thesis is television talk, it is important to remember its three key distinguishing features as Hutchby (2006, p. 18) identifies them. Firstly he claims that “broadcast talk adopts elements of everyday conversation as part of its overarching ethos”. Secondly, the author declares broadcast talk is different from “ordinary conversation by virtue of being an institutional form of discourse that exists at the interface between public and private domains of life”. At last he refers to broadcast talk as a

“specific type of institutional discourse because it is directed at an „overhearing‟

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audience separated from the talk‟s site of production by space and also, frequently, by time”. Hutchby is not the only scholar who takes note of the overhearing audience phenomenon. The interaction between producer and receiver of speech is as if disrupted by the audience. Tolson (2006) points out

“there is a difference between the intended recipient and the „eavesdropper‟ to an exchange between others” (p. 45). In a basic structure, the roles of sender and receiver travel between the host and a guest whilst the audience functions as an eavesdropper.

Talk shows, the subject of this thesis, are identified with characteristics of more than one genre and are therefore considered to be of mixed type. Ilie

(2001) points out, that properties “of a talk show, as a mixed type of media discourse, are less easily definable in strictly linguistic terms” (p. 210) which might implicate in challenging identification of their distinctive features.

Ordinary talk is no longer the exclusive area of interest of conversational analysis. Ilie (2001) claims that institutional discourse is being conversationalized as a means for maintaining the power differential between social groups (p. 214).

2. Spoken Discourse Analysis

Even though there is a variety of approaches to spoken discourse (e.g.

Matheson, 2005; van Dijk, 1988) which all have their specific ideas, this thesis looks primarily upon Tolson‟s approach to media talk analysis. The author

(2006) proposes three approaches to spoken discourse he considers to be crucial for the analysis of media talk. First is Conversation Analysis, second is

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Gricean Pragmatics and third is Interactional Sociolinguistics, all of which are going to be discussed in more detail at this point.

2.1 Conversation Analysis

Conversation analysis suggests that “we are not programmed, or conditioned, to act in socially acceptable ways; rather social actors have their own understanding of what counts as social appropriate, and they find ways of checking these out against the perceptions of fellow actors” (Tolson, 2006, p.

25). Hutchby (2006) declares that conversation analysis is “the most appropriate method for analyzing [broadcast] talk because it explicitly uses the structures and patterns of ordinary conversation as a comparative basis for understanding other, more specialized or institutional forms of talk” (p. 15).

While conversation analysis encompasses several phenomena of communication, linguists tend to start with “three basic insights concerning adjacency, turn-taking and sequencing” (Tolson, 2006, p. 26).

Adjacency in its simplicity means that there are certain parts of speech requiring interaction, some sort of instant reciprocity. “To fail to conform to such expectations is to transgress this conversational norm, to appear

(perhaps) rude, or, at the very least, to get into a situation where repair work is necessary or an account is produced” (Tolson, 2006, p. 27). In many occasions, media talk uses structures and features that are considered to pertain to ordinary conversation. Nevertheless Tolson (2006) warns, it is not „ordinary conversation‟ as such (p. 28).

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The basic idea of turn-taking is fairly obvious as the participants alternate throughout the duration of speech. However, it should be remembered that this mutual accomplishment is not under any circumstances neat and tidy (Tolson, 2006, p. 29). Also, there is a question about “how the next speaker identifies an opportunity to self-select [because sometimes] the next speaker feels it is possible to start a turn without seeming to be interrupting” (Tolson, 2006, p. 29). It is so, because the speaker spotted a

„transition relevance place (TRP)‟.

In some cases, the system of turn-taking might be violated by the participants functioning as interviewees (IEs) who “sometimes proceed to attack the presuppositions of the question, or attempt to shift the topical agenda” (Tolson, 2006, p. 30). Heritage (1985) also points out the habit of interviewers (IRs) which he calls „formulating‟. The intention of IRs is to

“heighten the level of dramatic tension [when] they may not immediately proceed to another question, but instead reflect back on that answer summarizing, glossing or developing the gist of an informant‟s earlier statements” (Tolson, 2006, p. 30).

In any case, primary rule of turn taking is „one party talking at a time‟.

To ensure it, one uses turn-allocational and turn-constructional techniques.

Sacks (2004) warns, that for “turn-taking in conversation to be organized, some way of integrating the two techniques is required so as to preserve one-talking- at-a-time across change of speakers while minimizing both gaps and overlaps between turns” (p. 38).

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Sequence is explained by Tolson (2006) as verbal interaction understood as sequential activity. The author suggests “sequences can be defined as developing patterns of interaction, running across several turns, which are reflexively monitored by participants” (p. 33). However, linguists whose area of study is conversational analysis divide the concept of sequences into two possible subareas of interest. Some focus on what “might be called „mini-rituals‟ of verbal interaction, which are so routine and orderly they might almost seem to be scripted” (p. 33). As opposed to mini-rituals, “some types of sequence are less formulaic, and their consequences are less predictable” (p. 34).

2.2 Gricean Pragmatics

“Pragmatics is interested in the way meanings can be inferred from conversational acts. An intersubjective social order […] is an activity which involves mutual interpretation” (Tolson, 2006, p. 37). In case of media talk, there is a special branch of pragmatics that is usually mentioned. As the title suggests it is called Gricean Pragmatics after American philosopher who claims that to successfully interpret an utterance, “the recipient also must recognize the intention” (Tolson, 2006, p.38). Accordingly, Grice introduced the concept of „co-operative principle‟ which says that “mutual reading of intentions assumes a basic level of co-operation in ordinary conversation” (p. 38). After further research of the hypothesis and studying the speech, co-operative principle evolved into the creation of four „conversational maxims‟. The idea is that each and every participant of a conversation follows the maxims unconsciously, in order to make the interaction comprehensible for the other

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participants. The maxims refer to quantity, quality, relation and manner

(Tolson, 2006, p. 38, adapted from Cameron, 2001). Tolson (2006) observes several interesting facts about co-operative principle of speech. First of all, it

“does not assume, that […] all talk is co-operative”. Sometimes it is possible for the conversation to be „co-operatively unco-operative‟, “in that the intelligibility, even of hostile behavior, should be apparent” to the participants. And at last the principle discussed “does apply to media talk” (p. 39).

2.3 Interactional Sociolinguistics

The area of research for interactional sociolinguistics is not as easily defined as pragmatics or conversational analysis. Its scope is quite diverse yet what is relevant for media discourse analysis is the fact, that it provides “more specific focus on cross-cultural differences, and the potential for miscommunication between speakers from different cultural backgrounds

(Tolson, 2006, p. 44).

In relation to frequent cultural variety of communication participants,

Goffman states that it “takes a „ritualistic‟ view of social interaction in which participants are invariably playing, and not simply occupying, social roles” (cited from: Tolson, 2006, p. 46). Consequently one could envision such participants as actors in theatrical sense of the word, as individuals who take upon themselves diverse character features and behavior habits in order to fit into the conformity of particular public media role.

Grumperz (1982) conducted some work in the field of interactional sociolinguistics which resulted in concept of contextualization cues. It “brings

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into analytic prominence the integration of nonrepresentational signs or tacit signaling devices […] that participants employ to co-construct context, perform identity, and frame interactional meaning” (cited from: Matoesian, 2013, p.

706). In conversation analysis, scholars use the term „face‟ in relation to one‟s identity. It is defined as “self-esteem, or a sense of self-worth, which is constantly at risk in social interactions” (Tolson, 2006, p. 47). It has to be remembered that there is a possibility for a positive and negative face. “Positive face is the need to be well liked, to have one‟s positive sense of self endorsed by others”, whereas “negative face is the desire to avoid trouble, or situations which might involve stress, or unwanted obligations” (p. 47).

For the study of conversation and human communication, the term „face threatening act‟ is fundamental. It refers to utterances and expressions that might present a threat to person‟s „face‟. In ordinary communication, such statements can be ignored or mitigated via some linguistic tools such as „fillers‟ and „hedges‟. Although people are usually inclined to the principle of politeness it is not compulsory to follow. Accordingly, a problem might emerge in life broadcasting for instance, when there is no space for corrections or better yet, when it is the sole intention of the speaker to throw the other of his game and weaken their authority.

3. Talk Show Characteristics

3.1 Talk Show vs. Television Talk

It is crucial to realize the distinction between „television talk‟ and „talk show‟. Talk show is only one of the forms how talk on television can be

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realized. “Television talk represents all the unscripted forms of conversation and direct address to the audience that have been present on television since the beginning [while] it is almost always anchored or framed by an announcer or host figure, and may be defined, in Erving Goffman's terms, as „fresh talk‟, that is, talk that appears to be generated word by word and in a spontaneous manner” (cited from: Timberg, 2002, p.3). Even though one might find traces of spontaneity in television talk at any time, one must not be inclined to think it is without a structural organization. “It takes place in ritualized encounters and what the viewer sees and hears on the air has been shaped by writers, producers, stage managers and technical crews and tailored to the talk formulas of television” (Timberg, 2015).

Because of the competition in media business, television is constantly looking for new programs, but creation of new original genres is limited.

Logically, “genre boundaries are fuzzy and evolving, resulting in diverse genre overlaps and subtypes” (Livingstone & Lunt, 2002, p. 37). To an amateur observer it might seem as if there is a profound similarity to everyday speech.

However, as Tolson points out, talk shows are programs that are “carefully researched, produced and to some extend pre-scripted” (Tolson, 2001, p. 72).

As mentioned before, overhearing audience is inseparable feature of talk show hence “televisuality works as the production constraint that most characterizes the talk show as a specialized form of interaction” (p. 72).

“Major talk traditions have developed around news, entertainment, and a variety of social encounters that have been reframed and adapted for television” (Timberg, 2015). A crucial fact here is that even though “talk is

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featured on game shows, dating or relationship shows, simulated legal encounters or shows that are essentially elaborate versions of practical jokes”

(Timberg, 2015), none of these are labelled as „talk shows‟.

To put it simply, a talk show is constructed around „talk‟ as its core element. Consequently, there is rather high possibility of some kind of host figure. “To remain on the air a talk show must adhere to strict time and money constraints, allowing time, for instance, for the advertising spots that must appear throughout the show” (Timberg, 2015). Such conditions create a strict time frame to be followed. The producers consider a talk show to be only “one product among many and they are usually not amenable to anything that will interfere with profits and ratings” (Timberg, 2015).

3.2 History

This section presents a few facts about gradual development of talk shows. Talk show can be understood as a concept which “takes a very old form of communication, conversation, and transforms it into a low cost but highly popular form of information and entertainment through the institutions, practices and technologies of television” (Timberg, 2015). The evolution of talk show was not sudden, it has been slowly developing over a period of approximately forty years. The influence came from television practice and radio talk show traditions, as well as Chautauqua, vaudeville and popular theater. It would be possible to describe Chautauqua as an adult education movement. Vaudeville on the other hand refers to a performance consisting of several separate acts.

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The tradition of daytime talk shows which figure in this thesis began with

Phil Donahue in 1967, while late night shows (Murrow, Allen) were broadcasted almost a decade earlier (Lovisi, 2013, p. 104). Despite the fact that the overall amount of television viewers declined during the 1980s, “talk shows were one form of programming that continued to expand on the networks and in syndication” (Timberg, 2015). Since 1948 till the early 90s talk shows in North

America went through a period of considerable growth resulting in the fact that

“over two hundred talk shows appeared on the air [which] can be broken down into four cycles of television talk show history corresponding to four major periods of television history itself” (Timberg, 2015), ending in the post-network era of the 2000s.

The art of conversation has been the topic of prescriptive manuals on how to speak on particular occasions, however, […] there are no universally and eternally valid rules for conducting a conversation (Ilie, 2001, p. 214).

Throughout the years the phenomena of human speech enhanced into the ability to produce a conversation have fascinated not only linguists but other scholars as well. Several organizations were established in order to establish a place to meet for an intelligent and fruitful discussion. These places existed in many European countries while they were given various names such as academy, salon, coffee-house, assembly or club (Ilie, 2001, p. 214). Nowadays, these discussions are often conducted in talk shows.

British equivalent of talk show is called „chat show‟ and as Scannell points out “there has been a significant shift in the communicative ethos of broadcasting from an earlier authoritarian model to a more populist and

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democratic manner and style" (cited from: Ilie, 2001, p. 10). As already mentioned before, talk shows can be divided into three categories, primarily according to the air time as early morning, daytime and late night shows.

However, they also differ in structure and topics discussed.

3.3 Late Night Talk Show Format

It is no surprise that talk show hosts play very important role in constructing „personality‟ of the show. Representative example of such influence is The Tonight Show, which “premiered on NBC in 1954 with Steve Allen as its first host” (Timberg, 2015). Even though the show was able to maintain a distinctive format and style throughout its airing, each successive host (Steve

Allen, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno) brought some significant change to the project (Timberg, 2015). “The longevity of these

„super stars‟ increases their impact on the forms and formats of television talk with which they are associated” (Timberg, 2015).

As opposed to many late night show hosts, “news talk hosts like Murrow,

Koppel, and Moyers do not have bands, sidekicks, or a studio audience. Their roles as talk show hosts are extensions of their roles as reporters and news commentators. Their shows appear in evening when more adult and older aged viewers are watching” (Timberg, 2015). Although the objective of late night shows is predominantly to entertain, “late night […] garnered national attention during the talk show „wars‟ of the late 1960s and early 1970s. […] In an age in which political theorists had become increasingly pessimistic about the possibilities of democracy within the public sphere, late night talk show hosts

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became sanctioned court jesters who appeared free to mock and question basic

American values and political ideas through humor” (Timberg, 2015).

“But it was not just comic ability that was demanded of the late night hosts. They had to possess a lively, quick-paced interview technique, a persistent curiosity arising directly from their comic world views, lively conversational skills, and an ability to listen and elicit information from a wide range of show business and "civilian" guests” (Timberg, 2015).

Late night discussions can be constructed similarly to those of hard news with serious informative function, which can standardly be “built around an expert panel, a panel and news figure, a magazine format for a single topic, a magazine format that deals with multiple topics, or a one-on-one host/guest interview. […] General interest soft news talk show that mixes entertainment, news and public affairs can also be built around a single topic, a magazine multiple topic format, or a one-on-one host/guest interview.” (Timberg, 2015).

The notable difference is that late night talk shows do not ordinarily include an expert panel. That said, it does not mean experts in specific field cannot be a guest in such talk show, it only means the purpose of the appearance would not be to provide an expertise.

Entertainment talk shows are represented by […] the informal celebrity guest/host talk show, which takes on different characteristics depending upon what part of the day it is broadcast. The late night entertainment talk show grew rapidly in popularity among viewers during its first four decades on the air. But there have also been morning, daytime, and special topic versions.

(Timberg, 2015) “Shows that are not conventionally known as „talk shows‟ but

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feature „fresh‟ talk and are built primarily around that talk […] center on social encounters or events adapted to television: a religious service, an academic seminar, a talent contest, a practical joke, a mating rituals, a forensic event, or a mixed social event” (Timberg, 2015).

3.4 Daytime Talk Show Format

It has been established above that late night shows, broadcasted around midnight, usually feature celebrity guests, musical performances and transgressive humor as Tolson (2001) summarizes it. He then contrasts it to daytime talk shows, “where ordinary people are gathered to discuss in serious, often tragic and intimate tones, „social‟ issues related to the personal sphere”

(p. 34). Daytime talk show have gained enormous popularity in America, firstly because the “topics discussed are very challenging, trying to come to grips with highly problematic and controversial, but widely shared, concerns about current issues in the public and in the private sphere” (Ilie, 2001, p. 216). The other reason is that “broadcast dialogue triggers self-reflective thoughts in the audience about their own feelings and attitudes, such as anger, hope, fear, inhibition” (p. 216). The host should be able to induce strong emotions, for instance by challenging opinions or by in-depth discussion about ethics, values, morality or any other controversial topic. Accordingly Garson (2011) explains, that “daytime shows privilege ordinary people over experts, because their stories and exchanges are more personal and emotional” (p. 109), which is what the audience has grown used to.

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4. Selected Features of Talk Shows

4.1 Institutional vs. Non-institutional Nature

It has already been suggested that talk show discourse is a mixture of characteristics of higher or lower importance which can be detected in other types of broadcast discourse such as information and entertainment, news interview, debate, therapy session, classroom dialogue, celebrity interviews or casual conversation (Ilie, 2001, p. 216). The definition of conversational talk has already been provided, yet for further analysis an explanation of the term institutional talk is essential as well. Drew & Heritage (1992) distinguish between three basic elements of institutional talk (Heritage, 1997, p. 4):

1) The interaction normally involves the participants in specific goal

orientations that are tied to their institution relevant identities: doctor

and patient, teacher and student, bride and groom, and so on.

2) The interaction involves special constraints on what will be treated as

allowable contributions to the business at hand.

3) The interaction is associated with inferential frameworks and

procedures that are particular to specific institutional contexts.

These attributes combined with the features of ordinary talk create a mixture of characteristics that together formulate the discourse of talk show.

Ilie (2001) provides some examples of borrowed features of talk show.

“Information is provided either directly, simply by breaking the news or by advertising a product, event, etc., or indirectly, by means of the interviewing technique. Unlike proper interviews, talk shows are not strictly information- focused and do not claim maximum objectivity and impartiality either, since

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they do not rule out the personal and even emotional involvement of both the questioner and the respondent (p. 217). In fact, the interpersonal stories of daytime talk shows serve to “sensationalize the extraordinary aspects of ordinary life through the sex-and-violence formula that dominates the commodities of popular culture” (Rothe, 2011, p. 56). The discursive frame of talk shows bears certain similarities of debate programs, while at the same time the show host can be seen to act as a therapist, by listening, and asking for and offering advice. There is also a reference to casual conversation since it sometimes takes place in a private setting, as in the case of certain pre-filmed scenes in show guests' homes (Ilie, 2001, p. 217). Talk show could be contrasted with public speaking as Edmondson (1981) proposes, what than suggests a private nature of the conversational interaction. As a result, its similarities with casual conversation can be regarded as subtype of conversational discourse and accordingly, talk show can be regarded as subtype of institutional discourse (cited from: Ilie, 2001, p. 218). Even though

“discourse practices may be defined […] as the regular sequential arrangement of recognizably similar discourse acts to serve institutionalized communicative purposes” (Montgomery, 2007, p. 25), the structure of the talk show itself is not specifically definable, consequently the host is expected to switch between several roles apart from their original one as a moderator to the roles of entertainer, moralizer, adviser, therapist, arbiter and interlocutor (Ilie, 2001, p.

219).

There are two categories of features detected: discursive and linguistic.

“Linguistic constraints that are normally respected in conversational discourse

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are often violated in talk shows in order to allow for particular discursive practices to develop in an institutional setting” (Ilie, 2001, p. 219). On the other hand “linguistic constraints that are normally complied with in institutional discourse are violated in order to make room for conversational practices

[while] features shared by both discourses […] are not fixed in advance and may be negotiated during the interaction process” (p. 219).

4.2 Spontaneous vs. Purposeful Talk

“Spontaneous talk may occur on and off in semi-institutional discourse a conversation-like dialogue may occasionally take place between the show host and one of the show guests” (Ilie, 2001, p. 220). It may probably be induced by a personal opinion or disagreement with the idea discussed. At the same time, the host forgets about his audience in the studio and at home and instead engages in conversation with more personal investment. Bill Maher, creator of a show Politically Incorrect produced the show, because he believed scripted late- night talk shows were fake and so he advocated for producing shows “in which guests would interact with each other, and that interaction would be based on things in life that actually matter” (Jones, 2005, p. 167).

One of the purposes of a host is to function as an interviewer and interrogator. Hence questions are necessary for such intentions. Over the years it has increasingly become more feasible to improvise during the interview, to insert questions that were not prepared beforehand and stir it in a various different directions. Therefore linguists acknowledge two types of questions: institutionally framed questions and conversationally framed questions.

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“Conversationally framed questions are not necessarily followed by answers, institutionally framed questions represent more often than not the first element of question-answer adjacency pairs” (Ilie, 2001, p. 221). Here it might be helpful to call the attention to the distinction between interactional and institutional goals. “Whereas interactional goals tend to be internal to the dialogue, institutional goals can be regarded as external to the dialogue.

Institutional goals of talk shows are meant to accomplish a deliberate socializing and an educational function, by influencing, reinforcing or challenging opinions, by addressing social groups, professional groups, age groups, etc., in order to bring about an increased awareness about current issues” (Ilie, 2001, p. 221)

Specific for the institutional goal-oriented discourse such as are news interviews, courtroom interrogations and public debates is, that linguistic behavior of the participants is influenced by its goals (p. 222). The fact that talk shows‟ intended frame is institutional, creates situational as well as discursive constraints which are not present in common conversational interaction (p.

222).

“Talk show is expected to take place in a particular setting [...] while addressing a multiple audience, and discursively to comply with several talk- related restrictions: time restrictions, speaker-selection restrictions, and turn- taking restrictions (p. 222). Similar boundaries apply to the act of greeting and introduction. Some alternations might include greeting the audience followed by introduction of oneself whilst another possibility may consist of keynote guest introduction by means of whom to preface the announcement of the topic (p.

223). On the other side, we could also focus on the act of closing the show. Ilie

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(2001) claims that the most common “way to end a talk show is to thank the guests and the audience, sometimes also to sum up the major points” (p.223).

However, one should remember that beginnings and closings are not the only parts of a talk show structure that are usually being institutionalized. The enormous growth of the whole media business, resulted in more frequent commercial break. They are especially lucrative during the broadcast of several programs with high television ratings. Because of the high volume of commercial brakes, the range of phrases used for introducing them is quite limited.

It is not to be forgotten that intertextuality subdivides not only according to the types of discourse included, but also according to the way various discourses are intertwined together. “The alternation of texts or discourse types within a text/discourse, i.e. 'sequential intertextuality'; the containment of one text or discourse type within the matrix of another, i.e. 'embedded intertextuality'; and the merging of texts or discourse types into a more complex and less easily separable way, i.e. 'mixed intertextuality'“ (Ilie, 2001, p.

224). The semi-institutional character of talk show discourse is characterized primarily by its interdiscursivity (p. 225).

4.3 Topic and Turn-taking

In case of regular conversation, if the participants respect the rules of turn-taking the interaction flows quite effortlessly. The structure of any genre within media discourse is dependent on discourse acts that contribute to the flow of conversation because they “do not take part in isolation but as a part of

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chains of action in which individual acts are shaped in the light of the preceding or succeeding acts, [as in] questions set up implications for answers, jokes anticipate laughter, headlines introduce bulletins” (Montgomery, 2007, p. 24).

Although the conversational topic shifts are quite unpredictable in ordinary conversation, in talk show, their topic schedule is more or less predetermined, but not exactly timed (Ilie, 2001, p. 225). This could be indicated as one of the elementary responsibilities of a talk show host.

Coordination of time frame assigned to a specific show is expected of the host.

“Since the talk show is a time-limited speech event, the major discussion topics are pre-established, introduced and controlled by the show host” (Ilie, 2001, p.

226). Host is not the only one who could initiate a turn in the topic. There are also situation when the guest is able to initiate a change in the topic, hence the authority of the host is not unwavering. There are several ways in which rule- governed types of interaction are seen to exhibit instances of talk-control (Ilie,

2001, p. 227). “Linguistically, interruptions and repetitions are recurring features of oral interaction and they may acquire different functions in conversational and in institutional dialogue” (p. 227). Interruptions are more salient for the hosts. Guests are rarely inclined to jump into a middle of a sentence, as it is the host‟s task to unsettle the guests in order to make the program more interesting for the audience. However, a host sometimes

“interrupts the show guests due to time and/or agenda constraints, but also for argumentative purposes” (Ilie, 2001, p. 228). Phrases suggesting interruptions might be metadiscursive, which for example states „if I may interrupt‟. Another possibility is to choose discursive signalization by making use of repetitions.

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„Self-repetition‟ is a repetition of one‟s own words. Obviously, if there is a self- repetition, there is also „allo-repetition‟ which is related to the interlocutor‟s words (p. 229). One might associate the term interruption strictly with a negative meaning, as in interrupt to reestablish direction of the talk or to cut the participant of in order to maintain the prescribed time restrictions. Yet the interruptions may occur so as to support and encourage the speaking process of a participant. Therefore scholars distinguish between “'participatory listenership' (showing acknowledgement and acceptance of the interlocutor's phrase), on the one hand, and 'ratifying listenership' on the other” (Ilie, 2001, p. 229).

4.4 Roles of Talk Show Participants

As talk show is considered to be a participatory discourse genre, the guests experts included in the production of each episode are highly diversified and the combination of roles they perform is enormous. They conform to the definitions of two general groups: non-institutional and institutional roles. The point is, the participants do not need to abandon their non-institutional (real- life) roles in order to conform to the institutional ones (Ilie, 2001, p. 230).

Some authors prefer the term social instead of real-life roles. They are significant for the overall outcome of a talk show conversation because they

“include socio-cultural identities, status, beliefs, etc., and they are distinct from

[the] institutional roles as show host, show guest, audience member” (Ilie,

2001, p. 231). We could look upon it as the “deconstruction and reconstruction of the participants' complex identities as social individuals, as representatives of

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a certain profession, and - not least - as show protagonists” (p.231). There are even circumstances where the combination of both types of roles is purposefully needed for the goals of the show itself, or it might be specific to the particular guest or topic discussed. The aim is “for the audience to get an insight into different sides of the real-life personalities” (p. 232). The host orchestrates “their own, as well as the participants' role shifts, often by means of changing the referential focus of deictic elements, such as personal pronouns and pragmatic expressions” (Ilie, 2001, p. 233). What one needs to remember in relation to participant roles is, that “whereas the guests, experts, etc., assume the roles that are institutionally assigned to them, the hosts assume roles that are not institutionally assigned to them, such as expert or audience member” (p. 234).

4.5 Interlocutor-oriented, Message-oriented and

Multiple Audience Oriented Talk

In talk shows the ongoing talk is on display, its purpose is to reach and make an impact on a broad and heterogeneous audience. Ilie (2001) argues, that talk shows have various types of audiences. “The directly addressed audience (guests, experts), the on-looking audience (in the studio), and an overhearing audience (TV viewers)” (p. 235). Than obviously, the members of the “studio audience represent the present audience, [...] they form part of the multiple audience that includes the non-present audience such as the TV viewers (p. 235).

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At the beginnings of talk show broadcasting, the genre itself was personality-centered, it was a conversation between the host and a guest, usually a celebrity. At first, the role of audience used to be only complementary, to be manifested solely through applause and laughter (p. 285). Audience contribution to television talk can be studied on five levels. By providing applause and laughter, the audience functions as „audible public‟. Visible but inarticulate public is one that is cast into a role of spectator. When it is made into an object of ridicule, the public is presented as real people. Edited public is used for on-the-spot interviews. At last, the audience may function as active, participating protagonist in a talk show (Livingstone & Lunt, 2002, p. 38).

Later, it evolved into the audience discussion, which is “format of either the classic debate or the therapy session” (Martinez, 2003, p. 285).

Repeating an utterance already spoken with different personal pronouns can be used to signal a shift in target audience, “from addressing a particular interlocutor, in this case an audience member, to addressing the whole audience of the talk show by reporting the interlocutor's utterance” (Ilie, 2001, p. 236). Ilie (2001) calls this position change an „addressee-shifting repetition‟

(p. 236). Moreover, the author introduces a „message-retargeting repetition‟.

The idea is that the talk monitor “receives a question that actually concerns another interlocutor […] and chooses to repeat the question by addressing it to the originally intended addressee (Ilie, 2001, p. 237).

During an interview, the host uses a whole range of questions to keep the conversation flowing. What‟s more, during the phase of introducing a guest or the whole topic of the particular show, the host often chooses to propose a

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few general questions he/she intends to explore. Those questions are rhetorical because their purpose is to suggest an idea and fix the attention of an audience. Hence they are „non-answer-eliciting questions‟. “They are normally meant to shape arguments and influence public opinion, their strength is reinforced by the fact that they are message-oriented, audience-oriented and interlocutor-oriented at the same time” (Ilie, 2001, p. 240). A special type of these are „expository questions‟, which do fulfill institutional functions (p. 237).

“They are typically posed by show hosts and are message- and audience- oriented, rather than interlocutor-oriented” (p. 240). “Each talk show bears the imprint of its own host's personality, interests and commitments (p. 242).

Whether the focus is on self-introduction, audience participation or style of addressing.

4.6 Closings

The act of closing a conversation is as much an important part of a talk show structure as an opening. It is usually given by the producers of a show, what kind of information is needed to be provided. These requirements are usually similar in all sorts of broadcast interviews with various intensity of institutionalized features. Martinez claims that it cannot be sufficient to terminate a conversation simply by finishing the talking, resolving in silence.

The closing must be spoken in a matter that all the participants are able to understand. It is possible to initiate the closing process with a pre-closing phrase, which “consists minimally of an exchange of passing turns, it is often extensive, containing turns that enact arrangements for future actions, re-

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invoke materials talked about earlier, and/or express well-wishes for future activities and/or thanks” (Martinez, 2003, p. 284).

Naturally, closings are a phenomenon of ordinary conversation as well, however, currently linguists seem to be more interested in the analysis of news interview. “Analysis and description of speaking practices have concentrated on this televised genre” (Martinez, 2003, p. 284). The problem in question was, whether closings of news interviews and talk shows share some similarities.

Martinez (2003) suggests the talk show interview closing “bears specific generic imprints determined by the goals, structure, style, content, and intended audience shaping the particular broadcast event which are absent from news interview closings” (p. 284).

Clayman & Heritage (2002) in their research on conversation termination suggest usage of particular words that indicate conversation closing. They observe, that ordinary conversation and interviews are often closed in similar manner. The authors point out the frequent usage of boundary markers such as

„well‟ and „all right‟. They often precede a new question and thus beginning another topic. “While they do not specifically project termination as the next action to be pursued, these items lay the groundwork for it nonetheless by closing down the prior line of talk and marking what is to follow as a new departure” (p. 79).

After the pre-closing component, the interviewer immediately launches a terminal component, because there is no anticipation of interviewee‟s reaction.

“Final element usually consists of a simple thanksgiving act addressed at the interviewee” (p. 286). However, some problems may occur during the closing

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act. Whether it is news interview or talk show does not matter, they are both time restricted, depending on a preset timeframe. Therefore it is possible the host will interrupt the speaker midsentence or before finishing the thought. To avoid such “potentially disruptive practice of cutting interviewees off, and yet still exercise some control over the final answering turn [the host may consider] indicating in advance that time is short” (Clayman & Herotage, 2002, p. 86).

“Terminal component of talk show interviews appears to be similar to that of news interviews” (Martinez, 2003, p. 288). The difference is that it functions in a more complicated, complex structure. Unlike in case of news interview, there is almost always an audience present during a talk show.

Therefore the host has the possibility to manipulate it in order to reach their goal. It is for instance possible to “terminate a speech event with a thank you” followed by a full name of the guest. The issuance of the guest‟s full name in this manner functions as an applause-eliciting device (Martinez, 2003, p. 288).

However, such act might have another meaning in case of news interview.

“Utterance of the interviewee‟s full name, sometimes accompanied by his/her title, [may] serve as reiterated identificatory information” (Martinez, 2003, p.

288).

Applause is used to express a whole range of emotions, yet as a part of closing act, the intent is to express thanks for the most part. Martinez (2003) researched that 63 percent of the interviewees returned the thanksgiving to the interviewer, while the response is overwhelmingly verbal, optionally reinforced with a nod towards the host as well as the audience (p. 289). Much like in news interview, the prefacing element precedes the final one. The pre-closing section

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is quite complex. “Consequently, the boundary marker does not normally appear as the sole pre-closing device [yet] the section frequently includes further elements, such as well-wishes, invitations to future shows, interpersonal tokens related to the interaction, references to prior talk, and even brief re- openings” (Martinez, 2003, p. 290). The term re-opening sequence might suggest that the connotation is retrospective to the interview. However, it relates to the next point on the program‟s agenda, ergo it serves to introduce the next performance in a collaborative, instead of unilateral, fashion (Martinez,

2003, p. 292).

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5. Description of the Methods

The main intention of the thesis is to investigate the aspects of talk show discourse between daytime and late night talk shows and consequently determine the intensity of their spontaneous behavior and conversation. The thesis tries to find answers to research questions such as these:

1) Is there a difference in politeness between daytime and late night

shows?

2) Do the hosts have a tendency to be informal and intimate?

3) Are both types of talk show interactive with the audience?

4) Is the structure of openings/closings and advertisements

introductions institutionalized and unchanging?

5) Do late night talk shows incorporate more features of spontaneity and

familiarity than daytime talk shows?

The initial assumption of the thesis that the role of a host is no longer solely the one of an interviewer. As opposed to news interviews, where the focus is on the interviewee and high-quality questions entirely, the talk show interviews are growing more and more loose, informal, personal and interactive. Even though talk shows have always had the purpose to entertain and the outline is still prewritten, the amount of unscripted speech and spontaneity is growing.

The analyses uses some concepts which can be found in conversational analysis (CA), such as topic organization, turn-taking, adjacency pairs and storytelling. As a whole, the study is a qualitative research of spontaneity

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directed at several aspects of interactional conversation and talk show discourse.

5.1 Corpora Description

The subject of the analysis are episodes from four different American talk shows, which have been given priority because they are relatively new, they are fresh and popular among the audiences. There was also the argument of accomplishing study on other shows than the usual ones (The Oprah Winfrey

Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson). I have selected these episodes, because they have all been aired the same day, March 12th 2015, apart from the episode from The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon (March 5th 2015) since no episode was aired March 12th. Nevertheless, they were aired within a few days radius. The reason why they are all American shows is that it was not my intent to complicate the study because of cultural or linguistic differences between North America and United Kingdom. The relevant distinction for the thesis is that two of the selected shows can be characterized as daytime and two as late night shows. There are two types of talks shows incorporated as I aim to investigate the contemporary tendencies of talk shows, hence it is possible to find out, whether they are evolving in the same direction.

Accordingly, the corpus of this study is quite small, hence insufficient for any generalizations possibly drown from the conclusions. Because of that, the study employs in qualitative rather than quantitative research which makes use of approaches such as observation and description of some characteristics.

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5.1.1 Brief Introduction of the Hosts and Talk Show Concepts in

Focus

The daytime talk shows used in this study are The Talk and The Ellen

Show while the late night shows are called Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The

Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. This chapter provides a short characterization of the programs as well as their hosts. Transcriptions of the particular episodes are available in the appendixes.

The first one presented is The Talk aired since October 2010 on CBS every Weekday at 2pm ET 1pm PT/CT. The concept is similar to the one adapted by The View created by journalist Barbara Walters, which has been on air since 1997. There are several hosts around the table discussing the latest news. Sometimes s host is alternated for a guest (usually a celebrity) who functions as a guest host for the particular episode. Apart from that, other hosts are invited to join the discussion. Presently, the hosts include Sara Gilbert who is also a creator of The Talk, Julie Chen, who adapts the role of a moderator, Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler and Sheryl Underwood. The episode‟s guests were actor Thomas Lennon, actress Elizabeth Hurly and Fall

Out Boy.

The other daytime talk show included in the analysis is The Ellen

DeGeneres Show featuring comedienne Ellen DeGeneres as the host. It has been on air since 2003. News episodes are broadcasted every Weekday at

4pm. Ellen‟s acting and comedic qualities contribute to her characteristic style of presenting and so making the show continuously popular. The Show has

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won 38 Daytime Emmy Awards and 14 People‟s Choice Awards so far. Ellen‟s

guests were the cast of TV show Glee and singer Ne-Yo.

First representative of late night shows is Jimmy Kimmel Live! which is

on air since 2003 as well. It airs every Weeknight at 11:35 ET on ABC. The

show is an hour long and contrary to what the title suggests it is not aired live.

Episodes are recorded early in the evening the same day. On March 12th

Kimmel‟s guests were president of the United States Barack Obama and actor

Sean Penn.

The last talk show discussed here is The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy

Fallon. It is another one of NBC‟s shows which is on every Weeknight at

11:35/10:35c. Interestingly enough, Jimmy Fallon is not the original host of the

show. He took it after Jay Leno in 2014. The tradition of this particular show

dates back to 1954 when the concept of any talk show as we know it today

was only at the starting line. Just like Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon started

his career as a comedian and actor which resulted into incorporation of games,

sketches and comedic monologues into the framework of the show. Guests of

the Tonight Show were actor Hugh Jackman, actress Tiffani Thiessen and

singer/songwriter Hozier.

6. Studio Setting Description

Following chapter provides an insight into the visual frame of the shows.

The way each studio is constructed and situated. Special attention is given to the atmosphere and emotions studios themselves evoke in guests as well as in audiences.

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6.1 The Talk

First of the selected daytime shows is The Talk. The studio is constructed as one big open space similar to living room, with shelves and decorations along the walls to enhance this concept. There is also a library situated in the background, together with the imitation of French windows. The whole stage is decorated by high structured columns lighted with yellow and red. These is however not a standard decoration. The stage slightly changes for each episode depending on a type of guests. This particular episode ended with a musical segment which is why the stage had a rock theme with a stage incorporated from the beginning. The unchanging item of the stage is an oval dining table set closely to the audience. There are five chairs originally, intended for the hosts who all face the audience. Apart from the stage being colorful, dynamic and cheerful it is used to suggest and at the same time enhance the episode‟s topics. Positioning of the basic item on the stage, the table, creates the illusion of a hostess who welcomes you (the audience) into her home to sit down for a coffee and chat with friends about some news of the day. The use of a carpet is a clever detail to create homey atmosphere. The audience is taken as one of the women around the table. Also, the hosts come out onto the stage from behind a white glass double-door as if just from room in the house. A peculiar fact is that the members of the audience are usually dressed in a variety of single bright colored clothes, which raises the question whether the producers make it a rule or if the audience initiate it itself.

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6.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show

In case of Ellen, not only the stage, but also the logo, graphics and every matched into the same tones of blue and white. The stage is in light colors, it has a lot of green plants, orchids and wooden installations resulting into something like an open terrace illusion. An open space with palms on the background scree, typical for California. The center of the set consists of two white armchairs for the host and the guest. They face slightly towards each other, so that the guest, host and the audience are all included in the ongoing conversation. The back wall functions as a monitor which is widely used during the interview, so that there is not always the need to use separate picture on the viewer‟s TV screen. Apart from that there are many other screens incorporated in the set.

As opposed to The Talk, Ellen‟s musical guest perform on a part of set which is normally hidden behind an enormous rolling doors which Ellen uses for entrance. However, both shows include an empty floor space used for segments other than interview. Ellen also uses an on-stage DJ for the music inputs.

6.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The first thing one observes after looking at the set of Jimmy Kimmel

Live is the dim lighting and dark colors, whether it is the black floor, dark blue light panels, dark grey curtains of the host‟s entrance area, dark wood of the seating area and other panels, or the shot of night time Los Angeles in the background. The show has a constant live band which is always present on the

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right side of the stage. Jimmy Kimmel as a host has a „sidekick‟ who e.g. helps him with some of the comedic monologues. As opposed to daytime shows mentioned above, the style of clothing is more elegant resulting in the show having the air of elegant event.

The seating area consists of grey sofa which is in one line with massive office desk. Kimmel uses black leather office chair that supports his superior position in the interaction, because he sits visibly higher than his guests.

6.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The setting of Fallon‟s show is also rather dim using dark colors and materials, black glossy floor, dark wood paneling of the walls and elevated areas. The only colored element are the blue curtains covering the entrance.

The studio is quite small and intimate. A house band referred to as The Roots crew is part of the show and constant stage occupant, as well as Kimmel‟s sidekick and announcer Steve Higgins. The band is on the right side of the stage and the interviewing area is on the left, while the host and guests make entrance through the middle. There is an empty stage left for the sketches, games, music performances etc.

On top of a picture of New York City landscape, there is a miniature of it carved into wood behind the seating area. Fallon sits behind a wooden panel that is not a desk exactly. For the guests there is a grey armchair and sofa. All three pieces form a curve.

7. Aspects of Structure

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7.1 Chronological Structure of the Episodes

TT TEDS JKL TTSSJF Welcoming Announcement Announcement Announcement introduction Comments & Opening Opening Opening discussion on monologue monologue monologue topic n. 1 Comments & Comments on Lie witness discussion on Music pass-over the current news news topic n. 2 Comments & Contest in a Introducing discussion on Mean tweets supermarket p. 1 topics discussion topic n. 3 Comments & discussion on Interview Interview n. 1 # hashtags topic n. 4 Cards against Interview n. 1 Interview n. 2 Interview n. 1 humanity Musical Musical beers Interview n. 2 performance host Closing lines game n. 2 Musical Class Interview n. 2 performance superlatives Musical Contest in the Closing lines performance-host supermarket p. 2 n. 3 Closing lines Closing lines

Table above chronologically summarizes all segments that appear in the episodes respectively. It demonstrates that all shows except TT start with a voiceover announcement during the initial graphics, providing information about the name of the show, its host, guests for the particular episode as well as city from where the program is broadcasted. In case of TEDS we even see parts of the episode suggesting the show is not broadcasted in real time.

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Than the „plot‟ moves to brief welcoming and thanking the audience which follow up with hosts‟ monologues (TEDS, JKL, and TTSSJF). The late night shows are based on current events, whereas ED incorporates her wife and constructs the monologue around more general topic of wasting too much time on television.

After observing the body of selected episodes, we can see they have various tactics as to how to attract viewers‟ interest. TEDS and TTSSJF prefer to mix up the interactive games with actual interviews and so change the pace.

The episode of JK‟s show may be a specific example because of Barack

Obama‟s visit. Nevertheless, Kimmel presents the two segments before the interview itself. Both segments are pre-recorded, which is another sign of recording in advance. TT conducts yet another order. Here the current events are not presented via humorous monologue, yet the hosts themselves discuss the issues and provide personal opinions as well. The interviews come afterwards, right before the final segment. We can see that all talk shows incorporate a musical performance, ED and JF at the end, ED in the middle of the show and JK does not have such segment broadcasted even though it was planned, because the time is devoted to Obama.

7.1.1 Announcements

This chapter takes a look at the manner in which the guests of a particular episode are introduced as well as the opening lines of the hosts.

Extract 1:

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[VO] Glee is coming to an end but today the cast is coming to Ellen.

[Did you steal anything from the set? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

What did you take? Jane Lynch] Secrets will be revealed. [Most

likely to live on a nudist colony. Most likely to be arrested] Plus

Ne-Yo performs. And attention shoppers! Ellen‟s giving away

thousands. [That‟s the spirit. Don‟t give up.] All starting right now.

Here she is now, Ellen DeGeneres.

Extract 2:

[DB] From Hollywood. It‟s Jimmy Kimmel Live. Tonight: President

Barack Obama and Sean Penn with Cleto and the Cletones. And

now, take it easy, here Jimmy Kimmel.

Extract 3:

[SH] From Studio 6B in Rockefeller Centre in the heart of New York City

it‟s The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Tonight joined Jimmy

as guests Hugh Jackman, Tiffani Thiessen, Hozier and legendary

The Roots crew [two two four Chicago]. And now, here he is,

Jimmy Fallon.

The announcements from extract 2 and 3 are intended for distant and present audience as well, because while the viewer at home sees the graphics, people in the studio can see the announcer. The purpose of these lines is to get and hold audience‟s attention. The announcements seem to be institutionalized parts of talk show speech. The reason why TT does not engage in such practices may be the fact that there are multiple hosts each day, consequently the announcing segment might be too long.

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7.1.2 Opening Lines

Extract 4:

[JC] Hello everyone and welcome to The Talk. Joining us at the table is

the funny and charming star from the hit CBS show The Odd

Couple Thomas Lennon. Welcome, welcome.

As observed in the section above, there are some institutionally determined parts of talk show speech such as welcoming and thanking. These lines do not represent any spontaneous activity and since the vocabulary for expressing gratitude is quite limited, they are a quite common practice.

7.1.3 Closings

Extract 5:

[JC] Before we say goodbye we wanna thank Thomas Lennon for co-

hosting with us today and be sure to watch him tonight on The

Odd Couple at 8:30 right here on CBS. Now closing out the show

with their hit My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark which you

can see in its entirety on thetalk.com, put your hands in the air

and give it up for Fall Out Boy.

Extract 6:

[ED] I wanna thank Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkowitz, Chord

Overstreet, Darren Criss, Ne-Yo, Juicy-J. See you guys tomorrow.

Extract 7:

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[JK] It was very good to see you. Thank you for coming. Movie‟s called

the Gunman, go see it, March 20th. Sean Penn everybody. Thanks

Sean, thanks to president Obama, Nightline is next, thanks for

watching, goodnight.

Extract 8:

[JF] My guests were Hugh Jackman, Tiffani Thiessen, Chris

Hemsworth, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnen, Bobby Moynihan, Hozier

and The Roof right there ladies and gentleman. Stay tuned for

Late Night with Seth Meyers. Thank you for watching, have a

great night. I hope to see you tomorrow. Bye-bye everybody.

The common features of closing lines include thanking to every guest of the episode combined with the promotional purposes for the following program or for the following episode. The extracts show tendency to construct simple sentences with the intention to be as time-saving as possible. Hosts are aware of the time frame restrictions and they try to use minimal amount of words.

They do not construct complicated polite and formal sentences, as usually the final lines coincide with the music and captions playing on the screen. For example Ellen‟s closing line is barely comprehensible. However, in the first example from TT the speech is relaxed and polite, it is evidently different. Fact is, that farewell speech is offered before the musical performance, hence the risk of finishing mid-sentence is not that high.

7.1.4 Commercial Breaks

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From the examples below, it is obvious that the phrase „we‟ll be right back‟ is used in the majority of commercial break introductions in the pertaining corpus.

Fallon also used another phrase (extract 12): „Tiffani Thiessen will join us after the break‟. He might have chosen this formulation not to be so definite, so that he could add the information about Thiessen being in the green room. „We‟ll be right back‟ sounds finite and does not allow the other participants to contribute before the break.

Extract 9:

[JC] Much much more from the gorgeous Elizabeth Hurley when we

come right back.

Elizabeth Hurley everybody, The Royals premiers this Sunday

night 10 o‟clock on E. We‟ll be right back.

Extract 10:

[ED] All right, we‟re gonna take a break. We‟re gonna find out how well

you know each other and and what you think of each other after

this.

That‟s how you play that game and we‟ll be right back everybody.

The name of the CD is Non-fiction, everyone in the audience will

get their copy. We‟ll be right back.

You can catch the last two episodes of Glee this Friday on FOX.

We‟ll be right back everybody.

Extract 11:

[JK] Will be right back with the president of the United States

The president of the United States is here. We‟ll be right back.

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Barack Obama is here. We‟ll be right back.

We‟ll be right back with Sean Penn.

Sean Penn is with us, his movie‟s called The Gunman. We‟ll be

right back.

Extract 12:

[JF] Stick around, we‟ll be right back with you, jackpot.

Eh, more of Hugh Jackman, we come back in a minute, Chappie.

Tiffani Thiessen will join us after the break, till then she‟s in the x-

box green room.

Yeah, pick up his tough title on EP stores right now, we‟ll be right

back everybody.

7.2 Topic Structure of the Shows

7.2.1 The Talk: Thomas Lennon, Elisabeth Hurley, Fall Out Boy

Thomas Lennon was invited to The Talk with the purpose to promote his new series The Odd Couple. But interestingly enough, he as a co-host for the day does not comment on the TV show at all. The advertising is taken care of by the moderator Julie Chen during Lennon‟s introduction. After that the attention moves to the news of the week, starting with Pharrell Williams facing another lawsuit because of his song, this time connected to the megahit

„Happy‟. The following discussion gradually moves to the idea of show business rip offs in general. They also take notice of the Gaye family and gay people sounding the same, yet it is not further developed as Julie Chen continues to the second news topic prepared, which is the relationship between the

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Kardashians and Bruce Jenner. After the break, The Odd Couple is promoted again by playing a clip from that night‟s episode. The third suggested topic, about paparazzi harassing children of celebrities is picked up again after another segment as part of the interview with Elizabeth Hurley. Although, there is a short change of focus to Tina Knowles figure. Apparently only Lennon as a guest host makes digressions from the prepared topic-line, which judging by the hosts‟ reactions seem spontaneous, yet he has a notes-card before him.

Therefore one might speculate whether the others are acquainted with his comments beforehand or not.

Extract 13:

[TL] I think there is an elephant in the room that we‟re not addressing

which is that Tina Knowles‟ boobs look amazing. They look

slammin‟.

The episode moves to the problem of swatting (falsely reporting an ongoing critical incident) introduced by Big Boy, a radio host. After discussing the paparazzi, Underwood starts about Osbourne‟s wedding gift to Hurley. Than they discuss the nude scene in Austin Powers movie, $80.000 paid for her kiss and Hugh Grant. Even though Hurly does not answer the question exactly, the topic stays unchanged. Another break is followed by several questions connected to the show The Royals and the eight-year period when she did not work. The last interview with Fall Out Boy precedes their performance and concentrates on their success, children and their songs being played during sports games.

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7.2.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show: cast of Glee, Ne-Yo

Ellen stars the show with comedic monologue about people watching TV shows on Netflix, followed by second one based on Hilary Clinton‟s using her personal email address for government business, and the third one about March being the month of women‟s history. She than introduces the contest which starts in Target supermarket after the break. Main interview of the episode is with the cast of Glee who discuss shooting the last episode of the show, their dead co-star Cory Monteith, Lea Michele‟s new project, and if they stole something from the set. Than the show proceeds to Cards Against Humanity game and Ne-Yo‟s performance. There is actually no interview with him. Ellen only promotes his new album. Afterwards the cast of Glee plays Class

Superlatives game and there is another segment of Target competition. To sum up, nor the guests neither Ellen tried to change the topic, propose another one or somehow stray from the scripted ones. However, the problem that occurs is that the cast of Glee has a tendency to forget about the host and contribute too long as an answer to one question.

7.2.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live: Barack Obama, Sean Penn

Kimmel centers his whole initial monologue on President Obama visiting the show (republicans, TV show Scandal, security, fundraising). Kimmel‟s usual segment Lie Witness News where people in the streets are asked about made up current events focused on Obama as well as the segment called Mean

Tweets. The interview with Obama follow up on the Twitter topic and the latest

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smart phone technology. Accordingly, they also brush up on the Clinton email address incident.

Extract 14:

[JK] Do you have Hilary Clinton‟s new email address?

[BO] Eh I can‟t share it with you, but I don‟t think she‟d want you to

have it frankly.

[JK] She specifically mentioned that she did not want me to have it?

[BO] She specifically said. She said you know what? You‟re going on

Kimmel, if he asks for the email address… No way.

The focus of the interview moves to Obama‟s daughters, his speech and opinions on future of civil rights and the Ferguson incident. After the break, the conversation returns to lighter topics such as Area 51, Obama‟s domestic habits, things he cannot do, even the absurdity of receipt length. After another commercial, the light topics are once again switched for a serious one such as the voting habits of US citizens that, with the host‟s help, evolves into discussion about Student Aid Bill of Rights. Continuing in the alternating manner, the talk skips to Penn‟s movie The Fast Times at Richmond High,

South by Southwest Festival and Obama‟s relationship with Kanye West.

The second interview is with Sean Penn who discusses background checks, Tom Cruise‟s first time in LA, double date with Mike Tyson, his movie

The Fast Times at Richmond High and the new movie Gunman. Here Penn manages to shift the focus from his muscular figure to reality show The

Bachelor. The interview ends with comments about a film The Last Face he directed.

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7.2.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Hugh Jackman,

Tiffani Thiessen, Hozier

As in examples above, Jimmy Fallon similarly starts with an entertaining monologue based on current events. He demonstrates his point not verbally but on top of that he acts certain parts out too. The segment covers weather,

Obama Care, Hilary Clinton being a president, Kardashian as guest editor of

People magazine, cooperation between Russia and China, contact lances‟ technology, airlines being green. In the following part of the show Kimmel and his announcer Higgins talk about the upcoming guests, making jokes with serious looks on their faces. One of the regular games on games on The

Tonight Show is to set a topic (#topic) for the viewers to tweet about and that day‟s episode‟s topic is #SpringBreakRaps, which the band transforms into music. At this point Kimmel stalls for a while, making jokes about the singer enthusiasm and the Twitter names, making an unscripted insertion.

Extract 15:

[JF] Tariq can you help me with this one?

[Ta] Ehm, absolutely.

[JF] Thanks buddy. He se, he seems psyched about it.

[SH] He‟s ready to go.

[JF] I don‟t know whose glasses he wore to work but it‟s not eh. I can

see I can see his eyes rolling behind it whenever, when they „I

really I‟d love to help you. Yeah (rolls eyes)‟. (winks) He‟s got

those new contact lenses. „This sounds like a, this sounds like a

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great bit Jimmy I‟d love to do it‟ (wink). Are you zooming in?

„Yeah, yeah that‟s right. I‟m zooming in. (wink)‟

Hugh Jackman‟s interview starts with a promo of his new movies

Chappie and Pan. After warm welcoming the conversation turns to cigars after

Fallon shows Jackman‟s magazine cover photo and later he incorporates a funny story about Schwarzenegger and cigars. Than he needs to stop himself to get back to Chappie discussing costar Sigourney Weaver and Hugh‟s haircut which shifts them away to Hugh‟s wife for a while. After Fallon proposes to wear mullet wigs, they cannot continue in serious manner, they get into a series of jokes and comments in between laughing, even though they try to continue with the interview. Next part of the episode consists of the game

Musical Beers during which the mullet‟s jokes prevail. The talk with Tiffani

Thiessen focuses on her kids at first, than Kimmel brings up their Saved by the

Bell sketch on Saturday Night Live. The main topic, Thiessen‟s new cooking show is suggested by Kimmel as well, although she does ask Fallon if he cooks and he contributes in a few sentences. The last guest is introduced by Fallon, yet there is not an actual conversation between him and Hozier.

8. Aspects of Talk Structure and Interaction

8.1 Scripted vs. Unscripted Questions

This chapter focuses on types of questions occurring in studied talk shows. There is no doubt that majority of questions here is scripted.

Nevertheless, it is the unscripted ones that are interesting for the purposes of this thesis. Which of the shows and which hosts are more flexible in this area?

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8.1.1 The Talk

In the daytime talk show TT, almost all he questions are thoroughly prepared in advance. The whole episode consists of scripted questions, hence the conversation takes place within strict boundaries. Each question needs to have a context provided.

Extract 16:

[JC] Do you think Pharrell‟s song Happy is a Marvin Gaye rip off?

[JC] Do you think confronting paparazzi is a good tactic?

[JC] What was it like shooting that scene?

[TL] Were you surprised to have such a huge part waiting for you?

[JC] Pete, how about for you? Because you have a six month old ant

home and a six year old.

Here are some examples of questions that do not request any information per se. They are meant to entertain and interestingly enough they are produced by the guest host and one example comes from Underwood. The humorous aspect is enhanced by the pauses they make afterwards, waiting for the audience to comprehend the jokes.

Extract 17:

[TL] Who gets custody of the naked models and the goat? Does the

Gaye estate get that?

[TL] This is the first footage I‟ve ever seen from the Kardashians. Is it

always that thrilling?

[SU] I just wanna know how the hell they found Lil Wayne address.

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8.1.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Ellen asks prepared questions (extract 18) as well, although a lot of them is part the second game the cast has to play.

Extract 18:

[ED] How long ago did you shoot the last one?

And so have you seen each other since then?

Did you steal anything from the set that you wanted to hold on

to?

One of the specifics of Ellen‟s interviewing style is, that she sometimes expresses herself incoherently and it take her some time to formulate the question correctly. It results in occurrence of prepared questions which seem incoherent and sudden.

Extract 19:

[ED] So how was the last one, was it was it … was it sa- well it had to

be sad.

[ED] Who‟s been here, who‟s been. I‟m sorry because it feels like

everybody has been there since the beginning. Who‟s been…

As opposed to the hosts in TT, Ellen incorporates some additional questions that build on previous answers that seem worth developing further.

Extract 20:

[ED] But then there‟s gonna be time when you‟re not gonna see each

other and that‟s gonna be tough. Right?

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[ED] I‟m sorry, I‟m going back to Carrot Top. When was Carrot Top on

…

8.1.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Interviews conducted by Kimmel provide material for demonstrating difference between personal questions and questions related to person‟s profession or work. Conversation with Obama took up considerable portion of the episode. Kimmel creates segments marked with commercial breaks. He converts between personal oriented questions (Extract 21) and work-related ones (Extract 22).

Extract 21:

[JK] Do you ever physically tweet yourself or does somebody do that

for you?

Do you have Hilary Clinton‟s new email address?

Can you run down to the kitchen in your underpants in the middle

of the night if you‟re hungry?

You‟re allowed to go to the refrigerator on your own?

Do you reset the clocks with daylight saving time?

He (Tom Cruise) said when he flew to LA for the first time, you

picked him up at the airport.

Extract 22:

[JK] You have Student Aid Bill of Rights that‟s something you‟re

passionate about because it wasn‟t so long ago that you were still

paying off your loans.

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[JK] Hey, you just directed a movie, Charlize is in it and your son

Harper is in it as well. Was that a fun thing for you?

Kimmel‟s less strict concept of the show provides him support during the process of turn-taking, when he asks unscripted questions based on the replies of the participants.

Extract 23:

[JK] She specifically mentioned she did not want me to have it?

When was the last time you actually cooked?

Is that because you don‟t have a birth certificate?

Did you talk to the President at all?

Lucille Ball was living there at the time?

Is that something that you encountered frequently?

8.1.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The Tonight Show provided the possibility to search for the questions, where the roles of interviewer and interviewee are reversed. In certain situations, the guest is able to take on the questioning, which is demonstrated by questions in extract 24.

Extract 24:

[JF] Do you smoke cigars?

Was it just the two of you?

Did you ever rock a mullet?

Do you cook at all?

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In like manner as Ellen, Fallon tends to interview in an enthusiastic, energetic, dynamic way. Apart from scripted questions, he uses unfinished sentences. Even if that is not his intent, his guests feel comfortable enough to jump in or finish his sentences for him.

Extract 25:

[JF] Did you get good feedback from what we did this…

How comfortable you are…

There‟s chocolate, peanut butter, how do y-

Then there are utterances, where the inquiry is suggested by a pause or unfinished statement. Or we can also mention informative sentences, which if noted by the guest function as questions as well.

Extract 26:

[JF] I gotta say love Chappie, congratz on this, that‟s the guy who did

Division…

To do anything with Sigourney Weaver is the best.

It‟s the first time that robot has AI that could be smarter than

human.

You did a barbeque rub and you did and the souse…

8.2 Turn-taking & Interaction

The pattern of a conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee seems to be obeyed in the interactions studied here. Greetings are automatically reciprocated. We can observe a range of different expression fulfilling such role. It starts with a simple Welcome, welcome/Thank you very

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much exchange. Hurley is welcomed verbally as well (Welcome,

Welcome/Thank you), however during her entering the stage she hugs every host and so the verbal welcoming stays brief and the interviewer starts with the questions instantly. In case of the performing artist, two members of Fall Out

Boy stand prepared next to two of the hosts. Greetings between them are skipped in favor of introduction to the audience and particular questions.

Ellen hugs her guests as a part of welcoming ritual as well, but uses much less formal expression Hi y‟all/Hi. Example of Kimmel‟s talk show indicate that he does adopt a varied approach. To greet the President of the United

States, he gets up to walk towards the guest, they shake hands and Obama touches Kimmel‟s back first, to what he responds with touching Obama‟s hand.

After sitting down, they start by praising the band. On the other hand, Penn‟s greeting is more verbal as Kimmel only stands up during the entrance, not even a handshake takes place.

Extract 36:

[JK] Thanks for coming. Thanks for sliding over for the president

tonight. I appreciate it.

[SP] Yeah. He prepared me for the …

Fallon greets with Jackman in a manly, what seems more familiar, manner by taking each other‟s hands, bumping into each other and taping on shoulder. Than they continue with informal expressions you can see in Extract

17. Fallon even uses an expression „my man‟.

Extract 37:

[HJ] It‟s good to see you.

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[JF] Great to see you. [HJ: It‟s good to see you too.] Thank you for

coming back buddy.

[HJ] How is everything?

In contrast the host is more restrained with Thiessen, he helps her up the stairs, kisses her on a cheek and they hug. There are no further pleasantries, they dive right into a conversation about her pregnancy.

Apart from responding to greetings, the principles of conversation include honoring the question-answer reciprocity and the positions of interviewer-interviewee. Although sometimes the guest is able to step into the role of interviewer. We can observe such transformation only in the late night shows selected. Not every question oriented on the host can be considered a reversal of roles. In fact, we see this phenomenon only once on Kimmel.

Obama enquired about the seating right away.

Extract 38:

[BO] How come you‟re so much higher than me?

Fallon‟s conversations are generally executed in looser manner. Corpus at hand insinuates that interviews on Kimmel are carried out as ordinary conversations between friends. Jackman assumes the role of interviewer when

Kimmel shares the story of how he smoked cigar with Schwarzenegger and also when they‟re equally contributing on mullets. Thiessen takes on the role for a little while by asking if Kimmel cooks at all.

Extract 39:

[HJ] Oh you‟re really meant to lick it?

Was it just the two of you?

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Did you ever rocked a mullet? For real?

8.3 Laughter

Reacting with a laughter is another mark of acknowledging the conversation, the listener provides a feedback on a joke or simple comment.

The speaker is assured that both participants understand each other. Laughter is a potent tool for making the conversation flow. At this point, there is a question of who starts the laugh, do the participants cooperate and they engage in spontaneous laughter?

8.3.1 The Talk

Examples of Hurley‟s stories manifest her tendency to tell the point of a joke and afterwards wait for a while to learn, whether the audience cooperates and only then react herself.

Extract 40:

[EH] I‟m gonna hit them if they come near you…

[EH] You are very kind and you and your family gave us a big bull for

my farm (.) [Hhhhh] to go with our lovely lady cows.

[EH] …did the whole scene with like big scarlet stickers (.)

[TL] Why such bargain basement prices? (.)

[EH] And Elton went „Get up!‟ (.) [H: Ha ha ha] Ha ha ha

8.3.2 The Ellen DeGeneres Show

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Through the main part of the interview Ellen uses photos to help with the audience‟s imagination and to kick-start the laughter. Basically, that is the reason for playing various games, to get the show some drive. The games are obviously interactive oriented on humor. Since there are five guests present at one, some parts of the interaction are not understandable and at the same time, the actors tend to slip into their own conversation. Suddenly, the host is just another observer.

8.3.3 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

After the comment about Blackberry, Kimmel picks up on audience‟s laughter and Obama says with a smile: The one old guy there, look at him, which is answered by another laugh of applause from audience and host as well. Another practice is to ask with the intent of question itself being funny.

Extract 42:

[JK] Do you have Hilary Clinton‟s new email address?

Obama suggests comment that is meant to be humorous as well, its funny aspect highlighted with wide smile towards the end of the sentence.

Extract 43:

[BO] It was unlikely that I was gonna be President.

In extract 44, after getting a positive reaction on the first joke, Obama utters several more in order to prolong the amusement.

Extract 44:

[BO] That‟s why you will not be the President. [JK: hhhhhh] That‟s a

first thing that you would do. [JK: hhhhhh] Heh heh. The aliens

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won‟t let it happen. [JK: hhhhhh] You‟d reveal all their secrets.

They exercise strict control over us.

Hosts can ask questions for the sole purpose of inserting a joke they have prepared in advance, expecting people in the audience to laugh. Kimmel‟s assumption is realized in the pause he makes after Maybe ehm to provide time to comprehend the line is supposed to be a joke. He waits for the response and just than laughs himself.

Extract 45:

[JK] Did they make you do a background check as well?

[SP] I, I would assume so.

[JK] Yeah, well. Well the fact that you‟re here maybe no. Maybe ehm

(.) Heh heh

8.3.4 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Extract 46:

[HJ] I‟m Australian, they just let us in.

[JF] Hah, hah. That likable.

Extract 47:

[JF] And he goes: stop licking the cigar (German accent) [HJ: hah hah]

and I go, I didn‟t really hear what he was saying [HJ: hah hah], I

thought it was like … like he was commenting on [HJ: hah hah]

how I know something.

Extract 48:

[HJ] I‟m sorry if anyone here has dyed their hair.

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[JF] Yeah, you won‟t have a shot with his wife. Ha ha hah

[HJ] Hhhhhh

Jackman and Fallon burst into spontaneous laughter after they see each other in the mullet wigs. Although the stimuli is non-verbal, it fulfills its obviously intended humorous task perfectly well since very time they look at each other a new wave of laughter begins.

Extract 49:

[TTh] Is he ready yet, is he ready? Like it‟s a cake (.) [JF: heh hh] ha h.

In Thiessen‟s interview it is possible to notice pause after an utterance waiting for Fallon and the audience to respond. Only then does she engage in loud laughter.

8.4 Interruptions

On The Talk nor hosts neither guests interrupt each other, but they tend to wait until the thought is finished and then ask next question.

On Ellen, mostly the inconsiderate guests. She needs to interrupt in order to stop the conversation because of its length.

Extract 50:

[ED] Why wouldn‟t you want those shorts [cast: not understandable].

Those are fantastic [cast: not understandable] all right [CO: No

one else could fit them.] Well, they‟re adorable. All right, we‟re

gonna take a break.

[ED] …and you‟ll write down the answer [LM: Don‟t look at mine] and if

you all agree, we‟ll see.

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Kimmel interrupts Obama mostly during those parts of interview which are not aimed at serious topics. Otherwise he jumps in with comments and jokes.

Extract 51:

[BO] They‟re doing all the stuff teenagers are doing. Ehm…

[JK] Oh, boy.

[BO] Yeah [JK: Heh heh]

The example above demonstrates an interruption where the conversation continues in direction it has before. However, extract 52 shows a situation that pressures the speaker to disrupt his thoughts to pay attention the host.

Extract 52:

[BO] African-American‟s were being stopped disproportionally mainly so

the city could raise money, even though these were unjust and

eh…

[JK] I can‟t imagine how frustrating that must be. I mean, I get crazy

and I‟m not joking about park- , when I get like like parking

tickets and I feel unjust.

Fallon and Jackman interrupt each other constantly. Dynamics of that conversation are very informal. Based on the interaction as well as non-verbal behavior of the participants, the audience inevitably observes that they probably have closer relationship outside the environment of a talk show and it manifests on the atmosphere of their conversation.

Extract 54:

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[JF] This is not [HJ: Heh heh], this is not, this is not for a role, this is

real life right here yeah. I love it [HJ: Debb] You could

[HJ] I just gave her… Debb, here I love you here‟s my picture. [JF:

yeah] That was [JF: Did your wife like your new mullet?] year of

the mullet.

9. Aspects of Intimacy and Politeness

9.1 Addressing System

In every show studied, the host has a habit of addressing the guests by their full names (Thomas, Lennon, Elizabeth Hurley, Sean Penn etc.) when talking to the audience. On the other hand when addressing them directly, use of first name only is preferred (Elizabeth, Hugh). Since Ellen interviews five members of the Glee cast at once, instead of speaking to each of them individually, she says Hi y‟all.

Barack Obama is the only non-celebrity guest. He is being addressed as

President Barack Obama, President of the United States, President of the United

States number 44 Barack Obama, the President, President Obama, while only once has he been called Barack Obama without no title at all.

Another practice is to provide more information about the guest prior to his/her coming to the stage. So in the means of referencing, hosts tend to mention awards and other accomplishments of the celebrity guests since to be labelled as actor/singer/etc. does not seem to be sufficient. It helps the audience to realize various levels of professionalism and success achieved by the person.

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Extract 55: Examples of Guest Addressing

[SO] model and style icon

one of the most successful rock bands of the last decade

[ED] three time Grammy Award winning R&B superstar

[JK] might very well be the best actor there is. He‟s a two-time Oscar

winner and legitimate humanitarian

[JF] an Academy Award nominated actor

Grammy nominated performer

In a way of formal introduction or presentation of guests to audience,

Jimmy Fallon uses the phrase Ladies and Gentlemen several times. It is used by

Julie Chen in The Talk once, but with the intent to draw attention to the subject at hand. Otherwise when talking directly to the audience as a unit, each host frequently uses everybody or everyone. They even decide to choose more familiar address you guys.

Extract 56:

[ED] See you guys tomorrow.

[JK] You guys who are here in the studio now.

[JF] You guys I hope everyone in the audience is comfortable…

9.2 Compliments

There are essentially no compliments in the selected episode of Ellen‟s show which is quite strange as she is usually very expressive and warm about her feelings towards her guests. Perhaps that should ensure the viewer she is

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not blindly giving compliments to anyone. Or another possibility might be that she is generally nice but excludes the people she really does not appreciate.

Obama compliments the band for the song: „Sweet Home in Chicago‟, and he says „I do love his music‟. It‟s terrific.‟ About Kanye West later in the interview. Fallon incorporates compliments very casually and quite often into his speech.

Extract 57:

[JF] That‟s the best idea I‟ve ever heard

That‟s all we want, we want Hugh Jackman, that‟s what we want.

I love your new show. Not only the title is genius…

It‟s brilliant, I wish I thought of it

That‟s how you do it right there buddy, awesome.

9.3 Private Life Stories

Hurley provides information about her son, wedding present form

Sharon, her best friend and ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant, childhood games with her brother and the time off she took to raise her son. We can also see their photo on set of The Royals.

Extract 58:

[EH] And I remember one day, we were leaving the house and he was

tiny and he picked up an umbrella from the umbrella stand and it

wasn‟t raining. And I said darling it‟s not raining, he said I‟m

gonna hit them if they come near you.

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[EH] …you and your family gave us a big bull for my farm … to go in

with our lovely lady cows and eh I‟m afraid … we called him Ozzy

[SO: Yes, exactly] and he‟s not around but his progeny is, so the

sons and daughters of Ozzy live on.

The conversation with Fall Out Boy is considerably shorter. Nevertheless, one of the four questions required photos and comments about their children.

Ellen often mentions her wife Portia in the show and the episode in this study is no exception. Both monologue segments at the beginning build on their private life. Obviously one cannot take it as truth word by word, still Ellen‟s private and work life are tangled.

Extract 59:

[ED] So the other day, Portia and I sat down to watch one episode of

House of Cards…

The cast of Glee stays on the topic of their last shooting day, insofar that personal lives stay untouched except for the remark that Lea and Jenna did yoga together the day before.

President Obama is asked about his children and social media. Even though it can be considered a personal topic, he answers in a vague manner revealing nothing substantial. Kimmel asks a series of personal, but at the same time general questions about everyday life to which Obama adopts similar attitude. On the other hand he elaborates with a short story on his prohibition to drive.

Extract 60:

63

[BO] Actually, the last time I drove a former staffer came by, and and

he comes through the South lawn and he‟s got eh … one of these

eh new electric cars. At the time, there were new. [JK: Yeah] And

eh and he was very excited about it. I said wha-, hey let‟s try it

out. So I … I just grabbed his keys and we just go out, it‟s parked

right in front and I start circling the South lawn. And the Secret

Service … they‟re „No matter what you do, do not let him out‟. And

they, they, they were pretty upset.

Sean Penn, the second guest on Jimmy Kimmel, is more forthcoming with personal experience and tells a story about how he took Tom Cruise to see

Lucille Ball‟s house and one about him, Mike Tyson and their wives going to the cinema. Although it needs to be pointed out that none of the stories is initiated by Penn himself as they have already been shared with the public by the other participants. The only new things we learn are that Penn watches The Bachelor and that his son can fly a helicopter, but in all fairness those pieces of information cannot be called stories.

Extract 61:

[SP] … and by the he got to South Africa, he flew us to set.

Extract 62:

[HJ] Literally there, there is something about I was every time I get

into elevator, just because you could, I‟m like „I‟m lighting it up …

in the elevator, yeah‟ and then everyone‟s like „cool dude‟,

awesome.

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As an extension to Jackman‟s story, Kimmel shares one about him and

Schwarzenegger at a cigar room in New York, though he ends it with a comment: And then I never saw him again. Maybe it was a dream, maybe it was a dream, which is confusing yet he leaves the thought open and does not contribute any more.

Extract 63:

[TTh] Yeah, the first name that she came up with, because she knew it

was a boy, was was Spiderman. [JF: There you go] We said, you

know. [Consider it.] It‟s a good name and I‟m sure daddy would

actually probably be okay with it, but I think we‟ll think of

something else.

10. Conclusion

The aim of this thesis is to study the discourse of talk show interaction in order to determine the similarities and differences in daytime and late night talk show discourse in respect to tendencies of participants to encounter in spontaneous and intimate/familiar talk. Accordingly, the analysis was performed on two daytime (The Talk, The Ellen DeGeneres Show) and two late night

(Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) shows.

At the end of the thesis, I would like to embrace the conclusions of the analysis and try provide an answer to the research questions introduced at the beginning of the study.

Is there a difference in politeness between daytime and late night

shows?

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The analysis suggests that politeness concerning opening lines, closings, greetings and addressing system is not different between the two types of talk shows. None of the shows indicated a highly polite or formal approach, their speech is polite, but at the same time informal, with first-name-basis addressing and frequent expressing of gratitude towards guests.

Do the hosts have a tendency to be informal and intimate?

In case of daytime talk shows, there is a difference between The Talk, which in comparison with The Ellen DeGeneres Show is considerably more formal. The formality here is demonstrated by strict following of scripted questions, relatively stative setting, and shortage of interactivity. At the same time the topics discussed with the guest are mostly personal, which however may be because of a close personal relationship between the guest and one of the hosts.

On the other hand, the late night shows are informal because of its unrestricted conversations and entertainment games. Informality can be also connected to the fact that late night shows do not try to provide a serious answer to contemporary problems and events.

Are both types of talk show interactive with the audience?

Based on the corpus at hand, the answer would be that late night shows are more inclined to be interactive with guests and daytime with audience, which is present in the studio. Otherwise, thanks to the social networks, the non-present audience is incorporated into various segments of both types of talk shows.

Is the structure of openings/closings and advertisements introductions

institutionalized and unchanging?

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Opening lines, closings and introduction of commercial breaks can be considered as the institutionalized features of talk show discourse. Analyzed episodes suggested usage of these phrases in habitual manner, while delivering the same kind of information.

Do late night talk shows incorporate more features of spontaneity and

familiarity than daytime talk shows?

Based on the observations made in this thesis, I would have to conclude that late night talk shows manifest more spontaneous and informal talk than daytime talk shows. However, at the same time, samples of daytime talk shows are extensively different. The study even suggest, that The Ellen DeGeneres

Show has a number of features otherwise attributed to late night shows in focus.

Even though, this thesis cannot be used as a basis for generalized conclusions, it is safe to say, that spontaneity in talk shows is pre-scripted considerably more than it may have originally seemed.

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Summary

The diploma thesis concentrates on aspects of talk show discourse. The goal is to investigate aspects connected with spontaneity and intimacy of speech in selected contemporary talk shows.

The analysis focuses on contemporary talk shows broadcasted in North

America. Corpus of the thesis consists of four episodes of four different talk shows. The Talk and The Ellen DeGeneres Show represent daytime talk shows, whereas Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon are defined as late night talk shows.

At first I concentrate on theoretical background to the terms media discourse, spoken discourse and conversation analysis. Then I continue to

Chapter 3 and 4 which aim to characterize concept of talk show and its two varieties mentioned above. The introduction and description of corpora is included in Chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Next two chapters contain the aspects of structure and interaction as well as aspects of intimacy and politeness which are the focus of the thesis.

Conclusions drawn from the analysis are part of chapter 10.

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Resumé

Tato diplomová práce je zaměřena na analýzu diskurzu diskuzních relací.

Cílem je prozkoumat aspekty řeči ve vybraných diskuzních relacích, které jsou spojeny se spontánností a intimitou řeči.

Analýza se zaměřuje na současné diskuzní relace vysílané ve Spojených

Státech Amerických. Korpus této teze se skládá ze čtyř epizod čtyř různých diskuzních relací. The Talk a The Ellen DeGeneres Show reprezentují denní diskuzní relace, zatímco Jimmy Kimmel Live a The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy

Fallon jsou definovány jako noční diskuzní relace.

V úvodu práce se zaměřuji na teoretické zázemí termínů jako je diskurz médií, hovořený diskurz a konverzační analýza. Pak teze pokračuje Kapitolami 3 a 4, kterých cílem je charakterizovat koncept diskuzní relace a její dvě variant, které byly zmíněné výše. Úvod a popis korpusu jsou uvedeny v Kapitolách 5, 6 a 7.

Další dvě kapitoly obsahují analýzu aspektů struktury a interakce, a taky aspekty intimity a slušnosti, na které je tato teze zaměřena. Výsledky analýzy jsou součástí kapitoly 10.

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Appendix 1: List of Symbols and Abbreviations

TT The Talk

TEDS The Ellen DeGeneres Show

JKL Jimmy Kimmel Live!

TTSSJF The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

VO voiceover

DB Dicky Barret

SH Steve Higgins

JC Julie Chen

SO Sharon Osbourne

SU Sheryl Underwood

AT Aisha Tyler

TL Thomas Lennon

EH Elizabeth Hurley

ED Ellen DeGeneres

LM Lea Michele

JU Jenna Ushkowitz

CC Chris Colfer

DC Darren Criss

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CO Chord Overstreet

JK Jimmy Kimmel

BO Barack Obama

SP Sean Penn

JF Jimmy Fallon

HJ Hugh Jackman

TTh Tiffani Thiessen

() Non-verbal

[] Interrupted speech, simultaneous speech

„‟ Direct speech in transcriptions

(.) Pause in speech

… Unfinished sentence or thought

Sou- Word suddenly cut off

Huh, Heh, Hih Laughter

Hhhhhh Continuous laugh

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