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Thus, although implicitly claiming scientific rigour, the transformation of talk into text is more arbitrary and depends on factors such as the analyst's interests. As my specific interests are similar to the latter body of works cited my method of transcription will generally follow theirs (see 'Transcription Conventions' outlined in the introductory pages of this thesis). As regards the German data, these have undergone a second transformative process, that of translation. All translations were carried out by my wife Elke, a German native speaker with an excellent command of English as a second language. I have full confidence then that the propositional content of conversational turns to be as accurately represented as possible throughout. Where linguistic phenomena occur in the German data that are not readily semantically represented in English (examples might be the German doch), I will attempt to make a clear note of this. To ensure external validation, transcripts drawn from the German data are presented to the general reader in both translated and original German form. On occasion, selected episodes were omitted from the final corpus. The main reasons for this were first, the need to arrive at a corpus of a manageable size, and second my own decision to exclude data from inclusion in the thesis on what might generally be termed ethical grounds. Examples of omitted episodes included highly personal topics, ones which might lead to the identification of one or the other participant, or instances of non-dialogic talk such as extended monologue (although in this latter case a note was made of the length of monologue and participants alignments to this). These factors together with the ones outlined as part of the initial analysis procedure are outlined in table 4.3. The procedure for data collection and initial management outlined above allowed me to collate a substantial corpus of sociable conversation from each milieu. This data provided me with the necessary empirical basis on which to conduct an analysis of facework in sociable episodes as suggested in Chapter 3, and pursue the specific research questions set out at the outset of this chapter. The analytical chapters (Chapter 6 to 8) shall draw heavily on this corpus of sociable conversation. 110
Table 4.3 Data: Omissions from Analysis 1. Non-audible (e. g. low volume; additional background noise) 2. Non-transcribable (e. g. highly 'schismed') 3. Incoherent conversation (in terms of joint focus) 4. Instances of mainly task-centred talk (e. g. serving food) 5. Highly personal talk (e. g. sensitive topics; divulging personal information) Before I move on to begin my analysis - beginning with an ethnographic informed account of facework in sociable gatherings in general -I want to briefly touch on some of the contingencies of gathering such conversational data within, and whilst a bona fide participant in, sociable gatherings s in each milieu, what I have referred to elsewhere (Philburn 2003) as 'socia(b)l(e) science' 4.4 Ethical issues: Consent; Explanation, and Role Ambivalence Alongside ensuring for example the anonymity of participants and accurately representing the conversational data, there were other ethical concerns which arose during the course of my research activities. These included for example gaining informed consent, providing an explanation for my activities to participants, conducting my studies as unobtrusively as possible, and maintaining a professional standpoint vis-A-vis my role as researcher, and a sociable standpoint vis-6-vis my role as guest. Consent was an issue that was not wholly unproblematic during the data collection. At the beginning of recordings, I asked all the participants if it was alright for me to record the talk. I generally did not ask one individual but, attempting to be democratic, the whole group. My line was commonly along the lines of 'Would anybody mind if I made a recording? ', or'Macht es jemandem ill
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Thus, although implicitly claiming scientific rigour, the transformation <strong>of</strong><br />
talk into text is more arbitrary and depends on factors such as the analyst's<br />
interests. As my specific interests are similar to the latter body <strong>of</strong> works cited my<br />
method <strong>of</strong> transcription will generally follow theirs (see 'Transcription<br />
Conventions' outlined in the introductory pages <strong>of</strong> this thesis). As regards the<br />
German data, these have undergone a second transformative process, that <strong>of</strong><br />
translation. All translations were carried out by my wife Elke, a German native<br />
speaker with an excellent command <strong>of</strong> English as a second language. I have<br />
full confidence then that the propositional content <strong>of</strong> conversational turns to be<br />
as accurately represented as possible throughout. Where linguistic phenomena<br />
occur in the German data that are not readily semantically represented in<br />
English (examples might be the German doch), I will attempt to make a clear<br />
note <strong>of</strong> this. To ensure external validation, transcripts drawn from the German<br />
data are presented to the general reader in both translated and original German<br />
form.<br />
On occasion, selected episodes were omitted from the final corpus. The<br />
main reasons for this were first, the need to arrive at a corpus <strong>of</strong> a manageable<br />
size, and second my own decision to exclude data from inclusion in the thesis<br />
on what might generally be termed ethical grounds. Examples <strong>of</strong> omitted<br />
episodes included highly personal topics, ones which might lead to the<br />
identification <strong>of</strong> one or the other participant, or instances <strong>of</strong> non-dialogic talk<br />
such as extended monologue (although in this latter case a note was made <strong>of</strong><br />
the length <strong>of</strong> monologue and participants alignments to this). These factors<br />
together with the ones outlined as part <strong>of</strong> the initial analysis procedure are<br />
outlined in table 4.3.<br />
The procedure for data collection and initial management outlined above<br />
allowed me to collate a substantial corpus <strong>of</strong> sociable conversation from each<br />
milieu. This data provided me with the necessary empirical basis on which to<br />
conduct an analysis <strong>of</strong> facework in sociable episodes as suggested in Chapter<br />
3, and pursue the specific research questions set out at the outset <strong>of</strong> this<br />
chapter. The analytical chapters (Chapter 6 to 8) shall draw heavily on this<br />
corpus <strong>of</strong> sociable conversation.<br />
110