Topical Profiling

Emergent, Co-Occurring, and Relationally Defining Topics in Talk

Bibliographic Data

ID2350100
AuthorsKathy Kellermann, N A Palomares (0000-0002-7754-6357, University of California, Santa Barbara)
Year2004
Volume23
Issue3
Pages308-337
Publication date2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0261-927X • E-ISSN: 1552-6526
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0261927x04266811
OpenAlexW2168240416
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited69

This research profiles the topics of everyday talk, pinpointing topical patterns that are emergent, co-occurring, and relationally defining. Participants reported topics of their conversations with particular types of people (e.g., parents, significant others, bosses, professors, service people, etc.). The most commonly emerging topics were those most central to participants' lives and that helped them "check in" with (i.e., update) and "check out" from (i.e., depart) others. Topics co-occurred to carry out conversational routines (e.g., starting and ending), fulfill communicative functions (e.g., informing), and achieve interpersonal agendas (e.g., comforting). Topics differed in their absolute prospects of arising within particular relational types and in their relative prospects of arising across relational types. The relational type was predictable more than 45% of the time by knowing only which topics occurred (and which did not). The profile of people's topical talk is one of patterns in the topics that arise in their lives, that co-occur in their conversations, and that define their relationships

Interpersonal communication · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology · Social Psychology