314. Christy: Everybody would be just looking at it, suspicious.
315. Jeff: And they have this typesetter that's 40 grand. It fits in the words, you know how the words fit in on a paper? It fits the words in, spaces them out.
316. Tom: This bread is good.
317. Christy: Yeah.
318. Phyllis: I know, it's really good.
319. Jeff: (Pouring the last of the champagne) That's all there is left. (Loud sigh) Ahhh, too bad-d-d-d! California wines are pretty good, even better than European wines.
320. Tom: Um humm, getting more expensive, too.
321. Christy: We should have Ed do a wine tasting here.
322. Tom: Sure -- wanna get drunk?
323. Christy: You don't have to get drunk.
324. Tom: He'll bring over about five bottles of wine, tell you everything there is to know about wines.
325. Christy: We could just taste them, don't have to get drunk. (Mockingly) Us yogic people don't do such things.
326. Tom: Lie's been selling wines for a year or so. Over a year.
327. Christy: Over a year.
328. Tom: He took four years of business college, and during his last year in school took a wine tasting class and just like that decided to be a wine salesman.
329. Christy: Yeah, he was taking economics, international relations, or something
330. Tom: Yeah, he wanted to go into international relations -- a total switch.
331. Christy: Thank God he didn't, that's alt I can say! Thank God for the world
332. Tom: Oh. Jesus!
Part II - Analysis of Topic
A. Breakdown of Topic
1. Preliminaries
a. Champagne, toast, opening of gift, discussion thereof
b. Brief talk on Jeff's day, on demonstration at Capitol.
c. Talk about the food, passing of the food around table.
d. Saying of "grace" by Jeff.
2. Dinner Talk
a. Camping
(1) Talking about seafood, where they can be found on neighbor islands.
(2) Talking about camping experiences on neighbor islands.
(3) Talking about small planes.
(4) Phyllis' fear of small planes, contrasted to her brave childhood.
(5) Tom's camping experience in Hana
(6) Camping on Oahu
b. Talking about the Food
c. Politics
(1) Christy talks about the demonstration at the Capitol.
(2) Jeff tells of his talk with the Governor
(3) Tourism vs. agriculture
(4) Recent fire of sugar cane field.
e. Christy's work with Shoreline Protection group.
(1) Other people involved in that group.
f. Talking about the Food
g. Machinery and Repair
(1) Repair of washing machine in the house by Jeff and his father.
(2) Jeff's father's printing machines and their repair
h. Talking about the rood (and Wine)
(1) A mutual friend of Christy and Tom who is a wine salesman.
B. Discussion of Topics
The above outline represents a breakdown of the topics for the first thirty minutes only. Progression of topics from the first exchange to the last therefore, is not shown. Within each sub-topic of the dinner talk (i.e., "Camping", "Politics", etc.) progression to the main idea of the sub-topic is shown simply by the chronological order of the subjects.
For instance, under Camping.!, we can see that talking about the location where certain seafoods may be found on the neighbor islands, leads to 'talk about camping on the neighbor islands, neighbor islands being the pivotal point of the ideas. This then leads into talk of transport to neighbor islands (small planes), which elicits strong responses, and then back to the subject of camping again.
Durng the "Preliminaries", when the wedding celebration rituals occurred, we can see that I although the topics were standardized, i.e., a toast to the couple, discussion of the gift received, there was much spontaneity within that framework -- perhaps even more so than in the rest of the transcript. The proceedings appeared to be a type of game -- which Jeff and Dorishad definitely experienced already (they had recently had a large wedding reception, plus many other dinners in their honor). Being so familiar with the rituals, Jeff himself jokingly acts as the "master of ceremonies", and toasts himself.
23. Christy: Well...
23. Jeff: Well, shall we toast...
24. Christy: Shall we toast...
25. Jeff: ... to the newlyweds! (Imitating an announcer's voice).
And during the gift opening ritual...
45. Phyllis: . . . . Oh, it's great, thank you!
46. Jeff: Thank you, thank you!
47. Christy: You're welcome.
48. Jeff: Thank you, thank you.
C. General Laws About Talk
In the dinner talk studied, talking about food was usually initiated between topics and arguments, after pauses. Food was used as a filler, both physically and conversationally. It was a means of providing continuity to the discussion -- to keep it going until the next topic was initiated. Talking about food was also used to change the subject when arguments reached a dead end or became uncomfortable as shown by the following segments.
180. Phyllis: I'd like to do it. How about you? (To Jeff)
181. Tom: (Interjecting) . do some surfing
182. Phyllis: After you get out of work, after school.
183. Jeff: Nah, I'd rather camp on another island.
(Pause)
184. Phyllis: This salad is so delicious
21. Jeff: Tourism means jobs -- that's all they care about.
217. (Pause)
217. Christy: Yeah, but it has a lot of costs that people don't realize, a lot of costs that aren't figured in.
218. They couldn't get by without tourism.
219. Jeff: Right, we'd go right down the drain.
220. Christy: (To Tom) May I have the dressing, please?
In the first segment, Dorischanges the subject to food after an unsuccessful attempt to convince Jeff to spend a weekend camping at Makaha. In the second segment, Christy changes the subject to food, rather than pursuing the argument.