A Conversational Analysis of Hausa Business and Social Interaction

Conversational Analysis research aims to analyze the interaction or talk rather than the language. The paper analyzed the floor of conversation in Hausa interactions of business dialogue. The data were collected through the observation procedure. The conversational Analysis approach proposed by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) is used to analyze the data. Conversational analysis is used because it allows the researcher(s) to analyze the collected data based on talk in social interactions. The study revealed that, in Hausa business conversation the buyer starts the turn before allowing the seller to take up the floor. Sometimes he may decide to hold the turn for a long time. In some situations the seller may have only a few things to say such as ‘Eh’, ‘To’ or ‘a’a’ (yes, okay, or no). The research found that social setting discourse has some features that differ from business conversation, such as overlap in speeches, where you can have two or more interlocutors talking at the same time or participants trying to take their turn at the same time after the previous speaker had finished or is about to finish his turn.