Name: Chow Po Yee

Student number: 50382362

Email: 50382362@student.cityu.edu.hk

URL: http://www.oocities.org/hk/bobo_alive/

Summary:

The reading concentrated on the analysis of properties and the underlying facts of common understanding in common conversational affairs by Harold Garfinkel.

Properties of common understanding in conversation

In the analysis of common conversations reported by his students, Garfinkel revealed the following features: the auditors can understand many matters of what was said and even what was left unspoken too; the occasionally of expressions, the specific vagueness of references, the retrospective-prospective sense of a present occurrence, waiting for something later in order to see what was meant before.

The underlying facts of common understanding in conversation

Garfinkel's main idea is that in common conversational affairs, hearers are expected to understand both what is said and what is not said by speakers. Common understandings occur through the way the speaker and the hearer communicate nonverbally. In this way, the underlying facts are that the hearers are themselves entitled to claim that they know what they are talking about while the speakers entitle others to claim that what they are saying is understandable and ought to be understood.

Reflection:

Today, my Putonghua teacher summarized up what had been taught in that lesson at the end of the lesson. When she was asking us to read out a vocabulary, I told the classmate sitting next to me “Has the teacher really taught about this vocabulary? It seemed that I haven’t learned it before.” She replied me that “Yes, she has. You must be very tired, that’s why you have missed out this vocabulary.” I think common understanding can apply to this case. In fact, she can reply that “You are not paying attention to the class, so you miss out this word.” However, she knew that I really get tired as I had told her before that I couldn’t sleep well in this few days.