Transcript Analysis

A: I was the project manager and I lost money (.) but the reason I lost money (.) and I could’ve made a fortune in that shopping centre this morning [ if we’d started this morning ]

AS: [ I could’ve (.) could’ve ]

A:   [ because im good at ]

AS: could’ve yeah could’ve would’ve should’ve yeah but ye didn’t right (.)

A: no sir alan I didn’t

AS: no ye didn’t yeah (4) I think ive heard enough to make a very very difficult decision here today

B: sir alan may I say one more thing please

AS: (4) if you insist

B: I think in this whole competition if you sit back and remain quiet and under the radar (.) people assume they’re safe (.) I’ve been bold and I know I’m vocal and [ that puts me (.) that puts me in a vulnerable position]

AS: [ oh you have been bold alright don’t worry about that ] (.) trouble is ya know (.) you never back off (.) you know what im gonna tell you what im gonna do with you (.) im getting sick and tired of you denying all of this you know (.) im sick of looking at you at the moment get out that door get back to the bloody house okay (.) get back to the house yeah (.) because you gonna be the next team leader im sick of looking at ye at the moment get out that door and get back to the house

In this transcript, it is clear that AS holds the instrumental power in this exchange due to the context of the conversation, and that persons A and B refer to him as ‘Sir’. Although ‘Sir’ is usually associated with upper class and being well-spoken, AS generally uses an informal register and is very dominant in this exchange due to his instrumental power. The informal register can be seen as AS saying the words ‘you’ and ‘ya’ and ‘ye’ and words like ‘bloody’ which shows AS’s accent/dialect affecting how he speaks. This informal register is typically inappropriate for this context but as this transcript is from a TV show it may be a deliberate choice to make it more entertaining for the audience.

AS uses a lot of interruptions, which neither persons A or B try to resist due to AS’s instrumental power. From AS’s choice of words (namely “bloody”) you can infer some of the paralinguistic features such as tone or mood of AS. From the use “bloody” you can tell that AS’s tone may be raised and that he might be getting annoyed, impatient and/or angry with A and B.