Unmasking the gossipy chat: Co-operativeness in all-female conversations

Abstract

The idea of co-operativeness in conversations where people work together to produce shared meanings has become highly recognized in the literature on women’s language. In a conversation, women are seen to collaborate in the production of text, making the talk dialogic and not monologic. This paper looks into the usual features of all-female conversations to find out if women co-operate in the conversational floor. More specifically, the paper identifies aspects of interactional patterns such as topic development, interruptions, overlaps and minimal responses which may confirm co-operativeness in women talk. The paper includes three all-female conversations of college students, teachers