In everyday conversations, we relay more information than can be obtained from just the words we use alone. The speed at which we speak, the volume of our voices, the tone and pitch that we use, and the amount of pauses and interruptions we have during conversation all change the meaning of what we say, when used in context. We also use these conversational devices to add extra meaning to what we say.  I had a chance to record two of my friends in a casual conversation, and then interpret the meaning and results of this conversation afterwards.  The two people engaged in the conversation were Damien Schultz and Christine McMahon. They live on the same dorm floor, and met at the beginning of this quarter.  They are both from the Los Angeles area, but Christine was born in Scotland, lived in Holland, then moved to her current residence in the United States at an early age. Damien, on the other hand, has lived in, Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Los Angeles.  From my experiences, Damien is a very outgoing person who is easy to engage in conversation. He is very friendly and personable.  Christine is also very friendly and personable. She is slightly physically challenged, and has trouble walking and holding things. This challenge, however, has not made her more shy than usual, but has, instead, made her more outgoing. Nevertheless, in the conversation that I observed, Damien seemed to be slightly more dominant than Christine was. The conversation was held in Damien’s room, and it was a casual, friendly conversation. Both participants did not know they were being taped until after the conversation had occurred.
Even though he didn’t initiate a lot of the topics, Damien seemed to control the way the conversation flowed around them. He seemed to interrupt a lot more than Christine did. There was a point where Christine was wrong about something, and he had to correct her. This act established his dominant position in that area of the conversation: he was right, she was wrong. This example is transcribed as follows:
C: “You going home for Thanksgiving?”
D:                                                              “Uhhhh… No! (patronizing)You know what I’m

C:                                                                                  | “OH YEAH! (slightly embarrassed)”
D: doing.. I’m driving  you (emphasis) to the airport, ^  then I’m going to meet my parents when

C:                                                                       “Oh yeah. I forgot. You’re my taxi!  (humorously)
D: they fly in, and we’re driving up to Oregon.”

Damien uses tone and intonation to demonstrate that Christine has made a mistake. Christine, on the other hand uses the tone of her voice to display embarrassment, and then covers that embarrassment by making a joke.
Damien also interrupted quite a bit more than Christine did. This next example demonstrates Damien’s interruption pattern:
C: “Cool… I think I’ve been through there before.. I can’t remem^”
D:                                                                                                      | “Yeah, Ashland’s like…. the

C:                                                  “Yeah. Ashland’s fairly..^”
D: scene I (emphasis) always remembered.”                        | “Cool”.

Damien doesn’t let her finish her sentences, and once, he doesn’t even let her finish her word. This pattern of interruption clearly shows who’s dominant in this situation. We learn from this conversation that Damien is the person who knows what he is talking about. Furthermore, we find that Christine is the person is uncertain about the topic.  Since Christine does not object to Damien’s interruptions at all, we know that she defers to him on that particular topic, and recognizes his dominant position in the conversation.
Another interesting feature of this conversation is both people’s lack of use of minimal responses.  They do use words such as “yeah” and “cool” in their dialogue, but never by themselves. These words are always added to whole sentences. For example:
D: “Yeah. My dad went to U of O.. He liked it there.”                                                 “Yeah. It
C:                                                                                 “Cool.. Oregon’s a nice place.”

D: is….. You ready to go?”
C:                                         “Yeah… Help me up, will you?”

Instead of simply using “yeah” and “cool” by themselves as answers, they use them to start off anew idea, or finish an old one.  The failure to use minimal responses also shows that they wish to display interest in what the other person is talking about. This, however, does not necessarily mean that they really are interested in the topic currently being discussed. In this example, Damien say’s, “Yeah It is…..You ready to go?” Obviously Damien was more interested in something other than the current topic of conversation. He used his response “yeah” to show that he was listening to Christine, but then, after a pause, introduced a new topic.
The speed and volume at which we say things can betray how we feel about the topic. An example of this is:
C: “I gotta study for this STUPID midterm I have tomorrow, you?”
D:                                                                                                         “Yeah, I KNOW! It seems

C:
D: that suddenly I have exams in the worst possible classes!…”

Damien displays that he is upset about his exams by changing the rate at which he usually speaks. Since he is nervous about that topic, this rate increases as talks about it. Similarly, when Christine wishes to show her disgust for the midterm she has coming up, she raises the volume of her voice to emphasize the word “stupid”.  Reversibly, when they have different emotions towards a certain subject, they will reduce, or otherwise change, the volume and speed of their voice to portray that emotion.
The conversation that observed was set in a casual situation among to friends who both had similar natures.  However, even in this setting, it was easy for me to observe some conversational devices at work, and some dominance games. The speed at which they spoke, the volume, tone, and pitch of their voices, and the amount of pauses and interruptions in their conversation, all helped me to understand what they really meant, and how they felt about certain areas of the conversation. In general, I feel that these conversational devices come into play in most conversations, and can be used to find a deeper meaning past just the words that were used.