Meaning of CONVERSATION ANALYSIS:
Conversation analysis (or CA as it is often known) grew out of ethnomethodology but is now in many respects rather distant from ethnomethodological concerns. In their pioneering ethnomethodological studies Harold Garfinkel and Harvey Sacks were concerned to show how the orderliness of society is actively produced by the actions of participants. Conversations became one arena for displaying this orderliness. For example, in a regular conversation, no-one is in charge of the distribution of turns at talking. But most conversation are remarkably orderly, with little overlap and a series of “turns’ for each speaker. Somehow the orderliness of conversation is spontaneously produced by the speakers themselves.