Comparing Unseen
Text A is a transcript in which a conversation takes place between a female customer and a pharmacist. The female customer in this exchange is asking about her cough and the best medicine to treat her cough. In contrast, text B is similar because it is set in a shop, text B’s purpose is to entertain for a comical sketch on television for a certain audience.
In text A there is a hierarchy between the customer and pharmacist. Where the pharmacist is the one who is in charge and who is seen as the one who holds command. This can immediately be seen through the dialogue of: “good morning can I help you” Through this opening utterance the pharmacist creates a friendly rapport by saying ‘good morning’ as setting the key question to the customer ‘can I help you’. On the receiving end, is the customer who is often answering the pharmacist with simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers as the customer is seeking for professional advice, where the exchanges between the two are agreeable.
As to text B the text has been set out purposely for comical effects to entertain its target audience. The situation is a surreal exchange between the customer and the shopkeeper. Where the customer wants to make a complaint about a dead parrot that he purchased which was already dead before he purchased it. That shop keeper in response argues that the parrot is not dead but is only ‘resting’. The shopkeeper also often goes off in a tangent with absurd comments, which make no sense such as: “Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage” and “pining for the fiords”. The normal rules of Grices maxim of relevance has been flouted to create a humorous effect. The purpose of this particular text is to mostly entertain. The shopkeeper is presented as someone who has no sense of or idea on how to help the customer. This could be contrasted with Text A where one could suggest that the pharmacist is willing to help the customer and has knowledge of what he is actually talking about with the professional advice that he
In text A there is a hierarchy between the customer and pharmacist. Where the pharmacist is the one who is in charge and who is seen as the one who holds command. This can immediately be seen through the dialogue of: “good morning can I help you” Through this opening utterance the pharmacist creates a friendly rapport by saying ‘good morning’ as setting the key question to the customer ‘can I help you’. On the receiving end, is the customer who is often answering the pharmacist with simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers as the customer is seeking for professional advice, where the exchanges between the two are agreeable.
As to text B the text has been set out purposely for comical effects to entertain its target audience. The situation is a surreal exchange between the customer and the shopkeeper. Where the customer wants to make a complaint about a dead parrot that he purchased which was already dead before he purchased it. That shop keeper in response argues that the parrot is not dead but is only ‘resting’. The shopkeeper also often goes off in a tangent with absurd comments, which make no sense such as: “Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage” and “pining for the fiords”. The normal rules of Grices maxim of relevance has been flouted to create a humorous effect. The purpose of this particular text is to mostly entertain. The shopkeeper is presented as someone who has no sense of or idea on how to help the customer. This could be contrasted with Text A where one could suggest that the pharmacist is willing to help the customer and has knowledge of what he is actually talking about with the professional advice that he