Next: About this document ... Up: Manual of The Budapest Previous: The itemised data in

Subsections

The conversation modules

The use of conversation modules

A conversation module is a discussion of a series of questions revolving around a particular topic such as bringing up children, one's purpose in life etc. (see Labov 1984:33)

The Budapest Sociolinguistic Interview contains a whole rangewide repertoire of conversation modules from which field workers were trained to choose those that suited the informant's interest best. Some of the modules were obligatory to use and in some cases field workers were instructed to stick to even the wording used to introduce the given modules. The sequence of the modules was not set. Field workers were instructed to make natural flowing conversation. In particular, they were trained to use 'tangential shifts' in the topics, avoiding the impression that they were working their way down a list of particular topics. The interview usually opens with a warming up chat about the informant's background, then proceeds to a series of card based tasks sprinkled with conversations, if necessary, for relaxation. After all the tasks are completed, the interview ends with guided conversation. The overall length of the quided conversations was required to be at least thirty minutes.

Personal background (bio)

All the questions below were obligatory to raise:

1.: Where were you born? Have you lived here throughout your life? (If not, where did you live and how long?)
2.: Where were your parents born? Did they always live there? If not, where else and how long?
3.: Where was your spouse born? Did s/he always live there? If not, where else and how long?
4.: What's your occupation? Have you always had this job? If not, what else and when?
5.: Your parents' occupation? If too numerous to list, when did they have what job?
6.: Where exactly are we now? What's your address? (The question is used to elicit data for the nyolc kerület - nyolcadik kerület 'eight district - eighth district' variation). If the interview takes place in a multifloor building the particular floor must also be asked to elicit data for the öt emelet - ötödik emelet 'five floor - fifth floor' variable.

Instruction to field workers:

If it turns out that the informant is an in-migrant, a commuter or have lived in the countryside for an extended period, the language module must be administered with particular care.

Games (ját)

1.: What was your favourite game in your childhood? How can one play that? What were the rules?
2.: What do children play these days?
3.: Can you recall a nursery rhyme?
4.: Do you play any games these days? Do you play cards, parlour games, chess?

Childhood (gye)

What was your childhood like?

Fights, scuffles (ver)

1.: As a child, you must have had a brawl sometimes. Can you recall a case when you had to fight for something?
2.: Did you ever hit a man/woman? Why?
3.: Do girls fight over here?
4.: What is a fair fight and what is a mean one?
5.: Have you ever been beaten up unjustly? What happened?
6.: Have you ever beaten up somebody unjustly? What happened?

Dating (sze)

1.: How did you used to date in your days? How do you do it nowadays?
2.: How do youngsters these days court? Do they court at all?

Marriage (ház)

1.: How did you meet your spouse?
2.: How did you get married?
3.: What was the wedding like?
4.: What makes a good marriage?
5.: Why do you think so many couples get divorced nowadays?

Danger of death (hal) xx

Was there ever a moment in your life when it seemed that your life was in serious danger or that you might be seriously injured? When you thought ``That's it. Curtains''.
[If yes] What happened?

Fear of death (fél)

Surely, there were incidents in your life where something or somebody must have frightened you. What happened?

Dreams (álm)

1.: Can you recall a nice dream you had?
2.: And a nightmare?

Family (csa)

1.: Tell me about your family.
2.: And what about the family you were born in?

Religion (val) xx

When were you last asked what religion you had? What did you say? Is it important that somebody is religious or not? Why?

Friendship (bar)

1.: Tell me about your friends.
2.: What makes a good friendship?
3.: What makes a friendhip go bad?
4.: Has it ever happened that a good friend of yours turned out to be not so?

Street crime (bûn)

1.: Public security is continually worsening. What do you think is the reason for this
2.: What would you do if you were the police?
3.: There are no brothels in Hungary but there is prostitution on the street and in hotels. Is this all right? Why?

School (isk)

1.: Did you like school when you were a child? Why?
2.: Many people say that kids don't learn even to read and write at school these days. Earlier they used to. Why?

Jobs, employment (mun) xx

1.: A lot of companies go bust nowadays. The bankruptcy is caused by the bad managers, yet it is the workers who get the sack. Is this right?
2.: Women are often paid less in the same position doing the same job as men. Why is this so?

Abortion (abo) xx

In Czechoslovakia women need no permit to have an abortion if they do not want to have a child. In Hungary, this is subject to a licence, therefore a woman can't freely decide whether to have a child or not. Which solution do you sympathise with, the Czechoslovakian or the Hungarian? Why?

Nuclear plants (ato)

Are nuclear plants needed? Why?

Leisure time (szi) xx

1.: How much leisure time do you have?
2.: What do you do in your free time?
3.: Ten years ago did you have less free time or more?
4.: What did you do then?

Jokes (hum)

Do you like jokes? (If yes) Can you tell one you heard recently and think it's good?
Alternatively: Please tell me the joke that you consider the best you ever heard.

Ethnic minorities (etn) xx

1.: Very many people think that the Gipsies are doing too well in Hungary. Are they right?
2.: Suppose you are to hire unskilled labourers and of the two candidates, who have equal qualifications, one is a Gipsy the other is Swabian, which one would you take on?
3.: Do you know what CMÖ stands for? (If the answer is ``no'': Cigánymentes övezet `Gipsy-free area'.) This abbreviation is often sprayed on bridges or walls of houses in Budapest, e.g. on Highway 3 there is a large graffiti. What do you think of this?

Language (nye)

1.: Did your teachers at school consider nice Hungarian speech important?
2.: What rules did they stress often?
3.: (For in-migrants or commuters) When you moved/started commuting to Budapest did you get commments about your accent from locals? What did they say? Were they right? Why?
4.: Where do people speak nice Hungarian? Why?
5.: (For informants who lived in the country for a long stretch of time) When you lived in the country did you get comments from locals like you speak in a funny way? Once a schoolgirl from Budapest moved to Debrecen and their classmates told her she was putting on airs. Has anything like this happened to you? What exactly?
6.: What's the language used in Pest like? And that of the countryside?
7.: xx Who do you think speak nice Hungarian of the following people?
8.: (For in-migrants/commuters): Do you know words that you brought from home and locals here don't know or have learnt from you? Can you tell me some?
9.: xx Has it ever happened that you were addressed with the formal/informal term of address (te vs. maga ) and this was not right? What happened? Why was this not right?
10.: Have you got any book on language or linguistics?
11.: Have you got any dictionary? Bilingual dictionary? Which one? Do you use/read them?
12.: Do you listen to or watch the programmes on language cultivation on the radio and television?

Informant's choice

Is there anything that I have not asked you about but you would have liked to talk about?

References

Labov, William. 1984. Field Methods of the Project on Linguistic Change and Variation. In: Baugh, John and Joel Sherzer, eds., Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics , 28-53. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Next: About this document ... Up: Manual of The Budapest Previous: The itemised data in

Tamás Váradi

3/4/1998