How closings are accomplished in talk show interviews : A comparative linguistic study

Abstract: This is a comparative linguistic essay aimed to investigate how closing sections construct social interaction in a number of talk shows, primarily The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The talk show data is analyzed by means of Conversation Analysis (CA) which considers how language performs social interaction and the structures and norms which give the frames for this. The results of the analysis are compared to the results of a study carried out in 2003 by Esperanza Rama Martinez on the same subject matter. Martinez´ study is in fact the foundation for this study. In her study Martinez concludes that the closing phase is initiated by the interviewer and that there are always pre-closing components before the closing components begin. The results of this study are in line with Martinez´ study.