Identifying the Register Demolishing Hierarchy in American Discourse through Transition Relevance Place: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Abstract

In discourse, Transition Relevance Place (TRP), which transpires when the speaker changes in turn-taking, indicates numerous issues about participants' relationships, intentions, and roles in that conversation. For example, silence has the power to signal various concerns, ranging from comfort to awkwardness. Overlapping might mean cooperation or challenge depending on the context. Besides, etiquette in a conversation is scrupulously observed in formal exchanges, and interrupting the speaker is considered a severe violation of etiquette in conversations. Interlocutors tend to obey the sequences of transition in conversations, and exceptions are functional as participants of a conversation perceive them as divergent from the expected flow. In this sense, TRP is rather observable in a register regarding the possible effects it might contribute to it. As an area of sociolinguistics, register defines language use proper to a particular function in a context. Therefore, this study will argue that in an American comedy sitcom, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the interlocutors reconstruct the usual formal register by demolishing hierarchy through TRP.