A Study of Topic Shift in Jimmy Kimmel Live! Talk shows

The purposes of this study are to explain the kinds and the clues of topic
shift used by Jimmy Kimmel in his talk shows. The data were analyzed by using
the theory of kinds of topic shift proposed by Stenstrom (1994) and the topic shift
clues proposed by Reichman (1978). This study was conducted by using
qualitative research design proposed by Bogdan and Biklen (2007). The data of
this study weretheutterances containing topic shift and the clue of topic shift. To
collect the data, the writer used content analysis method, which was proposed by
Kothari (2004). To analyze the data, the writer used interactive data analysis
which was proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994). The finding of this study
shows that Jimmy Kimmel uses topic shift in his dialogue. They are changing the
topic (9 data), shifting the topic (4 data), drifting the topic (3 data), digressing the
topic (1 data), and resuming the topic (5 data). In addition, the writer also finds
four of five clues of topic shift. They are clue word shift and deictic expression
(18 data), explicitly labelled shift (2 data), repetition of word (1 data), and tense
shift (1 data). But the writer is not successful to find the data of mode of reference
in this study. In general, this study supports of the previous study especially the
studies which have been conducted by Malawu (1997) and P Sharimila Bai and
Kuang Ching Hei (2011).