Turn-taking in conversation

The concept of turn taking is central to Conversation Analysis।

Turn taking organizes the distribution and the flow of speech
between the two participants of interaction thereby keeping
speech continuous। Turn-taking has been described as a
process in which one participant talks, then stops and gives
the floor to another participant who starts talking, so we
obtain a distribution of talk across two participants। The time
gap between one person stopping and the other starting
being just a few fractions of a second
 From a very young age we are taught how to take turns: this
helps shape conversations for the rest of our lives 
 Turn-taking
• Efficient turn-taking also involves factors which are
not linguistic. Eye contact is one strong means of
signaling, and in British culture (in very general
terms) it can often be observed that speakers look
away during their turn and then look their
interlocutor in the eye at the end. Body position and
movement also play an important part. Intonation
and volume contribute to turn-taking too. The
relative status of the speakers, or the role which one
of them is playing, are also important
 Turn-taking
• . Turn-taking mechanisms, the way in which
speakers hold or pass the floor, vary between
cultures and between languages.
• Overlap in a given situation is more or less
tolerated in some societies than in others.
• Different cues are used in different cultures.
 Turn-taking
• Turn taking has two central aspects:
• Frequency refers to the amount of turn taking within a
conversation.  For example, a conversation between two
people has high frequency, and a lecture has low frequency
• The control of contribution refers to the amount of control
a person has over what to say and how much to say.  For
example, a letter allows the person complete control over
what is written in the letter, which is known as a free for all.
A religious ritual provides less control over what a person
can say therefore, it is seen as rule-dependent
 Adjacency pairs

• An adjacency pair is a unit of conversation that

contains an exchange of one turn each by two
speakers. The turns are functionally related to
each other in such a fashion that the first turn
requires a certain type or range of types of
second turn.
• E.g.:
– A greeting–greeting pair
– A question–answer pair
 Functions of adjacency pairs

• Adjacency pairs are used for starting and

closing a conversation
• Adjacency pairs are used for moves in
conversations
• First utterance in adjacency pair
has the function of selecting next speaker
• Adjacency pairs are used for remedial
exchanges
 Preferred and dispreferred responses

• A preferred response is acceptance and is

usually short, without hesitation or
elaboration
• A dispreferred response is refusal and is
usually performed hesitantly and elaborately.
A dispreferred is usually marked by a slight
pause or by a prefacr like ‘Well’ ‘you see’or by
an explanation or justification of the response
 Insertion sequences

Insertion sequences
• These are sequences which are inserted inside
adjacency pairs
• The topic of the insertion is usually related to the
first part of the adjacency pair
• A : Shall I wear the blue shoes?
• B: You’ve got the black ones
• A: They’re not comfortable
• B: Yeah, they’re the best then, wear
 Pre-sequence

• Sometimes, an adjacency pair is inserted

before another (related) adjacency pair, in
order to
• Set the stage E.g. Pre-announcement
• A: Did you hear the news?
• B: No, what?
• A : I’m engaged!
• B: WOW!
 Pre-sequence

• Protect the speaker E.g. Pre- invitation

• A: Are you busy tomorrow night?
• B: No, no plans.
• A: Shall we go to the movies?
• B: Sure!
 Repair

• Repair is needed when the turn taking rules

are failing to operate
• Simultaneous speech often needs repair when
two people are speaking at once
• Silence needs repair because no one is
talking.
• Self-repair:
 Repair
• Other-repair:
 Practice
• Look at the following exchanges and discuss how they appear to flout
the normal expectations of adjacency pairs.
• Can you imagine contexts which would explain these?
• A: Hello
B: Goodbye
• A: Did you go out with John last night?
B: Why are you asking?
A: Why do you think?
• A: You tea’s on the table
B: (6)
A: Did you hear what I said?
B: (4)
A: Answer me, will you
 Practice
• Short Answer Question:
• Define adjacency pair.
• Define turn-taking.
• Name some non-linguistic patterns used for turn taking.
• True/False
• The concept of turn taking is central to Conversation Analysis.
• Turn-taking mechanisms, the way in which speakers hold or
pass the floor, does not vary between cultures and between
languages.
• The topic of the insertion is usually related to the first part of
the adjacency pair