it too must be used sparingly. Possible linguistic devices to signal that one is coming to
the end of what one wants to say are: pauses; a rising or falling intonation at the end
of an utterance; expressions like you know, but, so; an increase in volume and/or a drop
in pitch together with these expressions; the completion of a clause; and, of course,
expressions that make the end of a turn explicit. These last are rare because they are
considered too formal for spontaneous conversation. Non-linguistic means include
relaxing one’s body, stopping the movements of one’s hands and starting another activity,
e.g. eating, drinking or smoking. When Ss want to keep a turn they will fill their own
pauses (e.g. with a well) and leave the clauses incomplete. Ss can also use structural
pointers like first of all, then, next, finally, or to sum up, which will allow them to say
everything they have to say.
In rare cases it may be necessary to break somebody’s flow of speech and be un-
cooperative. A permissible interruption is one in which H asks S to explain something
that H has not understood, using such tokens as Excuse me, what did you say?; Would
you say that again?; Sorry, you’ve lost me; or Sorry, I missed that. On the other hand,
interrupting to correct Ss or to question the truth of what they are saying is a much more
delicate matter as it endangers the conversational standing of the Ss. Such hostile inter-
ruptions can be warded off by: using structuring remarks that show how long you intend
to speak (e.g. I would like to comment on two points; I just have a few comments); using
complex sentences; saying Let me finish; If I may just finish this; or raising one’s voice
to drown the other out.
All this may explain why conversations go on with remarkably little overlap and few
awkward silences. When overlap does occur, it is likely to be unintentional, because Hs
usually recognize when an utterance is complete. The reason for two participants speaking
at the same time often is that the current S has not selected the next S. But this situation
is quickly remedied: typically, the participant who was the first to speak continues
with his/her turn. Silences between turns are filled by questions (e.g. Didn’t you hear me)
or by repetitions on the part of the current S. The new S will use starting noises (erm,
um, mm).
The rules outlined above do not take into account, however, that meaning can be
important for the placing of utterances: ‘turns initiated with but are more likely to occur
at non-transition relevance places than turns initiated with either so or and’ (Schiffrin
1988: 268). Also ignored in this approach is the fact that overlap, and its evaluation, is
culturally determined: ‘members of some ethnic groups interpret overlap as evidence of
cooperative involvement and enthusiasm’ (ibid.). It seems therefore that a rule based
account of turn-taking needs to be supplemented by a description of the roles that are
played by social meaning.
Most turns consist of single sentences, and conversations consist minimally of two
turns. The ties between turns vary a good deal. They can be very close for what are
called adjacency pairs, which consist of two utterances successively produced by
different speakers in a fixed order. Examples of first parts of pairs are such speech acts
as complaints, greetings, invitations, offers and questions. The first part of the adjacency
pair requires a following speech act. What follows a complaint, invitation etc. will be
interpreted as a response to that first part. Thus, a move which comes after a complaint
will be understood as an apology, justification etc. Likewise, Hs will go to great lengths
to interpret the move following on an invitation as expressing acceptance or refusal.
Second parts can also be reciprocal (greetings are answered by greetings). Sometimes
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