Analysing turn-taking has two sets of exercises. The first involves looking at turn construction, in particular in identifying possible completions in the talk. The second involves identifying turn allocation practices.
Identifying Points of Possible Completion
This exercise relates to Chapter 5 - ‘Turn-Taking in Conversation’.
For each turn at talk, identify whether the talk is a complete unit of talk or incomplete.
If it is incomplete, you will not be able to identify any possible completion, so just mark it as incomplete.
If the talk is a complete unit, then you will be able to identify points at which the talk is possibly complete in its context. This talk can be possibly complete in three main ways:
- Grammatically (the talk constitutes a complete grammatical unit: word, phrase, sentence)
- Intonationally (the talk is produced under a complete intonation contour)
- Pragmatically (the talk constitutes a recognisably complete action)
Note: This is audio data so there is no evidence available for non-verbal completion here.
As you work through the talk, begin by identifying the points of grammatical possible completion, bearing in mind that a turn at talk may be grammatically complete at a number of points.
Once you have identified the points of grammatical possible completion, look for the intonational possible completion. One thing to check here is which points of grammatical possible completion coincide with points of intonational possible completion, and which do not.
Finally, identify where the talk constitutes a recognisable action.
Once you have worked through this transcript, check your version against the answer sheet.
Audio File
Transcript
Answers for Self-Checking
Turn Allocation
This exercise relates to Chapter 5 - ‘Turn-Taking in Conversation’.
In these extracts, you need to determine if the turn allocation uses a ‘current speaker selects next’ strategy or if the next speaker self-selects. To do this, look first at the current speakers turn to see if there are any current speaker selects next and if so identify what these are (for example, address terms or pronouns, features of the recipient design of the turn, etc.).
Once you have worked through this transcript, check your version against the answer sheet.
Extract 1
Extract 1 Answers for Self-Checking
Extract 2
Extract 2 Answers for Self-Checking
