Turns and turn-constructional units

From early in its development, analytic work on conversation has to a large degree evolved around defining turns and how they are constructed. Studies have shown that there is no clear-cut definition for turns, and, in fact, finding the boundaries between two different turns is in many cases an interpretive issue. In line with Linell (1998:

159), a turn is defined in this study as “a continuous period when one speaker holds the floor, and the corresponding dialogue contribution is then those verbal and non-verbal actions taken by him during this period, designed to be part of the jointly attended discourse floor, and/or taken up as significant contributions to this floor.”

Thus, contributions which are not designed as part of the jointly attended floor and do

47 Steensig (2001: 271), in particular, has focused on what co-participants can do during the various stages in turn production.

not expand on the topic, such as the backchannels já ‘yes’ and mhm ‘uh huh,’ are typically not viewed as full-fledged turns (cf. Green-Vänttinen 2001; Sorjonen 2001:

20).

The minimal turn consists of one turn-constructional unit, referred to as a TCU (Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974: 702–3; Schegloff 1996; 55–6; Linell 1998:

159–61; Steensig 2001: 78–85). Speakers may use different types of units to construct TCUs: they can use lexical items, phrases, clauses, or sentential constructions (cf.

Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974: 702). The following excerpt has TCUs containing a sentential construction (line 1), a phrase (line 4), and a lexical item (line 6). The utterance in line 3, however, is cut off before it is completed and is thus not a complete TCU:

(4.2) RAINY SUMMER: Friends

(J = Jessica; S = Sunna)

1 S Já þa var [svo /ömurlegt] sumar [þarna °sko°.

PRT it be.3.PT [ so awful ] summer [ there PRT yes it was [ so awful ] the summer [there y’know 2 J [ ( x x x )] [°.já::°

[ ( x x x ) ] [ PRT [ ( x x x ) ] [ yes 3 S Þa var #e[::# svo-

it be.3.PT e[h so- it was e[h so

4 J [í fyrra, [in last [ last year 5 (0.2)

6 S J↓á PRT yes

At the end of a completed TCU, a speaker change becomes relevant, and a co-participant may take the floor. The moment at which a co-participant may take the floor is known as a transition relevance place, or a TRP (Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974: 703).

The turn-taking system in everyday conversations is viewed as biased towards turns consisting of only one unit (cf. Schegloff 1996: 61). Despite the tendency to use one unit turns, some TCUs are clearly designed to project multi-unit turns consisting of two or more TCUs (cf. Schegloff 1996; cf. also Houtkoop and Mazeland 1985 on

discourse units). In these instances, the first TCU is treated as a pragmatically incomplete action.

Utterances may be viewed as pragmatically complete on local and on global levels. A local pragmatic completion is described by Ford and Thompson (1996: 150) as a point “at which the speaker is projecting more talk, but at which another speaker might reasonably take a minimal turn, such as offering a continuer, display of interest, or claim of understanding.” Thus, on points of local pragmatic completion, we may anticipate some kind of recipient activity but not any claim for the floor. A global pragmatic completion, in contrast, is characterized as “not projecting anything beyond itself in the way of a longer story, account, or other agenda” (Ford and Thompson 1996: 151). Consider the following stretch of talk in which a woman is telling her friends a story around the dinner table:

(4.3) EATING WITH CHOPSTICKS: Reunion (→7.18)

(M = Magga; B = Brynhildur; G = Guðrún; V = Vala; E = Erna; L = Lína) 1 B [[e+þa:

[[ be-3+that

[[ Really

2 M [[(svo) pínlegt é var í (0.2) mat í svona kóreönskum mat um daginn→

[[ (so) embarrasing I be.1.PT in (0.2) dinner in PRT Korean dinner the other day [[ (so) embarrassing I was at a (0.2) dinner like a Korean dinner the other day

3 (0.3) 4 B j↓á:

PRT yes

5 (0.3)

6 M o’ (.) ætlaði nú aldeilis a: ekki a slá slöku við með prjónana¿

and (.) intend.1.PT NÚ certainly to not to slack VP with sticks.ACC.DEF and (.) I was NÚ certainly not going to give up using the chopsticks

7 °Ég var orðin svo klár við [a° (0.3) ] I be.3 become.PP.F so good with [ that (0.3) ] I had become so good at [it (0.3) ]

8 B [*hh j↓á↑:h*]

[ hh PRT h ] [ hh yeah h ] 9 (0.3)

10 (L) j↓á::

PRT yes

11 (0.3) 12(E) já

PRT yes

13 M o So’ var so pínlegt $So Eftir þa fundust alveg (0.6) fullt and then be.3.PT so embarrasing then after it find.PT.MV totally (0.6) lot

and then it was so embarrassing, then later we found just (0.6) lots

14 [af sona bit]um á [g/ólfinu [(held.1 ég) við] minn stól.$ *hmm = [ of PRT pie]ces on [ floor.DEF [ ( think I ) by ] my chair hmm [ of like pie]ces on [ the floor [ (I think) by ] my chair hmm 15 V [afgöngum ] [*he he he h[e

[leftovers.DAT ] [ he he he h[e [ leftovers ] [ he he he h[e

16 B [*HE HE HE HE* ]

17 M = [ he he he he he he ]hhhh .hhfff*

18 G [*e he he he he .hh*]

19 B *ehe*

The central activity in this excerpt is storytelling. Magga is telling her friends about her experience of eating with chopsticks. The story is introduced in line 2 by an utterance which is a syntactically and prosodically complete unit. On a local level, this utterance may also be viewed as pragmatically complete, and it is consequently responded to by one of the recipients with a backchannel (line 4). On the global level, however, Magga’s turn is not pragmatically complete until after she has produced the main point of the story, which is marked very clearly with her own laughter (line 14 and 17).

Multi-unit turns typically require some preparatory work from the speaker, such as story prefaces or pre-pres (see excerpt (7.16)), which occupy a TCU of their own (cf. Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974; Schegloff 1980). By producing these preporatory TCUs, the speakers show that they are seeking permission from the interlocutors to violate the general rule that a speaker has the right to produce one TCU at a time.

The section above shows that turns can vary greatly in length. They can consist of a single lexical item or complex, syntactical constructions. Despite this variation, all turns go through different stages in production. These stages will be the subject of the following section.