Article published in:
English World-Wide
Vol. 42:3 (2021) ► pp. 324–349

Dealing with trouble in conversation in English-speaking cultures

Conversational repair in global varieties of English

| University of Münster
This paper deals with the features of the system of other-initiated repair in different varieties of English, and thus in different cultural settings in which English is spoken. Corpus-based data are used to investigate whether and how repair practices, which are essential to the human communication system, vary across English-speaking cultures. The data show that while, on the whole, repair practices are very similar across different varieties, there are differences with respect to the frequency of the different formats deployed for removing trouble and differences as regards the preferred strategies for restoring and maintaining mutual understanding.
Keywords: conversation analysis, repair, conversation, World Englishes, communicative universals
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Database and method
    • 2.1Database
    • 2.2Method: Identifying instances of OIR
  • 3.Formats of other-initiated repair
  • 4.Empirical analysis of OIR formats and OIR-related interactional practices in six different varieties of English
    • 4.1Frequency of OIR formats
    • 4.2Principle of efficiency: Ratio of the trouble source and the repair sequence
    • 4.3Shared costs: The relative contributions of A and B
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00075.has
References
Anchimbe, Eric, and Richard Janney, eds
2011 Postcolonial Pragmatics. Special Issue of Journal of Pragmatics 431.Google Scholar
Barron, Anne
2017 “Variational Pragmatics”. In Anne Barron, Yueguo Gu, and Gerard Steen, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics. Abingdon: Routledge, 91–104. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, Richard, and Joel Sherzer, eds
1989 Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Herbert H., and Edward Schaefer
1987 “Collaborating on Contributions to Conversations”. Language and Cognitive Processes 21: 19–41. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark, Joe Blythe, and Tyko Dirksmeyer
2014 “Formats for Other-Initiation of Repair across Languages. An Exercise in Pragmatic Typology”. Studies in Language 381: 5–43. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark, and Nick Enfield
2015 “Other-Initiated Repair across Languages: Towards a Typology of Conversational Structures”. Open Linguistics 11: 96–118. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, Mark, Seán Roberts, Julija Baranova, Joe Blythe, Paul Drew, Simeon Floyd, Rosa S. Gisladottir, Kobin H. Kendrick, Stephen C. Levinson, Elizabeth Manrique, Giovanni Rossi, and N. J. Enfield
2015 “Universal Principles in the Repair of Communication Problems.” PLoS ONE 10(9): e0136100. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul
1997 “ ‘Open’ Class Repair Initiators in Response to Sequential Sources of Trouble in Conversation”. Journal of Pragmatics 281: 69–101. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Enfield, Nick, and Stephen C. Levinson
eds. 2006 Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition, and Human Interaction. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Flöck, Ilka, and Ronald Geluykens
2018 “Preference Organization and Cross-Cultural Variation in Request Responses: A Corpus-Based Comparison of British and American English”. Corpus Pragmatics 21: 57–82. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haakana, Markku, and Salla Kurhila
2009 “Other-Correction in Everyday Interaction: Some Comparative Aspects”. In Markku Haakana, Minna Laakso, and Jan Lindström, eds. Talk in Interaction: Comparative Dimensions. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 152–179. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj
1992 “World Englishes: Approaches, Issues and Resources”. Language Teaching 251: 1–14. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Yamuna, and Larry Smith
2008 Cultures, Contexts, and World Englishes. New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kendrick, Kobin
2015 “Other-Initiated Repair in English”. Open Linguistics 11: 164–190. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moerman, Michael
1977 “The Preference for Self-Correction in a Tai Conversational Corpus”. Language 531: 872–882. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1988 Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Gerald, Sean Wallis, and Bas Aarts
2002 Exploring Natural Language. Working with the British Component of the International Corpus of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Neumaier, Theresa
2019 “Patterns of Conversational Interaction in Varieties of English”. Ph.D. Dissertation, Universität Regensburg.
Reisman, Karl
1974 “Contrapuntal Conversations in an Antiguan Village”. In Richard Bauman, and Joel Sherzer, eds. Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 110–123.Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey
2006 “Managing Trouble Responsibility and Relationships during Conversational Repair”. Communication Monographs 731: 137–161. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 “Epistemics, Action Formation, and Other-Initiation of Repair: The Case of partial Questioning Repeats”. In Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond, and Jack Sidnell, eds. Conversational Repair and Human Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 261–292.Google Scholar
Robinson, Jeffrey, and Heidi Kevoe-Feldman
2010 “Using Full Repeats to Initiate Repair on Others’ Questions”. Research on Language and Social Interaction 431: 232–259. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
1997 “Practices and Actions: Boundary Cases of Other-Initiated Repair”. Discourse Processes 231: 499–545. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2000 “When ‘Others’ Initiate Repair”. Applied Linguistics 211: 205–243. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2004 “On Dispensability”. Research on Language and Social Interaction 371: 95–149. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Gail Jefferson, and Harvey Sacks
1977 “The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation”. Language 531: 361–382. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Klaus P.
2010 “Variational Pragmatics”. In Mirjam Fried, Jan-Ola Östman, and Jef Verschueren, eds. Variation and Change: Pragmatic Perspectives. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 239–267. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Klaus P., and Anne Barron, eds
2008 Variational Pragmatics: A Focus on Regional Varieties in Pluricentric Languages. Amsterdam: Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schröder, Anne, and Klaus P. Schneider
2018 “Variational Pragmatics, Responses to Thanks, and the Specificity of English in Namibia”. English World-Wide 391: 338–363. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Selting, Margret
1996 “Prosody as an Activity-Type Distinctive Cue in Conversation: The Case of so-called ‘Astonished’ Questions in Repair Initiation”. In Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, and Margret Selting, eds. Prosody in Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 231–270. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, Jack
2001 “Conversational Turn-Taking in a Caribbean English Creole”. Journal of Pragmatics 331: 1263–1290. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 “Repairing Person Reference in a Small Caribbean Community”. In Nick Enfield, and Tanya Stivers, eds. Person Reference in Interaction: Linguistic, Cultural, and Social Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 281–308.Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya
2015 “Coding Social Interaction: A Heretical Approach in Conversation Analysis?” Research on Language and Social Interaction 481: 1–19. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, Nick Enfield, Penelope Brown, Christina Englert, Makoto Hayashi, Trine Heinemann, Gertie Hoymann, Federico Rossano, Jan Peter de Ruiter, Kyung-Eun Yoon, and Stephen C. Levinson
2009 “Universals and Cultural Variation in Turn-Taking in Conversation”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1061: 10587–10592. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Svennevig, Jan
2008 “Trying the Easiest Solution First in Other-Initiation of Repair”. Journal of Pragmatics 401: 333–348. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Jean
2000 “Delayed Next Turn Repair Initiation in Native/Non-native Speaker English Conversation”. Applied Linguistics 211: 244–267. CrossrefGoogle Scholar