Article published in:
International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Vol. 25:2 (2020) ► pp. 185–214

Turn structure and inserts

| Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg | Philipps-University Marburg
Turns-at-talk often do not start with their main business but rather with a pre-start (Sacks et al., 1974). This paper investigates the correlation of pre-starts with inserts, one of three major word classes (Biber et al., 1999). Based on the BNC’s mark-up, I investigate how inserts are positionally distributed in large amounts of turns of varied lengths. The analysis shows that inserts are overwhelmingly attracted to turn-first positions, the likely location of pre-starts. Further, in a subsample of 1,000 ten-word turns manually coded for pre-starts, 86% of all inserts serve a pre-start function. The findings call into question current speech processing models that fail to factor in turn structure. Further, pre-starts have crucial sequential and interactional implications as early indicators whether the new turn “agrees” with the prior turn and are likely key signals aiding listeners’ action ascription.
Keywords: interjection, contextualization cue, textual colligation, speech planning, action ascription
Published online: 28 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19098.ruh
References

References

Aijmer, K.
(2013) Understanding Pragmatic Markers: A Variational Pragmatic Approach. Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Aijmer, K., & Rühlemann, C.
(Eds.) (2015) Corpus Pragmatics: A Handbook. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ameka, F.
(1992) Interjections: The universal yet neglected part of speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 18(2–3), 101–118. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E.
(1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Pearson Education.Google Scholar
[ p. 210 ]
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D.
(2012) Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer (Version 6.0.37) [Computer software]. http://​www​.praat​.org/
Bögels, S., Kendrick, K. H., & Levinson, S. C.
(2015) Never say no … How the brain interprets the pregnant pause in conversation. PLoS ONE, 10(12), e0145474. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bögels, S., Magyari, L., & Levinson, S. C.
(2015) Neural signatures of response planning occur midway through an incoming question in conversation. Scientific Reports, 5(12881), 1–11.Google Scholar
Brinton, L. J.
(2010) Discourse markers. In A. H. Jucker & I. Taavitsainen (Eds.), Historical Pragmatics (pp. 285–314). De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Buysse, L.
(2012)  So as a multifunctional discourse marker in native and learner speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(13), 1764–1782. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Carter, R. A., Hughes, R., & McCarthy, M. J.
(2000) Exploring Grammar in Context. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clayman, S. E.
(2013) Turn-constructional units and the transition-relevance place. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (Eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 150–166). Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, E., & Selting, M.
(2017) Interactional Linguistics: An Introduction to Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, D.
(2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Damian, M. F., Vigliocco, G., & Levelt, W. J. M.
(2001) Effects of semantic context in the naming of pictures and words. Cognition, 81, B77–B86. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Diani, G.
(2004) The discourse functions of I don’t know in English conversation. In K. Aijmer & B. Stenström. (Eds.), Discourse Patterns in Spoken and Written Corpora (pp. 157–171). John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evison, J.
(2012) A corpus linguistic analysis of turn-openings in spoken academic discourse: Understanding discursive specialisation. English Profile Journal, 3(4), 1–24.Google Scholar
Fraser, B.
(1990) An approach to discourse markers. Journal of Pragmatics, 14(3), 383–395. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gisladottir, R. S., Bögels, S., & Levinson, S. C.
(2018) Oscillatory brain responses reflect anticipation during comprehension of speech acts in spoken dialog. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 1–13. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J. J.
(1992) Contextualization and understanding. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon (pp. 229–252). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(1996) The linguistic and cultural relativity of inference. In J. J. Gumperz & S. C. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R.
(1976) Cohesion in English. Longman.Google Scholar
Heldner, M., & Edlund, J.
(2010) Pauses, gaps and overlaps in conversations. Journal of Phonetics, 38(4), 555–568. Crossref
Heritage, J.
(1998) Oh-prefaced Responses to Inquiry. Language in Society, 27(3), 291–334. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2013) Turn-initial position and some of its occupants. Journal of Pragmatics, 57, 331–337. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2015)  Well-prefaced turns in English conversation: A conversation analytic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics, 88, 88–104. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 211 ]
(2018) Turn-initial particles in English: The cases of and well . In J. Heritage & M. L. Sorjonen (Eds.), Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-initial Particles across Languages (pp. 155–189). John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, J., & Sorjonen, M. L.
(2018) Analyzing turn-initial particles. In J. Heritage & M.-L. Sorjonen (Eds.), Between Turn and Sequence: Turn-initial Particles across Languages (pp. 1–22). John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hoey, M.
(2005) Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. Routledge.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, S., Evert, S., Smith, N., Lee, D., & Berglund Prytz, Y.
(2008) Corpus Linguistics with BNCweb: A Practical Guide. Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Holler, J., Kendrick, K. H., & Levinson, S. C.
(2017) Processing language in face-to-face conversation: Questions with gestures get faster responses. Psychonometric Bulletin Review, 25, 1900–1918. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Indefrey, P., & Levelt, W. J. M.
(2004) The spatial and temporal signatures of word production components. Cognition, 92(1–2), 101–144. Crossref
Jefferson, G.
(1973) A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation: Overlapped tag-positioned address terms in closing sequences. Semiotics, 9(1), 47–96.Google Scholar
(1986) Notes on ‘latency’ in overlap onset. Human Studies, 9, 153–183. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2004) Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation (pp. 13–31). John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jescheniak, J. D., & Levelt, W. J. M.
(1994) Word frequency effects in speech production: Retrieval of syntactic information and of phonological form. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20(4), 824–843.Google Scholar
Jongman, S. R., Piai, V., & Meyer, A. S.
(2019) Planning for language production: The electrophysiological signature of attention to the cue to speak. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. Advance online publication. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jucker, A. H.
(1993) The discourse marker well: A relevance-theoretical account. Journal of Pragmatics, 19(5), 435–452. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De Klerk, V.
(2005) Procedural meanings of well in a corpus of Xhosa English. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(8), 1183–1205. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Koivisto, A.
(2012) Discourse patterns for turn-final conjunctions. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(10), 1254–1272. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levelt, W. J. M., Praamstra, P., Meyer, A. S., Helenius, P., & Salmelin, R.
(1998) An MEG study of picture naming. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10(5), 553–567. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levelt, W. J., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S.
(1999) A theory of lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 1–38. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C.
(2003) Contextualizing ‘contextualization cues’. In S. Eerdmans, C. Prevignano, & P. Thibault (Eds.), Language and Interaction: Discussions with John J. Gumperz (pp. 31–39). John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2013) Action formation and ascription. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (Eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 103–130). Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
(2016) Turn-taking in human communication: Origins and implications for language processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(1), 6–14. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 212 ]
Levinson, S. C., & Holler, J.
(2014) The origin of human multi-modal communication. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 369(1651), 20130302. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C., & Torreira, F.
(2015) Timing in turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(731), 1–17.Google Scholar
Mayes, P.
(1990) Quotation in spoken English. Studies in Language, 14(2), 325–363. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Magyari, L., Bastiaansen, M. C. M., de Ruiter, J. P., & Levinson, S. C.
(2014) Early anticipation lies behind the speed of response in conversation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(11), 2530–2539. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mehl, M. R., Vazire, S., Ramirez-Esparza, N., Slatcher, R. B., & Pennebaker, J. W.
(2007) Are women really more talkative than men? Science, 317(5834), 82. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Norrick, N.
(2009) Interjections as pragmatic markers. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(5), 866–891. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ochs, E., Schegloff, E. A., & Thompson, S. A.
(Eds.) (1996) Interaction and Grammar. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Oldfield, R. C., & Wingfield, A.
(1965) Response latencies in naming objects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 17, 273–28. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pfeiffer, M.
(2016) The deictic dimension of exclamations: On the use of wh-exclamatives in German face-to-face interaction. Revue de Sémantique et Pragmatique, 40, 35–57. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, A., & Heritage, J.
(2013) Preference. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (Eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 210–228). Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Rayson, P., Leech, G., & Hodges, M.
(1997) Social differentiation in the use of English vocabulary: Some analyses of the conversational component of the British National Corpus. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 2(1), 133–152. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, S. G., Torreira, F., & Levinson, S. C.
(2015) The effects of processing and sequence organization on the timing of turn taking: a corpus study. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(509), 1–16.Google Scholar
Roberts, S. G., & Levinson, S. C.
(2017) Conversation, cognition and cultural evolution: A model of the cultural evolution of word order through pressures imposed from turn taking in conversation. Interaction Studies, 18(3), 402–429. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rochmont, M., & Cullicover, P.
(1990) English Focus Constructions and the Theory of Grammar. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Romero-Trillo, J.
(2018) Prosodic modeling and position analysis of pragmatic markers in English conversation. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 14, 169–195. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rühlemann, C.
(2013) Narrative in English Conversation: A Corpus Analysis. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2018a) Corpus Linguistics for Pragmatics. Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2018b) How long does it take to say ‘well’? Evidence from the Audio BNC. Corpus Pragmatics, 3(1), 49–66. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2018c) TCU-initial backchannel overlap in storytelling. Narrative Inquiry, 28(2), 257–279. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 213 ]
(2020) Visual Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction to Quantitative Interactional Linguistics. John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rühlemann, C., & Gee, M.
(2017) Conversation Analysis and the XML method. Gesprächsforschung, 18, 274–296.Google Scholar
Rühlemann, C., & Schweinberger, M.
under review). Information in turns-at-talk: Modeling the placement of nuclear stress.
Sacks, H.
(1987) On the preference for agreement and contiguity in sequences in conversation. In G. Button & J. R. E. Lee (Eds.), Talk and Social Organisation. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G.
(1974) A simplest systematics for the organisation of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696–735. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A.
(1996) Turn organization: One intersection of grammar and interaction. In E. Ochs, E. A. Schegloff, & S. A. Thompson (Eds.), Interaction and Grammar (pp. 52–133). Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A.
(2000) Overlapping talk and the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language in Society, 29(1), 1-63. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A., & Lerner, G. H.
(2009) Beginning to respond: Well-prefaced responses to wh-questions. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 42(2), 91–115. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schiffrin, D.
(1985) Conversational coherence: The role of well . Language, 61(3), 640–667. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1987) Discourse Markers. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schleppegrell, M.
(1991) Paratactic because. Journal of Pragmatics, 16(4), 323–337. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sicoli, M., Stivers, T., Enfield, N. J., & Levinson, S. C.
(2015) Marked initial pitch in questions signals marked communicative function. Language and Speech, 58, 204–223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, T., Enfield, N. J., Brown, P., Englert, C., Hayashi, M., Heinemann, T., Hoymann, G., Rossano, F., de Ruiter, J. P., Yoon, K.-E., & Levinson, S. C.
(2009) Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. U.S.A. 106(26), 10587–10592.Google Scholar
Stubbs, M.
(2002) Words and Phrases: Corpus Studies of Lexical Semantics. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Svartvik, J.
(1980)  Well in conversation. In S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, & J. Svartvik (Eds.), Studies in English Linguistics: For Randolph Quirk (pp. 167–177). Longman.Google Scholar
Tao, H.
(2003) Turn initiators in spoken English: A corpus-based approach to interaction and grammar. In P. Leistyna & C. F. Meyer (Eds.), Corpus Analysis: Language Structure and Language Use (pp. 187–207). Rodopi. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Torreira, F., Bögels, S. & Levinson, S. C.
(2015) Breathing for answering: The time course of response planning in conversation. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1–11. Crossref
Tottie, G.
(2015) Turn management and the fillers uh and um . In K. Aijmer & C. Rühlemann (Eds.), Corpus Pragmatics: A Handbook (pp. 381–407). Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vaughan, E., McCarthy, M., & Clancy, B.
(2017) Vague category markers as turn-final items in Irish English. World Englishes, 36(2), 208–223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 214 ]
Yuan, J., M. Liberman, & Cieri, C.
(2006) Towards an integrated understanding of speaking rate in conversation. In Interspeech 2006 – ICSLP (pp. 541–544). Pittsburgh, PA. https://​www​.isca​-speech​.org​/archive​/archive​_papers​/interspeech​_2006​/i06​_1795​.pdf