Chapter published in:
Time in Embodied Interaction: Synchronicity and sequentiality of multimodal resources
Edited by Arnulf Deppermann and Jürgen Streeck
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 293] 2018
► pp. 97–122

The temporal organization of conversation while mucking out a sheep stable

Based on talk-oriented activities, there seems to be a consensus that turn-taking is organized to minimize gaps between turns. This study looks at a conversational sequence that evolved in a multi-party setting during a joint cleaning of a sheep stable, and analyzes how nextness is accomplished in an unproblematic manner after extensive silences. It argues that due to the non-cognitive but physically straining nature of the activity in a confined space, chatting is almost constant but response relevance is reduced. It discusses the moral orders of talk and work in this multiactivity setting, where urgency is not an issue, and suggests that data collection for sequence analysis be more attentive to the systematic differences between talk-oriented and other settings.
Keywords: sequencing in conversation, silence, lapses, response relevance, Estonian
Published online: 13 September 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.293.03kee
References

References

Cekaite, Asta
2015 “The Coordination of Talk and Touch in Adults Directives to Children: Touch and Social Control.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (2): 152–175.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf
2014 “Multimodal Participation in Simultaneous Joint Projects: Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Coordination in Paramedic Emergency Drills.” In Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking, ed. by Haddington, Pentti, Keisanen, Tiina, Mondada, Lorenza, and Maurice Nevile, 247–282. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Egbert, Maria
1997 “Schisming: The Collaborative Transformation from Single Conversation to Multiple Conversations.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 30 (1): 1–51.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Rod, and Ilana Mushin
2007 “Post-Start-Up Overlap and Disattentiveness in Talk in a Garrwa Community.” Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 30 (3): 35.1–35.14.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving
1963 Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: Free.Google Scholar
1971 Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
1981 Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles
1981 Conversational Organization: Interaction between Speakers and Hearers. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
1984 “Notes on Story Structure and the Organization of Participation.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by Atkinson, J. Maxwell, and John Heritage, 225–246. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2002 “Time in Action.” Current Anthropology 43: 19–35.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haddington, Pentti, Keisanen, Tiina, Mondada, Lorenza, and Maurice Nevile
(eds) 2014a Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(eds) 2014b “Towards Multiactivity as a Social and Interactional Phenomenon.” In Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking, ed. by Haddington, Pentti, Keisanen, Tiina, Mondada, Lorenza, and Maurice Nevile, 3–32. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hoey, Elliott M.
2015 “Lapses: How People Arrive at, and Deal with, Discontinuities in Talk.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (4): 430–453.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, Gail
1989 “Preliminary Notes on a Possible Metric which Provides for a ’Standard Maximum’ Silence of Approximately One Second in Conversation.” In Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Approach, ed. by Roger, Derek, and Peter Bull, 166–196. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Kasterpalu, Riina, and Tiit Hennoste
2016 “Estonian aa: A Multifunctional Change-of-State Token.” Journal of Pragmatics 104: 148–162.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Keisanen, Tiina, Rauniomaa, Mirkka, and Pentti Haddington
2014 “Suspending a Course of Action: Managing Incompatibility in Moments of Multiactivity.” In Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking, ed. by Haddington, Pentti, Keisanen, Tiina, Mondada, Lorenza, and Maurice Nevile, 109–134. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Keevallik, Leelo
2009 “The Grammar-Interaction Interface of Negative Questions in Estonian.” SKY Journal of Linguistics 22: 139–173.Google Scholar
Lehtonen, Jaakko, and Kari Sajavaara
1985 “The Silent Finn.” In Perspectives on Silence, ed. by Tannen, Deborah, and Muriel Saville-Troike, 193–201. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Meyer, Christian
2010 Self, Sequence and the Senses: Universal and Culture-Specific Aspects of Conversational Organization in a Wolof Social Space. Habilitation thesis, University of Bielefeld..Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza
2011 “The Organization of Concurrent Courses of Action in Surgical Demonstrations.” In Embodied Interaction: Language and Body in the Material World, ed. by Streeck, Jürgen, Goodwin, Charles, and Curtis LeBaron, 207–226. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2012 “Talking and Driving: Multi-Activity in the Car.” Semiotica 191: 223–256.Google Scholar
2014 “The Temporal Orders of Multiactivity: Operating and Demonstrating in the Surgical Theatre.” In Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking, ed. by Haddington, Pentti, Keisanen, Tiina, Mondada, Lorenza, and Maurice Nevile, 33–75. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Mushin, Ilana, and Rod Gardner
2009 “Silence is Talk: Conversational Silence in Australian Aboriginal Talk-in-Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (10): 2033–2052.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nevile, Maurice
2015 “The Embodied Turn in Research on Language and Social Interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (2): 121–151.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, Geoffrey, and Gene Lerner
2014 “A Body and its Involvements: Adjusting Action for Dual Involvements.” In Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking, ed. by Haddington, Pentti, Keisanen, Tiina, Mondada, Lorenza, and Maurice Nevile, 227–246. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Reisman, Karl
1974 “Contrapuntal Conversations in an Antiguan Village.” In Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, ed. by Bauman, Richard, and Joel Sherzer, 110–124. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
1992 Lectures on Conversation [1964–1972], 2 vols., ed. by Gail Jefferson. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Gail Jefferson
1974 “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 50 (4): 696–735.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sajavaara, Kari, and Jaakko Lehtonen
1997 “The Silent Finn Revisited.” In Silence. Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Jaworski, Adam, 263–283. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
1998 “Body Torque.” Social Research 65 (3): 535–596.Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Jefferson, Gail, and Harvey Sacks
1977 “The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation.” Language 53 (2): 361–382.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Szymanski, Margaret H.
1999 “Re-engaging and Dis-engaging Talk in Activity.” Language in Society 28 (1): 1–23.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanja, Enfield, Nick J., Brown, Penelope, Englert, Christina, Hayashi, Makoto, Heinemann, Trine, Hoymann, Gertie, Rossano, Federico, de Ruiter, Jan Peter, Yoon, Kyung-Eun, and Stephen C. Levinson
2009 “Universals and Cultural Variation in Turn-Taking in Interaction.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (26): 10587–10592.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, and Federico Rossano
2010 “Mobilizing Response.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 43 (1): 3–31.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Svennevig, Jan
2008 “Trying the Easiest Solution First in Other-Initiation of Repair.” Journal of Pragmatics 40 (2): 333–348.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tannen, Deborah
1985 “Silence: Anything But.” In Perspectives on Silence, ed. by Tannen, Deborah, and Muriel Saville-Troike, 93–111. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Walsh, Michael
1995 “Interactional Styles in the Courtroom: An Example from Northern Australia.” In Language and the Law, ed. by Gibbons, John, 217–233. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

No author info given
2021.  In OKAY across Languages [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 34], Crossref logo
Deppermann, Arnulf & Jürgen Streeck
2018.  In Time in Embodied Interaction [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 293], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.