Article published In:
PragmaticsVol. 21:3 (2011) ► pp.291–306
Support and evidence for considering local contingencies in studying and transcribing silence in conversation
Using a conversation analytic methodology, this report looks at conversations in English in which lengthy silences are regularly present. These silences are treated as unproblematic in this corpus. They apparently deviate from the proposals that gaps are minimized (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson 1974) and that there is a standard maximum silence of one second (Jefferson, 1988). This is discussed in light of context and culture. Then the robustness of some features of the organisation of sequences (Schegloff 2007) and turn- taking (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson 1974) are considered. Finally, solutions are compared for rendering lengthy silences in such a way that their meaning is preserved in conversation analytic transcripts or others that include timed silences.
Keywords: Conversation analysis, Sequence organisation, Preference, Transcription, Turn taking, Silence, Lapse, Gap, Pause
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
References
Bateson, G.
(1935) Culture contact and schismogenesis. Man 351: 178-183. 
Dickerson, P., P. Stribling, and J. Rae
Gardner, R., R. Fitzgerald, and I. Mushin
(2009) The underlying orderliness in turn-taking: Examples from Australian talk. Australian Journal of Communication 36.3: 65-90.
Giles, H., and J.M. Wiemann
(1987) Language, social comparison and power. In C.R. Berger and S.H. Chaffee (eds.), The Handbook of Communication Science. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 350-384.
Goodwin, C.
(1979) The interactive construction of a sentence in natural conversation. In G. Psathas (ed.), Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology. New York: Irvington, pp. 97-121.
(2002) Conversational frameworks for the accomplishment of meaning in aphasia. In C. Goodwin (ed.), Conversation and Brain Damage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 90-116. BoP
Gourley, L.E.
(1973) Capital B for Black. American Psychologist 30.2: 181.
Jefferson, G.
(1988) Notes on a possible metric which provides for a 'standard maximum' silence of approximately one second in conversation. In D. Roger and P. Bull (eds.), Conversation: An interdisciplinary perspective.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, pp. 167-196.
McWhorter, J.
(2004, September 18) Call me Black. That's with a capital B. Not African-American. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from [URL]
Pomerantz, A.M.
(1984) Agreeing and disagreeing with assessment: Some features of preferred/dis- preferred turn shapes. In J.M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds.), Structure of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 57-101.
Prince, R.
(1997) Is talk cheap or silence golden: The negotiation of activity in psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 171: 549-558.
Psathas, G., and T. Anderson
(1990) The 'practices' of transcription in conversation analysis. Semiotica 781: 75-99.
Sacks, H., E.A. Schegloff, and G. Jefferson
(1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn- taking for conversation. Language 501: 696-735. BoP
BoPSchegloff, E.A.
(2007) Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. BoP
BoPStreeck, J.
(2002) Grammars, words, and embodied meanings: On the uses and evolution of so and like. Journal of Communication 521: 581–596.
Street, R., and H. Giles
(1982) Speech accommodation theory: A social cognitive approach to language and speech behavior. In M. Roloff & C.R. Berger (eds.), Social Cognition and Communication. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, pp. 193-226.
Stribling, P., J. Rae, and P. Dickerson
(2007) Two forms of spoken repetition in a girl with autism. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 421: 427–444.
Tannen, D.
This Wicked Day
(2010, June 16) Capitalisation is a political act. [Web log comment] Retrieved from [URL] (2011, February 12)
Wilson, M., and T.P. Wilson
(2005) An oscillator model of the timing of turn-taking. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 121: 957-968.
Wilson, T.P., and D.H. Zimmerman
(1986) The structure of silence between turns in two-party conversation. Discourse Processes 91: 375-390.
Cited by
Cited by 6 other publications
Berger, Israel, Rowena Viney & John P. Rae
2016. Do continuing states of incipient talk exist?. Journal of Pragmatics 91 ► pp. 29 ff. 
Haugh, Michael & Simon Musgrave
2019. Conversational lapses and laughter: Towards a combinatorial approach to building collections in conversation analysis. Journal of Pragmatics 143 ► pp. 279 ff.
Hoey, Elliott M.
2015. Lapses: How People Arrive at, and Deal With, Discontinuities in Talk. Research on Language and Social Interaction 48:4 ► pp. 430 ff.
Kádár, Dániel Z. & Siân Robinson Davies
2016. Ritual, aggression, and participatory ambiguity. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 4:2 ► pp. 202 ff.
Pudlinski, Christopher & Rachel S. Y. Chen
2023. Destigmatizing disfluency. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders 14:2 ► pp. 220 ff.
Willcox, Rachel, Naomi Moller & Victoria Clarke
2019. Exploring Attachment Incoherence in Bereaved Families’ Therapy Narratives: An Attachment Theory-Informed Thematic Analysis. The Family Journal 27:3 ► pp. 339 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 november 2023. 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.