Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 33:2 (2023) ► pp.285–312

Overlaps in collaboration adjustments

A cross-genre study of female university students’ interactions in American English and Japanese

ORCID logo | Showa Women’s University

This study examines collaborative utterance overlaps in American English and Japanese interactions between the same participants in two genres, conversation and problem-solving tasks, from the perspective of metacommunication. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that participants’ use of overlap varies in frequency and function by genre. In conversation tasks, speakers of both languages used overlaps to maintain coherence and keep the story on track. In problem-solving tasks, American English overlaps conveyed agreement with or acceptance of the proposed idea, whereas Japanese overlaps in this genre conveyed common understanding. Participants attended to situational adjustment, and the development of collaboration in interactions differed by context and genre depending on the purpose of the conversation and the amount of information shared by participants. These results suggest the importance of teaching students how to use overlaps in both American English and Japanese interactions to enhance their understanding and appreciation of the cultural nuances of collaboration.

Keywords: overlap, collaboration, cross-genre study, cross-cultural communication, Japanese, English as a foreign language, situational adjustment, pragmatic rules
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Definition of genre
    • 1.2Literature review
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Quantitative analysis
  • 4.Qualitative analysis
    • 4.1The conversation genre
    • 4.2The problem-solving task genre
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 14 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21009.tak
References (65)
Bakhtin, Mikhail M.
1986 Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (trans. Vern McGee). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bateson, Gregory
1972 “A Theory of Play and Fantasy.” In Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, ed. by Gregory Bateson, 177–193. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Beattie, Geoffrey W.
1981 “Interruption in Conversational Interaction, and Its Relation to the Sex and Status of the Interactants.” Linguistics 19 (1–2): 15–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1982 “Turn-Taking and Interruption in Political Interviews: Margaret Thatcher and Jim Callaghan Compared and Contrasted.” Semiotica 39 (1–2): 93–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas
1994 “An Analytical Framework for Register Studies.” In Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register, ed. by Douglas Biber, and Edward Finegan, 31–56. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Gillian, and George Yule
1983 Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bull, Matthew, and Matthew Aylett
1998 “An Analysis of the Timing of Turn-Taking in a Corpus of Goal-Oriented Dialogue” In ICSLP: The 5th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing 1998, 1175–1178. Sydney: ISCA. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butterfield, Jeffrie
2015 “Conversation Analysis and the Debate on Social and Sequential Context.” Kanagawa University Studies in Humanities 1861: 97–109.Google Scholar
Doi, Takeo
1986 The Anatomy of Dependence (trans. John Bester). Tokyo: Kodansha International.Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W.
2014 “Towards a Dialogic Syntax.” Cognitive Linguistics 25 (3): 359–410. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Stephan Schuetze-Coburn, Susanna Cumming, and Danae Paolino
1992 Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistic Volume 4: Discourse Transcription. Santa Barbara, CA: Department of Linguistics University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
1993 “Outline of Discourse Transcription.” In Talking Data: Transcription and Coding Methods for Discourse Research, ed. by Jane Edwards, and Martin Lampert, 45–89. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Eggins, Suzanne
1994 An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Pinter.Google Scholar
Endo, Tomoko, and Daisuke Yokomori
2015 “Nihongo Nichijoo Kaiwa ni okeru Taan Tochuu de no Hatsuwa no Kasanari [Utterance Overlap in the Middle of the Turn in Japanese Daily Conversations].” In Shakai-Gengo Kagakukai Dai 36 Kai Taikai Happyoo Ronbunshuu [Proceedings of the 36th Biannual Conference of the Japanese Association of Sociolinguistic Sciences (JASS)], ed. by Japanese Association of Sociolinguistic Sciences, 192–194. Kyoto: JASS.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick J.
2013 Relationship Thinking: Agency, Enchrony, and Human Sociality. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Friedrich, Paul
1989 “Language, Ideology, and Political Economy.” American Anthropologist 91 (2): 295–312. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fujii, Yoko
2012 “Differences of Situating Self in the Place/Ba of Interaction Between the Japanese and American English Speakers.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (5): 636–662. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fujii, Yoko, and Myung-Hee Kim
2014 “Kadaitassei Danwa ni okeru Soogokooi no Gengo Bunka Hikaku – Nihongo, Kankokugo, Eigo no Hikaku Bunseki [A Cross-Linguistic and Cultural Study of Interaction in Problem-Solving Tasks – Comparison Between Japanese, Korean and English].” In Kaihooteki Goyooron he no Choosen – Bunka, Intaa-Akushon, Gengo [Towards Emancipatory Pragmatics: Culture, Interaction and Language], ed. by Sachiko Ide, and Yoko Fujii, 57–90. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Hall, Edward T.
1976 Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto
2013 “Turn Allocation and Turn Sharing.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell, and Tanya Stivers, 167–190. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horiguchi, Sumiko
1997 Nihongo Kyooiku to Kaiwa Bunseki [Japanese Education and Conversation Analysis]. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Ide, Sachiko
2014 “Kaihooteki Goyooron to Misutaa Oo Coopasu no Igi – Bunka, Intaa-Akushon, Gengo no Kaimei no tame ni [Emancipatory Pragmatics and Significance of the Mr. O Corpus – For the Breakthrough of Culture, Interaction, and Language].” In Kaihooteki Goyooron he no Choosen – Bunka, Intaa-Akushon, Gengo [Towards Emancipatory Pragmatics: Culture, Interaction and Language], ed. by Sachiko Ide, and Yoko Fujii, 1–31. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail
1978 “Sequential Aspects of Storytelling in Conversation.” In Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, ed. by Jim Schenkein, 219–248. New York: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karatsu, Mariko
2012 Conversational Storytelling Among Japanese Women. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kosaki, Junko, and Lala Takeda
2018 “Pragmatic Rules to Enhance Students’ Intercultural Competence: A Study Based on a Functional Analysis of Overlaps in Task-Based Dialogues.” Daigaku Eigo Kyooiku Gakkai Chuugoku-Shikoku Shibu Kenkyuu Kiyoo [JACET Chugoku-Shikoku Chapter Research Bulletin] 151: 37–54.Google Scholar
Kushida, Shuuya
2005 “Kaiwa ni okeru Sanka no Soshikika no Kenkyuu: Nihongo Kaiwa ni okeru ‘Hanashite’ to ‘Kyo-Seiinsei’ no Sanshutsu Tetsuduki. [Study of the Participation Organization in the Conversation: The Procedure of Producing ‘Speaker’ and ‘Co-Membership’ in Japanese Conversation].” PhD diss. Kyoto University.
Kushida, Shuuya, Toshiyuki Sadanobu, and Yasuharu Den
(eds.) 2005 Shiriizu Bun to Hatsuwa Dai Ikkan: Katsudoo to shite no Bun to Hatsuwa [Sentence and Utterance, vol. 1: Sentence and Utterance as Activity]. Tokyo: Hitsuji.Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N.
1983 Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Lerner, Gene H.
1991 “On the Syntax of Sentences-in-Progress.” Language in Society 20 (3): 441–458. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 “Turn-Sharing: The Choral Co-Production of Talk-in-Interaction.” In The Language of Turn and Sequence, ed. by Cecilia E. Ford, Barbara A. Fox, and Sandra A. Thompson, 225–256. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen
2015 “Turn-Taking and the Pragmatic Origins of Language.” Plenary Lecture Given at the 14th International Pragmatics Conference, 26 July. Belgium: University of Antwerp.
Li, Han Z.
2001 “Cooperative and Intrusive Interruptions in Inter- and Intracultural Dyadic Discourse.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 20 (3): 259–284. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lucy, John A.
1993 “Reflexive Language and the Human Disciplines.” In Reflexive Language: Reported Speech and Metapragmatics, ed. by John Lucy, 9–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw
1923 “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages.” In The Meaning of Meaning, Supplement 1 1, ed. by Charles Ogden, and Ivor Richards 1989, 296–336. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Maynard, Douglas W.
2006 “Ethnography and Conversation Analysis: What Is the Context of an Utterance?” In Emergent Methods in Social Research, ed. by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, and Patricia Leavy, 55–94. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maynard, Senko
2008 Maruchi-Janruron – Kan-Janrusei to Imi no Souzoo [An Exploration into Multi-Genre Discourse: Inter-Genre Significance and the Creation of Meaning]. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Mizutani, Nobuko
1993 “ ‘Kyoowa’ kara ‘Taiwa’ he [From ‘Co-Construction’ to ‘Interaction’].” Nihongo-Gaku [Japanese Linguistics] 12 (4): 4–9.Google Scholar
Murata, Kumiko
1994 “Intrusive or Co-Operative? A Cross-Cultural Study of Interruption.” Journal of Pragmatics 21 (4): 385–400. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murata, Yasumi
2015 “Goyoo-Shihyoo to Sono Eigo Kyooiku he no Ooyoo [Pragmatic Features and Their Application to English Education].” In Nichi-Eigo Danwa Sutairu no Taishoo Kenkyuu – Eigo Komyunikeeshon he no Ooyoo [Comparative Study of Japanese and English Discourse Styles – Application to English Education of Communication], ed. by Sanae Tsuda, Yasumi Murata, Mami Otani, Yuuko Iwata, Yuka Shigemitsu, and Yooko Otsuka, 277–291. Tokyo: Hitsuji.Google Scholar
O’Keeffe, Anne, and Svenja Adolphs
2008 “Response Tokens in British and Irish Discourse: Corpus, Context and Variational Pragmatics.” In Variational Pragmatics, ed. by Klaus Schneider, and Anne Barron, 69–98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oertel, Catharine, Marcin Wlodarczak, Alexey Tarasov, Nick Campbell, and Petra Wagner
2012 “Context Cues for Classification of Competitive and Collaborative Overlaps.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2012, ed. by Qiuwu Ma, Hongwei Ding, and Daniel Hirst, 22–25. Shanghai: Tongji University Press.Google Scholar
Otsuka, Yooko
2015 “Nichi-Eigo no Shotaimen San’nin Kaiwa ni okeru Aiduchi [Backchannels in Three-People Conversation in Japanese and English First Encounter Conversations].” In Nichi-Eigo Danwa Sutairu no Taishoo Kenkyuu – Eigo Komyunikeeshon he no Ooyoo [Comparative Study of Japanese and English Discourse Styles – Application to English Education of Communication], ed. by Sanae Tsuda, Yasumi Murata, Mami Otani, Yuuko Iwata, Yuka Shigemitsu, and Yooko Otsuka, 169–191. Tokyo: Hitsuji.Google Scholar
Rose, David
2012 “Genre in the Sydney School.” In The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. by James Gee, and Mike Handford, 209–225. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson
1974 “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 50 (4): 696–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A.
1982 “Discourse as an Interactional Achievement: Some Uses of ‘Uh Huh’ and Other Things That Come Between Sentences.” In Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk, ed. by Deborah Tannen, 71–93. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
1992 “Repair After Next Turn: The Last Structurally Provided Defense of Intersubjectivity in Conversation.” American Journal of Sociology 97 (5): 1295–1345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 “Overlapping Talk and the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language in Society 29 (1): 1–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 “Accounts of Conduct in Interaction: Interruption, Overlap and Turn-Taking.” In Handbook of Sociological Theory, ed. by Jonathan Turner, 287–322. New York: Plenum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, Jack
2010 Conversation Analysis: An Introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael
1993 “Metapragmatic Discourse and Metapragmatic Function.” In Reflexive Language: Reported Speech and Metapragmatics, ed. by John Lucy, 33–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sugawara, Kazuyoshi
1996 “Hitotsu no Koe de Kataru Koto – Shintai to Kotoba no ‘Doojisei’ wo Megutte [To Speak in One Voice – In Discussion of ‘Sameness’ in Body and Language].” In Komyunikeeshon to shite no Shintai [Body as a Communication], ed. by Kazuyoshi Sugawara, and Masaichi Nomura, 246–287. Tokyo: Taishukan.Google Scholar
2012 “Interactive Significance of Simultaneous Discourse or Overlap in Everyday Conversations Among ǀGui Former Foragers.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (5): 577–618. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swales, John
1990 Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taboada, Maite
2011 “Stages in an Online Review Genre.” Text and Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse and Communication Studies 31 (2): 247–269. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takeda, Lala
2016 “Choofuku Hatsuwa kara Sooshutsusareru Kyoochoosei – Shinso ga Kotonatta Nihongo Soogokooi no I-Janrukan Hikaku kara no Ichikoosatsu [Collaboration Created Through Overlaps – A Study of Japanese Interactions of Different Genres and Levels of Intimacy].” Shakai-Gengo Kagaku [The Japanese Journal of Language in Society] 19 (1): 87–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2019 “Exploring Implicit and Explicit Teaching Methods in EFL Education: A Cross-Genre Analysis of Topic Management Through Overlaps.” In A Pragmatic Approach to English Language Teaching and Production, ed. by Lala Takeda, and Megumi Okugiri, 143–168. Tokyo: Kazama Shobo.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Hiroko
1999 Turn-Taking in Japanese Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tannen, Deborah
1990 You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar
1994 Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trondheim, Lewis
2003 Mister O. Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Uchida, Rara
2002 “A Comparative Study of Turn-Taking in English and Japanese: When and How Do Speakers Express Their Correction to or Agreement with the Other’s Utterances?” Nihon Joshi Daigaku Daigakuin Bungaku Kenkyuuka Kiyoo [Journal of the Graduate School of Humanities, Japan Women’s University] 81: 55–68.Google Scholar
Vatanen, Anna
2014 “Responding in Overlap: Agency, Epistemicity and Social Action in Conversation.” PhD diss. The University of Helsinki.
Wang, Dengfeng, and Hong Cui
2006 “Relations with Personality and Cross-Situational Consistency of Behavior.” Acta Psychologica Sinica 381: 543–552.Google Scholar
Wang, Yu-Fang, and Pi-Hua Tsai
2007 “Textual and Contextual Contrast Connection: A Study of Chinese Contrastive Markers Across Different Text Types.” Journal of Pragmatics 39 (10): 1775–1815. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yuan, Jiahong, Mark Liberman, and Christopher Cieri
2007 “Towards an Integrated Understanding of Speech Overlaps in Conversation” In Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 16 (ICPhS XVI), ed. by Jürgen Trouvain, and William J. Barry, 1337–1340. Saarbrücken: Saarbrücken University.Google Scholar