The use of interlocking multi-unit turns in topic shifts
Abstract
This paper examines multi-unit turns that allow speakers to retrospectively close the prior sequence while prospectively launching a new sequence, which Schegloff (1986) referred to as interlocking organization. Using English telephone conversations as data, we focus on how multi-unit turns are used for topic shifts, and show that interlocking organization operates in conjunction with other phonetic and lexical features, such as increased pitch and overt markers of disjunction (e.g., “listen”). In addition, speakers utilize an audible inbreath that is placed between the first and the second units as a central interactional resource to project further talk, thereby suppressing speaker transition and possibly highlighting the action delivered in the second unit as being distinctly new. We propose that interlocking multi-unit turns, when used to make topically disjunctive moves, promote progressivity by avoiding a possible lapse in turn transition.
Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents
This study examines multi-unit turns that allow speakers to retrospectively close the prior sequence while prospectively launching a new sequence, which Schegloff (1986) referred to as interlocking organization. In particular, we focus on how speakers use such multi-unit turns for topic management. According to Schegloff (1986, 131), “In ‘interlocking organization,’ some turns have two (or sometimes three) components, combining in the same turn the last part (the second pair part of an adjacency pair or a sequence-closing third) of one sequence and the first part of a next sequence”. Based on the analysis of telephone conversations, Schegloff identified opening sequences as a home environment for interlocking organization, as shown in Extract 1. In line 3, Nancy combines the last part of the greeting sequence, Oh: ‘I:::, and the first part of the “how-are-you” sequence, ‘ow a:re you Emmah:, in the same turn.
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