Cover not available
Article published In:
The Joint Production of Conversational Turns
Edited by K.K. Luke and Mei Fang
[Chinese Language and Discourse 12:1] 2021
► pp. 6–34

Parties and voices

On the joint construction of conversational turns

 | Nanyang Technological University
Since Harvey Sacks’ early observations on collaborative sentence-making, the joint production of turns has become a topic of abiding interest amongst conversation analysts. This paper offers a thematic review of the literature by looking into a number of issues surrounding joint productions, including their forms and interactional uses, major types and sub-types, syntactic and pragmatic contributions, unity and variation across languages, and reasons for its inherent fascination as a conversational practice. By re-examining a number of key concepts and distinctions, including completion, extension, projection, continuation, collaboration, and affiliation/disaffiliation, the paper offers a critical assessment of their perspicuity and usefulness for our understanding of joint production as a general phenomenon (which includes both co-completions and increments). In the second part of the paper, it is suggested that two further concepts be added to the analyst’s toolbox, namely, ‘parties’ (Schegloff 1995) and ‘voices’ (Bakhtin 1981). It is argued that with these notions, one would be better placed to explain the curious status of joint productions as at once collaborative and yet at the same time potentially transformative or even subversive. The overriding goal is conceptual clarification of this field, which hopefully will help place further research on firmer ground.
Keywords: joint production, collaborative completion, increments, turn continuation, projection
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Concepts, distinctions, issues
    • 2.1Completion vs. extension
    • 2.2Projection and projectability
    • 2.3Self vs. other continuations
    • 2.4Collaboration: Broad and narrow senses
    • 2.5Affiliation vs. disaffiliation
  • 3.Parties and voices
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 19 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.00035.luk
References (59)
References
Auer, Peter. 1996. “On the Prosody and Syntax of Turn-Continuations.” In Prosody in Conversation: Interactional Studies, ed. by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Margret Selting, 57–100. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. by Michael Holquist. Trans. by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Blöndal, Þórunn. 2015. “Where Grammar Meets Interaction: Collaborative Production of Syntactic Constructions in Icelandic Conversation.” PhD diss., University of Helsinki. [URL]
Bolden, Galina B. 2010. “‘Articulating the Unsaid’ via And-Prefaced Formulations of Others’ Talk.” Discourse Studies 12 (1): 5–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolden, Galina B., Alexa Hepburn, and Jonathan Potter. 2019. “Subversive Completions: Turn-Taking Resources for Commandeering the Recipient’s Action in Progress.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 52 (2): 144–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Tsuyoshi Ono. 2007. ““Incrementing” in Conversation. A Comparison of Practices in English, German and Japanese.” Pragmatics 17 (4): 513–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crystal, David, and Derek Davy. 1975. Advanced Conversational English. 1st ed. Applied Linguistics and Language Study. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Fang, Mei 方梅. 2012. “Huihua jiegou yu lianci de fuxianyi” 會話結構與連詞的浮現義 [Discourse structure and emergent meaning of conjunctions]. Zhongguo yuwen 中國語文 [ Studies of the Chinese Language ] 6 (351): 500–8.Google Scholar
Fox, Barbara A., Makoto Hayashi, and Robert Jasperson. 1996. “Resources and Repair: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Syntax and Repair.” In Interaction and Grammar, ed. by Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson, 185–237. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 1981. Conversational Organization: Interaction between Speakers and Hearers. Language, Thought, and Culture: Advances in the Study of Cognition. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gregoromichelaki, Eleni, Ruth Kempson, Matt Purver, Gregory James Mills, Ronnie Cann, Wilfried Meyer-Viol, and Patrick G. T. Healey. 2011. “Incrementality and Intention-Recognition in Utterance Processing.” Dialogue & Discourse 2 (1): 199–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hamston, Julie. 2006. “Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogue: A Construct for Pedagogy, Methodology and Analysis.” The Australian Educational Researcher 33 (1): 55–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haugh, Michael, and Yasuko Obana. 2015. “Transformative Continuations, (Dis)Affiliation, and Accountability in Japanese Interaction.” Text & Talk 35 (5): 597–619. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto. 1999. “Where Grammar and Interaction Meet: A Study of Co-Participant Completion in Japanese Conversation.” Human Studies 22 (2): 475–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003a. Joint Utterance Construction in Japanese Conversation. Studies in Discourse and Grammar 12. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [URL]. DOI logo
. 2003b. “Language and the Body as Resources for Collaborative Action: A Study of Word Searches in Japanese Conversation.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 36 (2): 109–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2005. “Joint Turn Construction through Language and the Body: Notes on Embodiment in Coordinated Participation in Situated Activities.” Semiotica 1/4 (2005) (156): 21–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto, and Junko Mori. 1998. “Co-Construction in Japanese Revisited: We Do “Finish Each Other’s Sentences”.” Japanese/Korean Linguistics 71: 77–93.Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Geoffrey Raymond. 2005. “The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-Interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68 (1): 15–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Howes, Christine, Matthew Purver, Patrick G. T. Healey, Gregory Mills, and Eleni Gregoromichelaki. 2011. “On Incrementality in Dialogue: Evidence from Compound Contributions.” Dialogue & Discourse 2 (1): 279–311–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iwasaki, Shimako. 2009. “Initiating Interactive Turn Spaces in Japanese Conversation: Local Projection and Collaborative Action.” Discourse Processes 46 (2–3): 226–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ju, Hee. 2011. “Collaborative Unit Construction in Korean: Pivot Turns.” Crossroads of Language, Interaction and Culture 8 (1): 33–60.Google Scholar
Kim, Haeyeon. 2002. “Collaborative Turn Completion in Korean Conversation.” Language Research 38 (4): 1281–1316.Google Scholar
Kim, Kyu-Hyun. 1999. “Phrasal Unit Boundaries and Organization of Turns and Sequences in Korean Conversation.” Human Studies 22 (2): 425–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Gene H. 1987. “Collaborative Turn Sequences: Sentence Construction and Social Action.” PhD diss., Irvine: University of California, Irvine.Google Scholar
1991. “On the Syntax of Sentences-in-Progress.” Language in Society 20 (3): 441–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1992. “Assisted Storytelling: Deploying Shared Knowledge as a Practical Matter.” Qualitative Sociology 15 (3): 247–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993. “Collectivities in Action: Establishing the Relevance of Conjoined Participation in Conversation.” Text & Talk 13 (2): 213–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996a. “On the “Semi-Permeable” Character of Grammatical Units in Conversation: Conditional Entry into the Turn Space of Another Speaker.” In Interaction and Grammar, ed. by Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson, 238–76. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996b. “Finding “Face” in the Preference Structures of Talk-in-Interaction on JSTOR.” Social Psychology Quarterly 59 (4): 303–21. 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, 225–56. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2004a. “Collaborative Turn Sequences.” In Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, ed. by Gene H. Lerner, 225–56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [URL]. DOI logo
2004b. “On the Place of Linguistic Resources in the Organization of Talk-in-Interaction: Grammar as Action in Prompting a Speaker to Elaborate.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 37 (2): 151–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Gene H., and Tomoyo Takagi. 1999. “On the Place of Linguistic Resources in the Organization of Talk-in-Interaction: A Co-Investigation of English and Japanese Grammatical Practices.” Journal of Pragmatics 31 (1): 49–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Local, John. 2005. “On the Interactional and Phonetic Design of Collaborative Completions.” In A Figure of Speech: A Festschrift for John Laver, ed. by William J. Hardcastle and Janet Mackenzie Beck, 1st ed. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, Jennifer. 1987. “Couples Sharing Stories.” Communication Quarterly 35 (2): 144–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Obana, Yasuko, and Michael Haugh. 2015. “Co-Authorship of Joint Utterances in Japanese.” Dialogue and Discourse 6 (1): 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ono, Tsuyoshi, and Sandra A. Thompson. 1995. “What Can Conversation Tell Us About Syntax?” In Alternative Linguistics: Descriptive and Theoretical Modes, ed. by Philip W. Davis, 213–71. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [URL] DOI logo
Park-Fuller, Linda M. 1986. “Voices: Bakhtin’s Heteroglossia and Polyphony, and the Performance of Narrative Literature.” Literature in Performance 7 (1): 1–12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Persson, Rasmus. 2017. “Fill-in-the-Blank Questions in Interaction: Incomplete Utterances as a Resource for Doing Inquiries.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 50 (3): 227–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1984. “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred/Dispreferred Turn Shapes.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by J. Maxwell Atkinson and John Heritage, 57–101. Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1986. “Some Considerations of a Story Told in Ordinary Conversations.” Poetics 15 (1): 127–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1995. Lectures on Conversation, Volumes I & II. Ed. by Gail Jefferson, with an introduction by Emanuel A. Schegloff. Oxford: Blackwell. First published as two volumes 1992. DOI logoGoogle 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. 1995. “Parties and Talking Together: Two Ways in Which Numbers Are Significant for Talk-in-Interaction.” In Situated Order: Studies in the Social Organization of Talk and Embodied Activities, ed. by Paul ten Have and George Psathas, 31–42. Washington, DC: University Press of America.Google Scholar
1996. “Turn Organization: One Intersection of Grammar and Interaction.” In Interaction and Grammar, ed. by Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson, 52–133. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997. “Practices and Actions: Boundary Cases of Other-Initiated Repair.” Discourse Processes 23 (3): 499–545. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000. “On Turn’s Possible Completion, More or Less: Increments and Trailoffs.” Paper presented at the 1st EuroConference on Interactional Linguistics, Spa, Belgium, September 2000.
2016. “Increments.” In Accountability in Social Interaction, ed. by Jeffrey D. Robinson, 239–63. Foundations of Human Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sert, Olcay. 2019. “The Interplay between Collaborative Turn Sequences and Active Listenership: Implications for the Development of L2 Interactional Competence.” In Teaching and Testing L2 Interactional Competence: Bridging Theory and Practice, ed. by M. Rafael Salaberry and Silvia Kunitz, 142–66. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, Jack. 2012. “Turn-Continuation by Self and by Other.” Discourse Processes 49 (3–4): 314–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Szatrowski, Polly. 2002. “Syntactic Projectability and Co-Participant Completion in Japanese Conversation.” Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 28 (1): 315–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Szczepek, Beatrice. 2000a. “Formal Aspects of Collaborative Productions in English Conversation.” InLiSt – Interaction and Linguistic Structures 171 (June). [URL]
. 2000b. “Functional Aspects of Collaborative Productions in English Conversation.” InLiSt – Interaction and Linguistic Structures 211 (December). [URL]
Tanaka, Hiroko. 1999. Turn-Taking in Japanese Conversation: A Study in Grammar and Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [URL] DOI logo
. 2000. “Turn Projection in Japanese Talk-in-Interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 33 (1): 1–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tholander, Michael, and Karin Aronsson. 2002. “Teasing as Serious Business: Collaborative Staging and Response Work.” Text: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse 22 (4): 559–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Wei, and Xin Peng. 2020. “Compound Units in Conversation: Projection and Anticipatory Completion.” In Interactional Linguistics and Chinese Language Studies, ed. by Mei Fang and Xianyin Li, 31: 132–56. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Calabria, Virginia
2023. Co-constructing and other-extending collaborative reported speech in Italian. Journal of Pragmatics 214 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Zhou, Xiaoli
2022. Acknowledging coparticipant's contribution to one's interactional goal: The multiple saying duì duì duì in Mandarin Chinese conversations. Journal of Pragmatics 200 ► pp. 98 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. 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.