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Article published In: Interactional Problems and Their Resolutions in Natural Discourse in Languages in Taiwan
Edited by Miao-Hsia Chang
[Chinese Language and Discourse 17:2] 2026
► pp. 280–307

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Self-repair in Chinese, Russian, and Czech narrative discourse

ORCiD logo with link | National Chengchi University
ORCiD logo with link | National Chengchi University
ORCiD logo with link | National Chengchi University
Published online: 7 September 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.00057.chu
Abstract
This study investigated repetition, replacement, and morphological repairs in narrative discourse across Taiwan Mandarin, Russian, and Czech to identify common and language-specific self-repair patterns in sister and non-sister languages. Repair rate, recycling scope, and morphosyntactic features of trouble sources and recycled constituents were analyzed. Repetition repair was the most frequent type to delay speech production across all languages. The trouble source was typically resolved without repeating other words. When recycling occurred, repeating a single word was the most common pattern. In word-internal interruptions, Russian and Czech demonstrated similar practices of root repetition and affix replacement. Morphosyntactic constraints on repair accounted for a small portion of the data. Speakers of all three languages prioritized a discourse strategy of “prompt resolution and minimal alteration” of the constructed structure and semantic content to resume fluent speech, even in narrative contexts without time pressure or interactional demands.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Data collection
    • 2.3Transcription, coding, and analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Repair types in Taiwan Mandarin, Russian, and Czech
    • 3.2Trouble source
    • 3.3Scope of recycling
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Authorship contribution statement
  • Glossary
  • References
References (32)
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