Year: 1987
Type: dissertation
Abstract: A central feature of conversation is that people take it in turns to speak. Typically \nspeaker-listener roles are exchanged in a smooth and orderly fashion, with little or no \ngap or overlap. \nTo date, within psychology only one comprehensive model of turn-taking has been \nproposed (Duncan, 1972). This model is cue based and suggests that discrete cues \nare responsible for the smooth management of conversation. There are, however, a \nnumber of fundamental shortcomings in the methodological and conceptual analysis \nthat underpins this model. The aim of this thesis was to address these shortcomings \nfor they have broader implications for our understanding of the turn exchange process. \nThe methodology employed involved both the qualitative and quantitative \nmicro-analysis of conversational data. To test the general significance of this analysis \na more experimental approach, involving subjects judgements about particular \nsections of conversation, was employed. In order to put the generality question to the \ntest, the investigations were based on different types of conversations - face-to-face \nconversations involving agreement and disagreement and telephone conversations \ninvolving travel enquiries and directory enquiries. \nThe research carried out in this thesis has demonstrated that a wider range of \ninformation is exploited for turn-taking purposes than previously thought. The \nturn-taking cues Duncan identified could not provide an adequate explanation of how \na smooth exchange of turns was actualised at a particular location. Two judgement \nstudies demonstrated that whilst some conversations were managed by discrete cues \nas Duncan had suggested, others were not. Further investigations provided evidence \nthat certain aspects of verbal content provide higher order and local information that is \nimportant for turn-taking. These investigations thus demonstrated that a cue based \nmodel of turn-taking is inadequate and emphasize the need for future work to provide \nprecise explanations about how contextual factors are exploited in this process.
Author: Jane Stephens
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1529403552