Unfinished Turns in French: How Context Matters

Chevalier, Fabienne HG

Abstract

On occasions, speakers do not complete their turns in conversation. Such syntactically-incomplete turns are not treated with repair or misunderstanding. The responses that they receive display a clear understanding of the actions that the unfinished turns embodied. In this article, using conversation analysis (CA), I describe the systematic occurrence of unfinished turns in French conversation. I show that context is necessary to the understanding of this type of turn and I describe the nature of that context. Data analysis reveals that unfinished turns are understandable primarily by reference to their sequential position. I conclude that unfinished turns are a locally- managed resource fitted to the particulars of the talk in progress and built upon the context that the sequences that house them have so far provided.

Citation

Chevalier, F. H. Unfinished Turns in French: How Context Matters. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 41(1), Article tbc-tbc

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Deposit Date: Oct 30, 2007
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2008
• Journal: Research on Language and Social Interaction
• Print ISSN: 0835-1813
• Electronic ISSN: 1532-7973
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: tbc-tbc
• Keywords: Conversation Analysis (CA), turn organization, sequentiality, context, French
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1015341
• Publisher URL: http://www.leaonline.com/loi/rlsi