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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Oct 30, 2007
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2008
• Journal: Research on Language and Social Interaction
• Print ISSN: 0835-1813
• 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