Turn Takings

Speaker-change occurs One speaker talks at a time Brief overlap among speakers is common No-gap, no-overlap exchange is also common Standard ways of allocating turns exist Nothing is agreed-on or planned in advance

Construction of turns How do we know what a turn is? Allocation / sharing of turns How do we know when it’s over? One consequence of this pattern is that if the listener doesn't want to take turns, he or she typically signals the speaker can keep talking, by making the sort of sounds, not always words, that linguists call back-channel utterances.

Sound: ‘ mhm ’ ‘ uhun ’, ‘ yeah ’ Body language: gesture, eye contact, nodding Linguistic signals: Guess what? Do you see? I don ’ t get you By the way.. Gotta run

Sunny: Excuse me, could you tell me how to go to this place on the map ? Mandy : Go straight; then, pass the courthouse and go to AD Building and then to SOSO Department Store, uh north. Sunny: mm, hum. Mandy : Towards Riverside, till you come to the City Hall. Sunny: Oh, yes. Mandy : Do you know where that is? Sunny: Uh, huh..Oh, surely. Mandy : City Hall is next to GM Restaurant. Sunny: Uh, huh Mandy : Well there, from GM Restaurant, you turn back to town, left, there it is. Sunny: Thank you.