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On the structure of speaker–auditor interaction during speaking turns1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Starkey Duncan Jr
Affiliation:
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Committee on Cognition and Communication, University of Chicago

Abstract

The structure of speaker–auditor interaction during speaking turns was explored, using detailed transcriptions of language, paralanguage, and body-motion behaviors displayed by both participants in dyadic, face-to-face conversations. On the basis of certain observed regularities in these behaviors, three signals were hypothesized: (a) a speaker within-turn signal, (b) an auditor back-channel signal, and (c) a speaker continuation signal. These signals were composed of various behaviors in language and in body motion. It was further hypothesized that the display of appropriate ordered sequences of these signals by both participants, served to mark ‘units of interaction’ during speaking turns. (Conversational analysis; speaking turns; back-channel behaviors; interrelations of verbal and nonverbal behavior; American English (Chicago)).

Type
Articles: On Verbal Interaction
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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