Introduction

Many linguists working on spoken language abandon the sentence as an analytic unit as a result of data like the text in (1), which is the transcription of a conversation. The ‘ + ’ signs mark brief pauses.

1. (1) I used to light up a cigarette + you see because that was a very quiet way to go + now when I lit up my cigarette I used to find myself at Churchill + and the quickest way to get back from Churchill was to walk along long down Clinton Road + along + Blackford something or other it's actually an extension of Dick Place but it's called Blackford something or other it shouldn't be it's miles away from Blackford Hill + but it's called Blackford Road I think + uhm then along to Lauder Road and down Lauder Road.

As Crystal (1987:94) observes about another, but similar, text, it is not easy to decide whether the pauses mark sentence boundaries or whether the whole text is one loosely constructed sentence. An additional problem in (1) is that one stretch uninterrupted by pauses appears to consist of what would be several sentences in writing: It's actually an extension of Dick Place, but it's called Blackford something or other, It shouldn't be, it's miles from Blackford Hill. Two of the clauses are conjoined by but, but two are simply adjacent to the preceding one.