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Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Turn-Taking Practices In English And Spanish Conversations, Claudia B. Martínez

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Conversation analysis is primarily concerned with the tacit rules of turn-taking in standard systems of conversation—that is, with how people maneuver through spoken conversations to make themselves heard, while still allowing for dialogue to take place. Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson had largely influenced the groundwork for this field in the late 1970s by setting forth certain proprieties of speech that deem overlaps, or interruptions, generally untoward and counterproductive. My goal here is to rethink this theory, however, to illuminate certain culturally specific instances of overlapping that do indeed lend themselves to the flow of the conversation. I compare such instances …