Question

What principle explains why speaker B would reasonably make such an inference? (hint: this is a principle we discussed many weeks ago, when we first started talking about adjacency pairs)

Excerpt 6: Button (1991, p. 255; also cited in West, 2006, p. 385) 1A: Yeah well, things uh always work out for the best 2 B: Oh, certainly. Alright, [Bea 3 A: 4 B: G'bye 5 A Goodnight [Uh huh, okay,

Answer 1

This is basically an example of the principle of turn-taking in conversations.

The underlying principles of turn-taking were first explained by sociologists Harvey Sacks, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson in "A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation" in the journal Language (December 1974 issue).

In conversation analysis, turn-taking is a term for the manner in which orderly conversation usually takes place. A basic awareness can come right from the term itself: it's the notion that people in a conversation take turns while speaking. When studied by sociologists, however, the analysis goes deeper, into topics such as how people know when it's their turn to speak, how big of an overlap there is between speakers, when it's alright to have overlap, gender or territorial differences in interrupting, etc.

A major part of the research in turn-taking has looked into competitive versus cooperative overlap in conversations, like how that affects the balance of power of those in the conversation and how much rapport the speakers have. For instance, in competitive overlap, investigators might look at how one person leads a conversation or how a listener might take some power back with different avenues of interrupting.

In cooperative overlap, a listener might ask for clarification on a point or add to the discussion with further examples that assist the speaker's point. These kinds of overlaps help move the conversation ahead and help in communicating the full meaning to all who are listening. Or overlaps might be more friendly and just demonstrate that the listener understands, such as by saying "Uh-huh." Overlap like this also propels the speaker forward.

With regard to understanding the difference between interruption and interjection, the following quote by Deborah Tannen from "Would You Please Let Me Finish ..." The New York Times, October 17, 2012, can help us out:

"To be sure, a debate is as much about performance and rhetoric (and snappy one-liners) as it is about meaningful dialogue. But our ideas about conversation inevitably shape how we perceive the debates. This means, for example, that what seems an interruption to one viewer might be merely an interjection to another. Conversation is an exchange of turns, and having a turn means having a right to hold the floor until you have finished what you want to say. So interrupting is not a violation if it doesn’t steal the floor. If your uncle is telling a long story at dinner, you may cut in to ask him to pass the salt. Most (but not all) people would say you aren’t really interrupting; you just asked for a temporary pause."