A note on conversational interruptions

Abstract

In their seminal article, Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974) examine procedures for turn-taking in conversation. Sometimes, they note, a s peaker will select who has the next turn, but more frequently a "self-select" system operates, whereby the participants in a conversation themselves determine when they wish to speak. But how, ask Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson, do the interlocutors secure a turn in the ongoing flow of another speaker's utterance? To answer this question the authors introduce the notion of "transition relevance place", that is, a point in the turn-holder's utterance where another speaker is most likely to take up a turn. Clearly the most obvious transition relevance place occurs at the end of an utterance sentence, where a pause may be made. However, clause or thersyntactic boundaries also offer opportunities for other speakers to interrupt. As Sacks et al point out, if conversational participants do not take up a turn at a transition relevance place the turn holder will normally continue.