BEGINNER: A Long Turn

At the beginning of this section, diagrams of five turn-shape configurations were presented indicating some possible positions of nonvocalized components in the embodied action-turns of single turn-holders. The fifth configuration is demonstrated in our next example, BEGINNER.

5. [speech (silence) speech (silence) speech ( ] )

[ nonvocal EA 1... => nonvocal EA 2--------->( ] )...

Configuration Five indicates a turn-shape in which the turn-holder intermittently speaks and is silent, but embodied actions continue throughout. Implicit in the prior discussion is an observation made explicit here: that silences in the talk among co-present participants frequently are neither pauses in the interaction nor gaps in the current turn-holder's turn (although our conventions of transcribing mostly talk and places of non-talk -- silence -- inevitably serve to reinforce this imprecise view of the action).

Transcription conventions in conversation analysis usually mark intra-turn silences by indicating their duration in tenths-of-seconds, enclosing them in parentheses, and embedding them in the same line of talk. In the following examples, such time markers of silence will be included but do not necessarily indicate the end of the current turn. Rather, "EA"s indicate the speaker continues to hold the interactional floor through the performance of nonvocalized embodied action components of a turn. As in previous transcriptions, "EA" followed by an arrow indicates the occurrence of such an action-unit.

In this fragment of videotaped interaction, five friends are engaged in a discussion about skiing, and Monica is relating a story about a novice skier. Monica and Sue are Canadian English-speakers, and Zena, Lena, and Kolya are native speakers of Russian. We begin with a simplified transcript that reflects only the audio track. Before viewing the clip, examine this transcript, especially the places in the interaction marked by the arrows, because this is where one might wonder about what is happening in the interaction.

BEGINNER: Simplified Transcript from Audio Track

1 Monica: ...a beGINner

2 (0.6)

3 Lena: (h)uh 'hh I: w[a-

4 [

5 Monica: [sh:e was- she wa:s

6 [ski:ing

[((3 stomps))

7 (0.2) <---

8 like thI:S:

9 (0.2) <---

10 [you kno:w? with the-

[

11 ( ): [hhuh hah 'huh

12 Sue: [hhu[h huh hah

13 Zena: [ye(h)ah 'huh- 'hih hih

14 (0.8)

15 Zena: [(h)uh huh ['hih 'hih 'hi[h 'hih

16 Lena: [hhuh 'huh [

17 Sue: [HAH 'Uh 'Uh

 

Now examine the revised transcript based on the videotaped recording of this interaction. In this version, our focus is especially on the turns constructed by Monica at lines 7, 8, 9, 11, and 14, and by her recipients' orientation to them. An equal sign, "=" indicates Monica moving into a new embodied performance.

(Click on PLAY button for BEGINNER: A Long Turn)

 

1 Monica: ...[<<a beGINner>>

[

2 Zena: [ ( )

3 (0.2)

4 Zena: ( [((EA nods)) )

5 Lena: [((EA n[ods))

6 [(h)uh 'hh I: w[a-

[

7 Monica: [sh:e was- she wa:s

((starts EA ------------>

8 skiing (0.2) like thI:S: ( 0.2 )

((--EA------------------>)) = ((EA --->

9 [you kno:w? with the-

[((--EA------------------>

[

10 ( ): [hhuh hah 'huh

11 Monica: [((--EA ---(0.5)------>)) = [((EA--(0.8)---->

12 Sue: [hhu[h huh hah [

13 Zena: [ye(h)ah 'huh- 'hih [hih

14 Monica: [((--EA ------(1.4)--------->)) / ((sits))

[ [ [

15 Zena: [(h)uh huh ['hih 'hih 'hi[h 'hih

16 Lena: [hhuh 'huh [

17 Sue: [HAH 'Uh 'Uh

Upon viewing the videotaped clip, we observe first that ONLY at line 3 is there a silence with no action. For example, in lines 4 and 5 in this new transcript we see Zena and Lena exchanging nods whereas in our first transcript we indicated a sixth-tenths-of-a-second pause. Also, at line 7 we see Monica standing up as she utters "sh:e was- she wa:s"; and by the time she utters "skiing" at line 8, Monica is performing an embodied enactment of "skiing" for her recipients (as she stomps her feet three times).

7 Monica: [sh:e was- she wa:s

((starts EA ------------>

8 skiing (0.2) like thI:S: ( 0.2 )

((--EA------------------>)) = ((EA -->

Note also that during the first two-tenths-of-a-second silence at line 8, Monica has in no way paused in her performing, and that upon the occurrence of the next two-tenths-of-a-second pause, Monica has not only not stopped her turn but she has also changed the structure of her embodied performance. Now she is displaying another nonvocalized component for her recipients using her hands and extended index fingers as "skis". In other words, during her turn, silence is not an indication of the absence of action; to the contrary, the on-going flow of interaction in this fragment relies upon participants' use of nonvocalized components constituting their embodied action-turns. Furthermore, at lines 9, 11, and 14, Monica continues to construct her turn using vocalized as well as nonvocalized components.

9 [you kno:w? with the-

[((--EA------------------>

[

10 ( ): [hhuh hah 'huh

11 Monica: [((--EA ---(0.5)------>)) = [((EA--(0.8)---->

12 Sue: [hhu[h huh hah [

13 Zena: [ye(h)ah 'huh- 'hih [hih

14 Monica: [((--EA -------(1.4)--------->)) / ((sits))

[ [ [

15 Zena: [(h)uh huh ['hih 'hih 'hi[h 'hih

Visible in the first transcript at line 11 -- and detectable when listening only to the audio recording of this fragment of interaction -- was the long eight-tenths-of-a-second silence, an inter-turn silence at that. However, we can now observe that there is no inter-turn pause at this place in the interaction. In fact, at line 11 Monica is continuing to build on the action-turn that she already extended into line 9. Furthermore, where it appeared as though she had abruptly halted her turn at line 9 ("you know? with the-"), what she has actually done is construct the rest of her turn using nonvocalized components. That is, she stops talking but does not stop acting. Her recipients display attention to and appreciation of her on-going turn through their overlapping laughter.

Furthermore, in line 11 -- and during what is still marked as eight-tenths-of-a-second in which no one is speaking or laughing -- Monica performs her most animated display of the "beginner" struggling to ski. Her recipients are attending to her visually, and their laughter continues again after Monica has repeated several of the struggling movements of the novice-skier. Monica finally ends ("roughly") her nonvocalized action-turn components by dropping her hands and sitting amidst the continuing appreciative laughter of her recipients. Her performance is perhaps remarkable for its animation and playful display of humor, but it is clearly unremarkable in terms of its seamless construction, its sequential fit, its recipient-design, and its projectability.

One thing that Monica is doing with her embodied turns is re-performing some aspects of the behavior of the novice skier. In the next example, BREAD, we see a conversation analyst using both vocalized and nonvocalized components to construct a turn in which he re-performs the behavior of a research subject.