Other-initiated repair across languages: towards a typology of conversational structures

Abstract

This special issue reports on a cross-linguistic study of other-initiated repair, a domain at the crossroads of language, mind, and social life. Other-initiated repair is part of a system of practices that people use to deal with problems of speaking, hearing and understanding. The contributions in this special issue describe the linguistic resources and interactional practices associated with other-initiated repair in ten different languages. Here we provide an overview of the research methods and the conceptual framework. The empirical base for the project consists of corpora of naturally occurring conversations, collected in fieldsites around the world. Methodologically, we combine qualitative analysis with a comparative-typological perspective, and we formulate principles for the cross-linguistic comparison of conversational structures. A key move, of broad relevance to pragmatic typology, is the recognition that formats for repair initiation form paradigm-like systems that are ultimately language-specific, and that comparison is best done at the level of the constitutive properties of these formats. These properties can be functional (concerning aspects of linguistic formatting) as well as sequential (concerning aspects of the interactional environment). We show how functional and sequential aspects of conversational structure can capture patterns of commonality and diversity in conversational structures within and across languages.

Turn-Taking in Human Communicative Interaction

“…Enfield et al (2013) compare linguistic and conversational mechanisms in relation to problems of understanding in a sample that included LSA and 20 spoken languages across the globe, with results suggesting linguistic and conversational universals in social interaction. LSA signers have the same basic functional options as those described for spoken languages, such as "open" vs. "restricted" formats for other-initiation of repair (Dingemanse and Enfield, 2015; see below for definitions). Another study (Floyd et al, 2014), focusing on the use of "holds" in OIR sequences in LSA and two unrelated spoken languages, Italian and Cha'palaa, also suggests commonalities across signed and spoken languages concerning the function and timing of final-turn holds.…”

“…Research on other-initiation of repair to date has been done almost exclusively on spoken languages, in telephone and face-toface interaction, with a fairly limited sample of languages beyond English (see Dingemanse and Enfield, 2015;Hayashi et al, 2013 for recent crosslinguistic studies). Despite an explosion of recent research on sign language in linguistics and related fields, there is relatively little research on interactional structures and mechanisms in sign languages, especially where such research focuses on naturally-occurring interaction.…”

“…But if they do not understand or do not hear the question clearly, they have the option of initiating repair by the questioner, for example by saying in English "Sorry?, " "What?, " "Huh?, " or "Can you repeat that?." This is called other-initiation of repair, abbreviated as OIR Dingemanse and Enfield, 2015).…”

“…Two macro categories of OIR are defined by how they specify the scope of the problem that Person B is targeting in the previous turn. These are "open" and "restricted" categories of OIR (Dingemanse and Enfield, 2015 . These specific types of repair initiators limit the scope of the problem, indicating that the problem is not with the entire previous turn but a part of it.…”

Management of children’s offences in Vietnamese contexts: an analysis of children’s social competence

“…Repair is also a regular pattern in offending situations emerging to guarantee that "the interaction does not freeze in its place when trouble arises, that intersubjectivity is maintained or restored, and that the turn and sequence and activity can progress to possible completion" (Schegloff, 2007;p.xiv initiator, which is often used to prompt for a third turn repair in the next turn (cf. Dingemanse & Enfield, 2015). Linh produces an other-initiated repair in line 39, adding the particle "ạ" to demonstrate her respect to the older recipient of the turn, which has not been conveyed in her previous attempt.…”