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Re-engaging and dis-engaging talk in activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1999

MARGARET H. SZYMANSKI
Affiliation:
30856 Agoura Road, D-6, Agoura Hills, CA 91301, pegszymanski@hotmail.com

Abstract

This article explores how members of small work groups use audible and visible actions to coordinate conversational interaction. The analysis of this activity context includes some methods for re-engaging turn-by-turn talk after it has lapsed, as well as some methods for making relevant a lapse in talk, and dis-engaging it, once it has been engaged. In addition, the actions positioned at conversational boundaries, both pre-re-engaging and post-dis-engaging, show the members' orientation to phases of lapse and phases of turn-by-turn talk. This study is part of a larger dissertation project (Szymanski 1996). I thank Rebecca Simon and her third-graders for welcoming me into their classroom. I also gratefully acknowledge Gene Lerner, John Gumperz, Leslie Jarmon, and Jürgen Streeck for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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