Opening sequencing

Emanuel A. Schegloff

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489471.026

B - Opening sequencing

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009

Emanuel A. Schegloff

Edited by

James E. Katz and

Mark Aakhus

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James E. Katz: Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Mark Aakhus: Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey

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Summary

It is an easily noticeable fact about two-party conversations that their speaker sequencing is alternating. That is to say, the sequencing of speakers in two-party conversation can be described by the formula “ababab,” where “a” and “b” are the parties to the conversation.

The “abab” formula is a specification, for two-party conversation, of a basic rule for conversation: one party at a time. The strength of this rule can be seen in the members' practice that, in a multi-party setting (more precisely, where there are four or more participants), if more than one person is talking, it can be claimed not that the rule has been violated, but that more than one conversation is going on. Thus, Bales can write (1950, p. 461; emphasis added):

The conversation generally proceeded so that one person talked at time, and all members in the particular group were attending the same conversation. In this sense, these groups might be said to have a “single focus,” that is, they did not involve a number of conversations proceeding at the same time.

When combined with an analytic conception of an utterance, the “abab” specification has a variety of other interesting consequences, such as allowing us to see how persons can come to say “X is silent,” when no person in the setting is talking – as in Bergler's (1938) title, “On the Resistance Situation: The Patient Is Silent.

Type: Chapter
Information: Perpetual Contact
Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance
, pp. 326 - 385

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489471.026 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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References

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