Table Of ContentMany scholars of language have accepted a view of grammar as a clearly
delineated and internally coherent structure which is best understood as a
self-contained system. The contributors to this volume propose a very dif-
ferent way of approaching and understanding grammar, taking it as part of
a broader range of systems which underlie the organization of social life
and emphasizing its role in the use of language in everyday interaction and
cognition. Taking as their starting-point the position that the very integrity
of grammar is bound up with its place in the larger schemes of the orga-
nization of human conduct, particularly with social interaction, their essays
explore a rich variety of linkages between interaction and grammar.
Studies in interactional sociolinguistics 13
GENERAL EDITOR
John /. Gumperz
ADVISORY EDITORS
Charles Briggs, Paul Drew, Deborah Schiffrin
Interaction and grammar
Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics
Discourse strategies John J. Gumperz
Language and social identity edited by John J. Gumperz
The social construction of literacy edited by Jenny Cook-Gumperz
Politeness: some universals in language usage Penelope Brown and
Stephen C. Levinson
Discourse markers Deborah Schiffrin
Talking voices Deborah Tannen
Conducting interaction Adam Kendon
Talk at work edited by Paul Drew and John Heritage
Grammar in interaction Cecilia E. Ford
Crosstalk and culture in Sino-American communication
Linda W. L. Young
Aids counselling: institutional interaction and clinical practice
Anssi Perakyla
Prosody in conversation edited by Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and
Margaret Selting
Interaction and grammar
edited by
ELINOR OCHS
University of California, Los Angeles
EMANUEL A. SCHEGLOFF
University of California, Los Angeles
SANDRA A. THOMPSON
University of California, Santa Barbara
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521552257
© Cambridge University Press 1996
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1996
Paperback version transferred to digital printing 1999
Digitally printed hardback version 2006
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Interaction and grammar/edited by Elinor Ochs, Emanuel E. Schegloff and Sandra A.
Thompson.
p. cm. - (Studies in interactional sociolinguistics ; 13)
ISBN 0 521 55225 7 (hardback) ISBN 0 521 55828 X (paperback)
1. Sociolinguistics. 2. Social interaction. 3. Conversation analysis. I. Ochs,
Elinor. II. Schegloff, Emanuel A. III. Thompson, Sandra A. IV. Series.
P40.I55 1996
306.4'4 - dc20 95 - 24891 CIP
ISBN-13 978-0-521-55225-7 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-55225-7 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-55828-0 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-55828-X paperback
Contents
Notes on the contributors page ix
1 Introduction
Emanuel A. Schegloff, Elinor Ochs, and
Sandra A. Thompson 1
2 Turn organization: one intersection of grammar
and interaction
Emanuel A. Scheglof 52
3 Interactional units in conversation: syntactic,
intonational, and pragmatic resources for the
management of turns
Cecilia E. Ford and Sandra A. Thompson 134
4 Resources and repair: a cross-linguistic study
of syntax and repair
Barbara A. Fox, Makoto Hayashi, and
Robert Jasperson 185
5 On the "semi-permeable" character of
grammatical units in conversation: conditional
entry into the turn space of another speaker
Gene H. Lerner 238
6 On repeats and responses in Finnish conversations
Marja-Leena Sorjonen 211
7 "When I come down I'm in the domain state":
grammar and graphic representation in the
interpretive activity of physicists
Elinor Ochs, Patrick Gonzales, and Sally Jacoby 328
viii Contents
8 Transparent vision
Charles Goodwin 370
9 Conversational signifying: grammar and
indirectness among African American women
Marcyliena Morgan 405
10 Creating evidence: making sense of written
words in Bosavi
Bambi B. Schiefelin 435
Appendix: Transcription conventions 461
Index 46
Notes on the contributors
Cecilia E. Ford teaches linguistics in the English Department at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research centers on inter-
actional aspects of language use. She is the author and coauthor
of a number of articles on conversation and grammar and on
spoken and written language, including the recent book,
Grammar in Interaction: Adverbial Clauses in American
English Conversations (1993), in which she uses conversation
analysis as a framework for examining interactional functions
of adverbial clauses.
Barbara A. Fox teaches in the Linguistics Department at the
University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research interests are
mainly in the area of interaction and grammar. Her publications
in this area include work on anaphora, relative clauses, and self-
repair.
Patrick Gonzales is a doctoral candidate in applied linguistics at the
University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests
include discourse analysis, conversation analysis, language social-
ization, and the teaching and learning of mathematics and
science.
Charles Goodwin is Professor of Anthropology at the University of
South Carolina. His research interests include the analysis of
conversation, human interaction, multi-party participation
frameworks, the ethnography of science, the social organization
of talk and perception in professional settings, and aphasia as an
interactive phenomenon. Publications include Conversational
Organization: Interaction between Speakers and Hearers
(Academic Press, 1981), Rethinking Context: Language as an
Interactive Phenomenon (edited with Alessandro Duranti,
