Third-turn Self-repair : What Contingencies Does it Deal With?

Abstract

This study aimed at examining the proposition that repairs are available to the speaker anywhere in the turn (i.e., third turn), and thus can be employed whenever useful (i.e., contingencies of the repair) (Schegloff et al., 1977; Goodwin, 1981). The data came from natural conversation including telephone conversation. Sixteen instances were selected for qualitative analysis as they represented third-turn repair which occurred upon no signal of misunderstanding. The analysis revealed that repairs at the third-turn position can be significantly used to construct multiple turns, contingent upon the different recipient signals and the intersubjectivity in a certain conversational context. The findings indicate there are the systematic workings of third-turn repair in natural conversational encounter, which is a part of interactional competence.