Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

Qualitative Data Analysis I: Text Analysis 489
becomes unpredictable or the content gets used up, and no one jumps in to
take a turn at the appropriate time, then the current speaker may (but does not
have to) continue talking. If none of these things happen, then there will be a
gap in the conversation. Gaps don’t usually last very long if the rules of conversation
are followed.
Of course, the rules are often broken in real conversations. People often do
interrupt each other unsupportively and don’t wait to take their turns. People
who get interrupted don’t always push on, trying to finish their turn, but relinquish
their turn instead, without finishing. People usually recognize when the
preferred order of turn-taking has not been adhered to and engage in what are
called repair tactics. For example, Sacks et al. (1974) noted that when two
people start talking over each other, one of them might just stop and let the
other finish.
1. A: [It’s not like we–
2. B: [Some people are–
3. B: Sorry.
4. A: No, g’head
5. B: hhhh I wus jus gonna say that some people aren’t innerested in sports at
all.
6. A: [Right
This is a simple repair tactic that doesn’t involve any serious content. Other
repair tactics can be more complex. The result of this repair sequence could
have come out differently, of course. But in the study of hundreds of natural
conversations between equals, we can uncover the rules governing how people
open and close conversations, how they repair mistakes (when they break the
rules of turn-taking, for example), and how they segue from one theme to
another.
The turn-taking sequence can be suspended, as for example, in the telling
of jokes and stories. If I say, ‘‘Did you hear the one about? . . .’’ and you say,
‘‘No, tell me,’’ then this suspends turn-taking until you’re finished with the
joke. If you interrupt me in the middle of telling the joke, this breaks the rule
for this conversation element. And the same thing goes for storytelling. If I
say, ‘‘I was on the flight from Hell coming back from Detroit last week’’ and
you respond by saying ‘‘What happened?’’ then I get to tell you the story all
the way through. Certain kinds of interruptions are permitted, but sidetracking
me completely from the story is not permitted.
Here, again, though, we find the rule broken all the time. And when sidetracking
happens, one of several repair sequences might kick in. ‘‘Sorry, I got
you off track. Then what happened?’’ is a repair sequence. We’ve all experi-