The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

CONVERSATION TELLS
role. But what about the speaker? How do speakers hold
on to the floor, and which signals do they use when they
want to relinquish the floor?
When speakers want to give up the floor they send
'turn-yielding signals' to the listener. As we've already
seen, some of these signals are transmitted before the end
of the turn, making it possible for listeners to make a
'smooth transition', where the beginning of their turn coincides
with the end of the previous speaker's turn. One of
the ways that speakers signal the end of their turn is by
altering their pattern of gaze - if the speaker is looking
elsewhere, he or she may signal that the turn is coming to
an end by looking at the listener. 7 This is crucial when
there's a group of people - in this situation the person
whom the speaker looks at last is most likely to become
the next speaker. 8
The end of a sentence usually marks the 'completion
point' of a turn, but because each turn contains so many
completed sentences this in itself is not enough to show
when the speaker is about to end their turn. Additional
signals are required. One of these is a drop in vocal pitch.
Hand gestures can also serve as signals that the turn
is coming to an end. Occasionally the end of a turn is
marked by a particular phrase - one example is the habit
that some people have of completing their turn with the
expression, 'I don't know' or 'I don't know, really'. Some
people shrug their shoulders, which conveys a very similar
message at the end of their turn. Starkey Duncan, who has
made a detailed study of turn-taking signals, has pointed
out that people sometimes produce turn-holding signals at
the same time as turn-yielding signals, and that when this
happens the presence of a single holding signal is enough
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