Wright2011a

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Wright2011a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Wright2011a
Author(s) Melissa Wright
Title On clicks in English talk-in-interaction
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Closings, multi-unit sequence transition turns, Clicks
Publisher
Year 2011
Language English
City
Month
Journal Journal of the International Phonetic Association
Volume 41
Number 2
Pages 207-229
URL Link
DOI 10.1017/S0025100311000144
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This paper analyses clicks in naturally-occurring English conversation. It demonstrates that regardless of any paralinguistic functions clicks may undertake, their occurrence is orderly and systematic, and intimately tied to the interactional structure of talk. Specifically, clicks are shown to function alongside the phonetic parameters of pitch, articulatory segmental features and voice quality (and the sequential and lexical organisation of talk) to demarcate the onset of new and disjunctive sequences. The methodology employed combines (i) the sequential analysis techniques of Conversation Analysis with (ii) parametric impressionistic and instrumental phonetic investigations. A key feature of this methodology is the study of naturally-occurring conversation rather than intuited or laboratory speech data. The findings in this paper challenge the traditional view that clicks function only paralinguistically in English. They also highlight the fruitfulness of implementing phonetic investigations alongside interactional analyses since such an approach enables previously unobserved patterns in the phonetics-interaction interface to be identified.

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