Same-turn self-repair

Encyclopedia of Terminology for CA and IL: Same-turn self-repair
Author(s):	Irina Mostovaia (University of Hamburg, Germany) (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1381-050X) & Martin Pfeiffer (University of Potsdam, Germany) (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5175-3657)
To cite:	Mostovaia, I. & Pfeiffer, M. (2023). Same-turn self-repair. In Alexandra Gubina, Elliott M. Hoey & Chase Wesley Raymond (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Terminology for Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics. International Society for Conversation Analysis (ISCA). DOI: []

In same-turn self-repair, speakers interrupt their own emerging turn-constructional unit in order to deal with a problem related to the current turn. Same-turn self-repair can be used by speakers either to retrospectively fix a problem with a part of the turn that they have just produced or to deal with a problem concerning the continuation of the ongoing and not yet completed turn (Schegloff, et al. 1977). In same-turn self-repair, in contrast to self-initiated self-repairs occurring in other sequential positions, the repair initiation and the repair solution are provided within the same turn – most commonly within the same TCU – as the repairable before reaching the next possible transition-relevance place (TRP) (Schegloff, et al. 1977).

It has been described for different languages that same-turn self-repair can be initiated with a range of lexical devices (on English: Clayman & Raymond 2021, Lerner & Kitzinger 2015, 2019, Schegloff 2010; on Finnish: Laakso & Sorjonen 2010; on German: Günthner 1999, Günthner & Imo 2003, Pfeiffer 2015, 2017a, Uhmann 2001; on Japanese: Hayashi, et al. 2019) and prosodic means, such as cut-offs (on English: Jasperson 2002; on Finnish: Laakso & Sorjonen 2010; on German: Pfeiffer, 2015, 2017a) and sound stretches or pauses (on English: Schegloff, et al. 1977, Schegloff 1979; on French: Gülich & Kotschi 1987). Lexical and prosodic repair initiators can also be combined with each other.

(1) [BCC752]

01  Sal:    A:n’ uhm: he looks aft- well his sister looks
02          after ‘er ‘e says ‘e does but I know his sister does

In extract (1), taken from Lerner & Kitzinger (2019: 2), the speaker produces a same-turn self-repair on the reference by replacing the pronoun “he” with the noun phrase “his sister”. This self-repair is initiated with a cut-off (“aft-”) and the lexical initiator “well”. As they occur after the repairable, they are referred to as postpositioned self-initiations (Schegloff 1979).

(2) (Fox & Jasperson 1995: 81)

01  K:    .hh And I’m in the uh (0.2) school of law,

In contrast to example (1), the repair initiators in extract (2) – namely the hesitation marker “uh” and the pause – represent the so-called prepositioned self-initiations (Schegloff 1979) that address the projected, but not yet produced, part of the TCU. These self-initiations indicate that the speaker has some problems concerning the production of the ongoing TCU and is searching for a word or an appropriate formulation to continue the turn. A word search can also be initiated with visible resources, e.g., with the specific facial gesture referred to as thinking face by Goodwin & Goodwin (1986) (for visible resources for initiating a self-repair in Japanese, see Hayashi 2003).

Schegloff (2013) identifies ten repair operations that speakers deploy in same-turn self-repair. These are replacing (see extract (1)), inserting, deleting, searching (see extract (2)), parenthesizing, aborting, recycling (see “looks after”, which post-frames the repair solution in (1); cf. Schegloff 1987), sequence-jumping, reformatting, and reordering. Fox (2012) points out that replacing and recycling are the two most common repair operations. The syntactic aspects of these repair operations have been investigated in particular languages (cf. Fox & Jasperson 1995 for English; Pfeiffer 2014, 2017b and Uhmann 2001 for German) as well as in a range of cross-linguistic studies (cf. Birkner, et al. 2012; Fox, et al. 1996; Fox, et al. 2009, 2010; Fox, et al. 2017). In contrast to Fox (2012), Kitzinger (2013: 233-238) reports on replacements and insertions as the most common repair operations.

Drew et al. (2013) point out that by providing same-turn self-repair, speakers can calibrate the format of an action (for a repair on the question form see Heritage (2002): “Wouldn’t you say”  “Would you say that’s”  “Might you say”) or change the action accomplished by the current turn to another one, which is better fitted to the particular interactional circumstances (e.g., suggestions can be replaced with invitations or offers, cf. Drew, et al. 2013: 76-78). By doing so, speakers can manage responsibility or epistemic authority (cf. Lerner & Kitzinger 2007), upgrade or downgrade “the force of the action of a turn” (Kitzinger 2013: 243-244; cf. also Heritage 2002; Curl 2006), or display uncertainty (cf. Lerner, et al. 2012). Furthermore, same-turn self-repair are systematically used in order “to absorb overlap[s]” (Schegloff 1987: 80), and to re-establish mutual gaze (cf. Goodwin 1980).

• Self-initiated self-repair
• Same-turn self-repair
• Third turn repair
• Third position repair
• Other-initiated self-repair
• Transition-relevance place (TRP)
• Turn-at-talk
• Turn-constructional unit (TCU)

Cited References:

Birkner, K., Henricson, S., Lindholm, C., & Pfeiffer, M. (2012). Grammar and self-repair: Retraction patterns in German and Swedish prepositional phrases. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 1413–1433.

Clayman, S. E., & Raymond, C. W. (2021). An Adjunct to Repair: You Know in Speech Production and Understanding Difficulties. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 54(1), 80–100.

Curl, T. S. (2006). Offers of assistance: Constraints on syntactic design. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(8), 1257–1280.

Drew, P., Walker, T., & Ogden, R. (2013). Self-repair and action construction. In M. Hayashi, G. Raymond, & J. Sidnell (Eds.) Conversational repair and human understanding (pp. 71–94). Cambridge University Press.

Fox, B. A. (2012). Conversation Analysis and Self-Repair. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1105–1110). Wiley-Blackwell.

Fox, B. A., Hayashi, M., & Jasperson, R. (1996). Resources and repair: A cross-linguistic study of syntax and repair. In E. Ochs, E. A. Schegloff, & S. A. Thompson (Eds.) Interaction and Grammar (pp. 185–237). Cambridge University Press.

Fox, B. A., & Jasperson, R. (1995). A syntactic exploration of repair in English conversation. In P. Davis (Ed.) Descriptive and Theoretical Modes in the Alternative Linguistics (pp. 77–134). John Benjamins.

Fox, B. A., Maschler, Y., & Uhmann, S. (2009). Morpho-syntactic resources for the organization of same-turn self-repair: Cross-linguistic variation in English, German and Hebrew. Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 10, 246–291.

Fox, B. A., Maschler, Y., & Uhmann, S. (2010). A cross-linguistic study of self-repair: Evidence from English, German, and Hebrew. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 2487–2505.

Fox, B. A., Wouk, F., Fincke, S., Flores, W. H., Hayashi, M., Laakso, M., Maschler, Y., Mehrabi, A., Sorjonen, M-L., Uhmann, S., & Yang, H. J. (2017). Morphological self-repair. Self-repair within the word. Studies in Language, 41(3), 638–659.

Goodwin, C. (1980). Restarts, Pauses and the Achievement of a State of Mutual Gaze at Turn Beginning. Sociological Inquiry, 50, 272–302.

Goodwin, H. M., & Goodwin, C. (1986). Gesture and coparticipation in the activity of searching for a word. Semiotica, 62(1–2), 51–76.

Gülich, E., & Kotschi, T. (1987). Reformulierungshandlungen als Mittel der Textkonstitution. Untersuchungen zu französischen Texten aus mündlicher Kommunikation. In W. Motsch (Ed.) Satz, Text, sprachliche Handlung (pp. 199–261). Akademieverlag.

Günthner, S. (1999). Entwickelt sich der Konzessivkonnektor obwohl zum Diskursmarker? Grammatikalisierungstendenzen im gesprochenen Deutsch. Linguistische Berichte, 180, 409–446.

Günthner, S., & Imo, W. (2003). Die Reanalyse von Matrixsätzen als Diskursmarker: ich mein-Konstruktionen im gesprochenen Deutsch. In M. Orosz, & A. Herzog (Eds.) Jahrbuch der Ungarischen Germanistik (pp. 181–216). DAAD.

Hayashi, M. (2003). Language and the body as resources for collaborative action: a study of word searches in Japanese conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 36(2), 109–141.

Hayashi, M., Hosoda, Y., & Morimoto, I. (2019): Tte Yuu Ka as a Repair Preface in Japanese. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 52(2), 104–123.

Heritage, J. (2002). The limits of questioning: Negative interrogatives and hostile question content. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(10–11), 1427–1446.

Jasperson, R. (2002). Some linguistic aspects of closure cut-off. In B. A. Fox, C.E. Ford, & S.A. Thompson (Eds.) The Language of Turn and Sequence (pp. 257–286).Oxford University Press.

Kitzinger, C. (2013). Repair. In J. Sidnell, & T. Stivers (Eds.) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 229–256). Wiley-Blackwell.

Laakso, M., & Sorjonen, M.-L. (2010). Cut-off or particle – Devices for initiating self-repair in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 1151–1172.

Lerner, G.H., Bolden, G.B., Hepburn, A., & Mandelbaum, J. (2012). Reference Recalibration Repairs: Adjusting the Precision of Formulations for the Task at Hand. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(2), 191–212.

Lerner, G.H., & Kitzinger, C. (2007). Extraction and aggregation in the repair of individual and collective self-reference. Discourse Studies, 9(4), 526–557.

Lerner G. H., & Kitzinger, C. (2015). Or-Prefacing in the Organization of Self-Initiated Repair. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 48(1), 58–78.

Lerner G. H., & Kitzinger, C. (2019). Well-Prefacing in the Organization of Self-Initiated Repair. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 52(1), 1–19.

Pfeiffer, M. (2014). Formal vs. functional motivations for the structure of self-repair in German. In B. MacWhinney, A. Malchukov, & E. Moravcsik (Eds.) Competing motivations in grammar and usage (pp. 229–245). Oxford University Press.

Pfeiffer, M. (2015). Selbstreparaturen im Deutschen. Syntaktische und interaktionale Analysen. De Gruyter.

Pfeiffer, M. (2017a): Über die Funktion der Reparaturmarker im Deutschen. In: H. Blühdorn, A. Deppermann, H. Helmer, & T. Spranz-Fogasy (Eds.) Diskursmarker im Deutschen. Reflexionen und Analysen (pp. 259–283). Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.

Pfeiffer, M. (2017b). The syntax of self-repair in German: An explanatory model. Journal of Pragmatics, 119, 63¬–80.

Schegloff, E. A. (1979). The Relevance of Repair for Syntax-for-Conversation. In T. Givón (Ed.) Syntax and Semantics 12: Discourse and syntax (pp. 261–286). Academic Press.

Schegloff, E. A. (1987[1973]). Recycled turn beginnings: a precise repair mechanism in conversation's tum-taking organisation. In G. Button, & J. R. E. Lee (Eds.) Talk and Social Organisation (pp. 70–85). Multilingual Matters.

Schegloff, E. A. (2010). Some Other “Uh(m)”s. Discourse Processes, 47(2), 130–174.

Schegloff, E. A. (2013). Ten operations in self-initiated, same-turn repair. In M. Hayashi, G. Raymond, & J. Sidnell (Eds.) Conversational repair and human understanding (pp. 41–70). Cambridge University Press.

Schegloff, E.A., Jefferson, G., & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53(2), 361–382.

Uhmann, S. (2001). Some arguments for the relevance of syntax to same sentence self-repair in everyday German conversation. In E. Couper-Kuhlen, & M. Selting (Eds.) Studies in Interactional Linguistics (pp. 373–404). John Benjamins.

Additional References:

Birkner, K., Auer, P., Bauer, A., & Kotthoff, H. (2020). Einführung in die Konversationsanalyse. De Gruyter.

Bolden, G. B., Mandelbaum, J., & Wilkinson, S. (2012). Pursuing a Response by Repairing an Indexical Reference. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 45(2), 137–155.

Clark, H. H., & Fox, T. J. E. (2002). Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking. Cognition, 84, 73–111.

Clark, H. H., & Wasow, T. (1998): Repeating words in spontaneous speech. 'Cognitive Psychology', 37, 201–242.

Clift, R. (2016). Conversation Analysis. Cambridge University Press.

Couper-Kuhlen, E., & Selting, M. (2018). Interactional Linguistics. Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge University Press.

Egbert, M. (2009). Der Reparatur-Mechanismus in deutschen Gesprächen. Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.

Gao, Y. (2020). Laughter as Same-Turn Self-Repair Initiation in L2 Oral Proficiency Interview. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 8, 479–494.

Jefferson, G. (1974). Error correction as an interactional resource. Language in Society, 3(2), 181–199.

Lerner, G. H. (2013). On the place of hesitating in delicate formulations: a turn constructional infrastructure for collaborative indiscretion. In M. Hayashi, G. Raymond, & J. Sidnell (Eds.) Conversational repair and human understanding (pp. 95–134). Cambridge University Press.

Liddicoat, A. J. (2007). An introduction to Conversation Analysis. Continuum.

Németh, Z. (2012). Recycling and replacement repairs as self-initiated same-turn self-repair strategies in Hungarian. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 2022–2034.

Pfeiffer, M. (2012): What prosody reveals about the speaker’s cognition: Self-repair in German prepositional phrases. In P. Bergmann, J. Brenning, M. Pfeiffer, & E. Reber (Eds.) Prosody and embodiment in Interactional Grammar (pp. 40–73). De Gruyter.

Rieger, C. L. (2003). Repetitions as self-repair strategies in English and German conversations. Journal of Pragmatics, 35, 47–69.

Schegloff, E. A. (1982). Discourse as an interactional achievement: Some uses of ‘uh huh’ and other things that come between sentences. In D. Tannen (Ed.) Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk (pp. 71–93). Georgetown University Press.

Schegloff, E. A. (1992). Repair after next turn: The last structurally provided defense of intersubjectivity in conversation. American Journal of Sociology, 97(5), 1295–1345.

Schegloff, E. A. (1997). Third turn repair. In G. R Guy, C. Feagin, D. Schiffrin, & J. Baugh (Eds.) Toward a social science of language. Papers in honor of William Labov, Vol. 2. Social interaction and discourse structures (pp. 31–40). John Benjamins.

Sidnell, J. (2010). Conversation analysis: An introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Stukenbrock, A. (2013). Sprachliche Interaktion. In P. Auer (Ed.) Sprachwissenschaft. Grammatik – Interaktion – Kognition (pp. 217–260). Metzler.

Uhmann, S. (1997). Selbstreparaturen in Alltagsdialogen: Ein Fall für eine integrative Konversationstheorie. In P. Schlobinski (Ed.) Syntax des gesprochenen Deutsch (pp. 157–180). Westdeutscher Verlag.

Wilkinson, S., & Weatherall, A. (2011). Insertion Repair. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 44(1), 65–91.