Self-initiated self-repair

Encyclopedia of Terminology for CA and IL: Self-initiated 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). Self-initiated 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 self-initiated self-repair, speakers interrupt the progressivity of their talk in order to deal with different interactional problems that occur in their own talk.

Speakers – also referred to as producers of the trouble source – usually address the repairable by providing a self-initiation (as well as a repair solution) at one of the three following sequential positions (Schegloff, et al. 1977; Schegloff 1992, 1997):

(i) within the turn containing the trouble source, as in extract (1) taken from Wilkinson & Weatherall (2011: 68), where the speaker produces two so-called same-turn repairs (cf. also Schegloff 2013 for same-TCU repair):

(1) [Holt: SO88 (II) 1.3] 

01  Hal:    we walked th- we only walked the North Downs one day

In (1), the speaker initiates the self-repair with the cut-off on “th-” (probably for the), repeats – or in terms of Schegloff (1987) recycles – the pronoun “we” from the original turn-constructional unit, inserts “only” followed by the recycled elements “walked th[e]”, and then proceeds with the emerging TCU (for operations of same-turn repair, see Schegloff 2013 and the entry self-repair operations).

Schegloff (1979) points out that same-turn self-repair is the most common type of repair. Schegloff, et al. (1977) and Schegloff (1979) argue that the high frequency of same-turn self-repair is related to the preference for self-repair, as well as to the specific sequential position of this type of self-repair. Same-turn repair is initiated in the first structurally possible sequential position provided by the organization of repair, and this position is allocated to the producer of the trouble source (Schegloff, et al. 1977; Liddicoat 2007: 210).

(ii) at the transition-relevance place, as in the transition space repair in extract (2) taken from Schegloff, et al. (1977: 370):

(2) [SBL:3:1:2]

01  B:    ... -then more people will show up. Cuz they             
02        won't feel obligated tuh sell. tuh buy.

In (2), B provides a self-initiated self-repair on the last item of the already completed TCU at the next possible sequential position, namely at the transition-relevance place. In contrast to (1), the speaker does not produce an explicit self-initiation, but replaces the verb “sell” with “buy” after recycling the preceding article “tuh” (for recycling and retraction patterns across languages see, for instance, Fox, et al. 2010; Birkner, et al. 2012).

(iii) after next turn produced by the recipient of the trouble source. Schegloff (1992, 1997) distinguishes two types of repair after next turn: third position repair (extract 3) and third turn repair (extract 4):

(3) [GHY:II:09-10] (Liddicoat 2007: 198)]

01  Gary:     Yuh got anymore screws.                                
02  Harry:    Yeah I got lo:ts.
03  Gary:     Well, I wanted one
04  Harry:    O:h okay.

(4) [SBL 1:1:12:10] (Schegloff 1997: 32)

01  B:    hhh And he's going to make his own paintings,             
02  A:    Mm hmm
03  B:    And- or I mean his own frames.
04  A:    Yeah

The key difference between third turn repair and third position repair is the role of the recipient’s talk occurring between the trouble-source turn and the turn containing a self-initiation and a repair solution, both of which are provided by the same speaker. In (3), Harry’s intervening talk in line 2 displays his understanding of Gary’s prior turn as just an enquiry. This leads to a third position self-repair in line 3, consisting in Gary’s re-categorization of his prior turn as a request (Liddicoat 2007: 198; cf. also Schegloff 1992 and the entry on third position repair). In extract (4), in contrast, A’s intervening talk in line 2 does not reveal a misunderstanding. Thus, B’s third turn repair in line 3 (the replacement of “paintings” with “frames”) is not designed as a response to A’s turn in line 2, but only as a way of dealing with the repairable in B’s own prior turn (cf. Schegloff 1997 and the entry on third turn repair).

Practices of self-initiated self-repair are not limited to dealing with actual errors (for self-corrections, see Jefferson 1974; Schegloff, et al. 1977) but are systematically deployed “to ‘fine-tune’ the turn with reference to the action the speaker means to be doing” (Kitzinger 2013: 233; see also Drew, et al. 2013). In the latter case, self-initiated self-repair can also, for instance, be used to manage “the force of the action of a turn” (e.g., to mitigate the force of directives by redesigning the syntactical format of the turn; cf. Kitzinger 2013: 241-244) or to handle epistemic authority and responsibility for the action doing with or described in the trouble-source turn (Lerner & Kitzinger 2007).

• Self-repair
• Third turn repair
• Third position repair
• Other-initiated self-repair
• Transition-relevance place (TRP)
• Same-turn self-repair
• 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Schegloff, E. A. (1979). The Relevance of Repair for Syntax-for-Conversation. In T. Givón (Ed.) Syntax and Semanctics 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. (1992). Repair after next turn: The last structurally provided defense of intersubjectivity in conversation. The 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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., & Jasperson, R. (1995). A Syntactic Exploration of Repair in English Conversation. In P.W. Davis (Ed.), Alternative Linguistics. Descriptive and Theoretical Modes (pp. 77–134). John Benjamins.

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., 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., 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.

Fox, B., & 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.

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.

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. (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.

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. (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.

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.

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

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

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. Georgetown University Roundtable on Linguistics 1981 (pp. 71–93). Georgetown University Press.

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.

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.