Post-first insert expansion (sequence)

Encyclopedia of Terminology for CA and IL: Post-first insert expansion (sequence)
Author(s):	Olivia H. Marrese (University of Colorado, Boulder) (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6162-267X)
To cite:	Marrese, Olivia H. (2023). Post-first insert expansion (sequence). 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: []

A 'post-first' insert expansion (sequence) is an insert sequence that occurs after a first-pair part has been produced, but before the second-pair part, and is directed towards an issue with the first pair part. The issue at hand may “interfere with the production of an appropriate response to it [the first-pair part], or even grasping what an appropriate type of response would be” (Schegloff 2007: 102). As such, the recipient of the initial action initiates repair on that action, and after the resolution, issues the second-pair part that was originally due. For example, in the following case from Schegloff, et al. (1977: 367), speaker A produces a first-pair part in line 4. Rather than answering the question, speaker B launches a post-first insert sequence in line 5.

(Schegloff, et al. 1977: 367)

01  A:         Were you uh you were in therapy with a private
02             doctor?
03  B:         Yah.
04  A:  Fb->   Have you ever tried a clinic?
05  B:  Fins->  What?
06  A:  Sins->  Have you ever tried a clinic?
07  B:  Sb->    ((sigh)) No, I don’t want to go to a clinic.

After speaker A responds to the first-pair part of the post-first insert sequence by repeating the original question (line 6), speaker B then produces the base second-pair part (line 7). In this case, the post-first insert sequence is launched with an open-class repair initiator (“What”, line 5; see Drew 1997; Kendrick 2015; Schegloff 1997), but post-first insert sequences can be formed via a number of other resources (see other-initiated repair). In this sense, post-first insert sequences are “generic” because they are not dependent on the type of preceding sequence (Schegloff 2007: 106); instead they are delineated based on the system of other-initiated repair.

Additional Related Entries:

• Adjacency pair
• Insert expansion (sequence)
• Pre-second insert expansion
• First-pair part
• Second-pair part
• Other-initiated repair
• Repair
• Sequence

Cited References:

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

Drew, P. (1997). ‘Open’-class repair initiators in response to sequential sources of troubles in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 28(1), 69–101.

Kendrick, K. H. (2015). Other-initiated repair in English. Open Linguistics, 1(1). 164-190.

Schegloff, E. A. (1997). Practices and actions: Boundary cases of other‐initiated repair. Discourse Processes, 23(3), 499–545.

Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis (Vol. 1). 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.

Additional References:

Benjamin, T. & Mazeland, H. (2013). Other-initiated repair. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1068-1075). Wiley-Blackwell.

Benjamin, T., Mazeland, H., & Fox, B. A. (2013). Conversation analysis and repair organization: Overview. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1094-1097). Wiley-Blackwell.