Sequence organisation in conversation: Sequence expansion

1. Sequence organisation in conversation:Sequence expansion

2. Sequence expansion • Adjacency pairs can be expanded in various places in their production. • Expansions may occur • prior to the articulation of the base FPP (pre-expansion), • between the base FPP and the base SPP (insert expansion), and • following the base SPP (post-expansion). • Expansions are commonly also sequences made up of an FPP and an SPP.

3. Pre-expansion • Pre-expansions are designed to be preliminary to some projected base sequence and are hearable by participants as preludes to some other action. • Pre-sequences come in two basic kinds: • generic pre-sequences, which are used with any form of following talk • type-specific pre-sequences, which are designed to lead to some particular kind of base sequence.

4. Generic pre-expansion • There is one pre-sequence type which can be found with any base sequence: the summons-answer sequence. It is designed to gain the attention of a recipient. • The FPP may consist of • an address term, • a politeness term such as excuse me, • an attention getting token such as hey, or • A nonverbal element such as touching the intended recipient.

5. Generic pre-expansion • The SPP may consist of: • redirecting eye gaze to the summoner • using verbal tokens such as what or yes/yeah, • changing body position to orient to the summoner. • The production on an SPP makes further talk by the summoner conditionally relevant

6. Generic pre-expansion • Silence constitutes a failure to respond and may be repaired. • Some responses block or delay the projected talk. • delaying responses: just a minute, I’ll be right there, etc., • blocking responses: I’m busy, I’m on the phone, etc., • rejecting responses: leave me alone, go away, etc.. 

7. Type specific pre-expansions • Type specific pre-expansions project a particular upcoming action. • The FPP of type-specific pre-sequences projects the next activity as relevant for talk. • The SPP influences the way in which the subsequent talk will unfold, and even if the projected base sequence will be done

8. Pre-invitations • Pre-invitation FPPs are designed determine if the response is likely be preferred by asking about availability. • Answers such as nothing show there is nothing to prevent acceptance (go-ahead response). 

9. Pre-invitations • Answers with a competing activity indicate the invitation is likely to be declined and prevent an invitation being made (blocking response). • Why-type answers indicate that the response depends on the invitation (hedging response).  

10. Pre-invitations • Speakers may display their orientation to invitations as relevant next activities after pre-invitation sequences. 

11. Pre-requests • Pre-requests also orient to whether or not a response will be preferred. • They gauge the likelihood of the request being granted.

12. Pre-requests • Pre-requests also receive go-ahead, blocking or hedged responses  

13. Preliminaries to preliminaries • The form is typically Can I … or Let me … + projected base sequence • ‘Can I ask you a question?’, ‘Can I make a suggestion?’, ‘Can I ask a favour?’, etc. • Pre-pres are project preliminary matters relating to a base sequence.  

14. Preliminaries to preliminaries • There are two main types of preliminaries which follow pre-pres: • pre-mentions: speakers provide information to their recipients relevant to the upcoming FPP. • pre-conditions: speakers ensure that the necessary conditions for complying with the base FPP exist.

15. Multiple pre-expansions • Several pre-expansions may precede a base FPP: • a generic and type-specific sequences, • a number of type specific sequences. 1 1 2 2 3 3

16. Insert expansion • Insert expansion occurs within the adjacency pair itself and separates the FPP from the SPP. • Insert expansion does not cancel the relevance of the projected SPP but does preparatory work for it. • Insert expansion is realized through a sequence (insert sequence). • Once the sequence is completed, the base SPP once again becomes relevant as the next action.

17. Post-first insert expansion • Post-first insert expansions are designed to address issues arising from the FPP. • They typically repair problems in the FPP.

18. Post-first insert expansion • Insert sequences can be implicated in the possible production of a dispreferred SPP.

19. Post-first insert expansion • Post-first insert sequences can be repeated if the first attempt is not successful.

20. Pre-second insert expansion • Pre-second insert expansions are designed to do work relevant to the up-coming SPP. • They are type-specific: the work that needs to be done is different for different SPPs.

21. Pre-second insert expansion • Direction giving

22. Pre-second insert expansion • Requests

23. Post-expansion • Sequences can be expanded after the completion of the base SPP (post-expansion). • Post-expansions may be • sequences (non-minimal post-expansion, post-sequences) • single turns (minimal post-expansion, sequence closing thirds)

24. Minimal post-expansion • Minimal post-expansion is minimal in several senses: • It consists of the addition of only a single turn after the SPP. • It may be made up of a single item although longer turns are also possible. • They do not project any further talk beyond their turn. • Minimal post-expansions are designed to propose closing of a sequence (sequence closing thirds).

25. SCT: oh • The SCT oh registers receipt of information and that the recipient has moved from a state of not knowing to a state of knowing. 

26. SCT: okay • Okay usually claims acceptance of an SPP and what the SPP has done in the sequence 

27. SCT: assessments • Assessments display a stance toward what an SPP speaker has said or done in the prior turn. 

28. Composite SCTs • SCTs may be made up of several components in the one turn. • In this case, each SCT does something additional. 

29. Non-minimal post-expansion • Non-minimal post-expansions are made up of sequences with FPPs and SPPs of their own. • Non-minimal expansions take a number of different forms, each of which undertakes a different interactional project following the base SPP.

30. Post-second repair • Post-second repair deals with problems of hearing or understanding the base SPP. • They may also relate to upcoming disagreement.  

31. Rejecting SPPs • Post-expansion provides a location for challenging an SPP, for disagreeing with it or for rejecting it, without initiating a repair sequence. 

32. FPP reworkings • Sequences can be expanded by reworking the FPP as a consequence of a dispreferred SPP. 

33. Post completion musings • Post-completion musings are designed to be “out aloud” mutterings related to the prior talk which have an ambiguous status between being public talk and private thinking out aloud. 

34. Topicalization • Speakers may prolong a sequence of talk after a base SPP by marking the SPP itself as something of interest about which they would be prepared to continue to talk. • Topicalizations include include devices such as repeats tokens such as really, or questions such as did you?. 

35. Sequence closing sequences • In sequences which have a lot of post-expansion, the organization of the sequence becomes less clear or less orderly as the post-expansion proceeds because there is no clearly projected end point. • Participants in talk need to achieve closure for these sequences in the absence of a projectable future point. • Sequence closing sequences consist of a series of “empty” turns and work to negotiate closure in such cases.

36. Sequence closing sequences   

37. Sequence closing sequences • Participants can resist closure in such sequences by withholding alignment with the closing. 