At the possible completion of a turn constructional unit (TCU) that has not selected a next speaker, a speaker has two available options: either begin a new TCU or continue the one that has just come to a point of possible completion. This article describes some of the complex turns that result from exercising the second option. These can be seen…

This article explores the viability of the analytic distinction between "turn-constructional unit (TCU) continuation" (i.e., continuing a turn beyond a point of possible completion with grammatically dependent material) and "new TCU" (i.e., continuing a turn with grammatically independent material) when hypotactic clause combinations are involved.…

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in "increments" among students of conversational interaction. This article first outlines "incrementing" as an analytical problem (i.e., as turn constructional unit [TCU] extensions) by tracing its origins back to Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson's (1974) famous turn-taking article. Then, the article…

Using the same specialist terms in online discourse can indicate knowledge overlaps between partners. However, linguistic overlaps do not automatically ensure overlaps in conceptual representations. In particular, learning situations, which typically focus on knowledge acquisition, require a sufficient understanding of domain-specific concepts.…

According to the cognitive approach to humor, the comprehension of humorous texts implies recognizing an incongruity and resolving it. This article studies whether the cognitive process involved in the recognition of incongruity is affected by the conditions that make contrariety evident or only analytically recognizable in the perceptual domain.…

The language of non-native speakers is less reliable than the language of native speakers in conveying the speaker's intentions. We propose that listeners expect such reduced reliability and that this leads them to adjust the manner in which they process and represent non-native language by representing non-native language in less detail.…

Learning and dialogue may naturally engender feelings and expressions of uncertainty for a variety of reasons and purposes. Yet, little research has examined how patterns of linguistic uncertainty are enacted and changed over time as students reciprocally influence one another and the dialogical system they are creating. This study describes the…

Drawing on a corpus of 35 hours of videotaped face-to-face conversations collected in Beijing and Hebei, China, this conversation analytic study examines self-praising behavior of Mandarin speakers in everyday social interaction. Focusing on two reporting practices--reporting another's words and reporting "just the facts"--the investigation…

Frames are cognitive structures of knowledge grounded in people's social interaction in recurrent sociocultural activities or individual incidences. Discussion concerning the knowledge in frames largely focuses on its linguistic manifestation with regard to roles and role relations in scenes. Little attention has been paid to the scriptal…

Shift handovers in nursing units involve formal transmission of information and informal conversation about non-routine events. Informal conversation often involves telling stories. Direct reported speech (DRS) was studied in handover storytelling in two nursing care units. The study goal is to contribute to a better understanding of conversation…

How people describe complex arrangements of objects in a small-scale setting has not been sufficiently investigated to predict when discourse strategies shift versus remain stable. In a study involving 100 native German participants, we investigated speakers' choices of perspective, as well as location and orientation information, when describing…

The use of sarcasm sometimes lessens and sometimes enhances the negativity inherent in a sarcastic statement. Using a realistic conversational format, participants read either a sarcastic or a non-sarcastic aggressive argument between same-gendered interlocutors, and rated the pragmatic goals being expressed using a range of measures taken from…

Transactive memory theory describes the processes by which benefits for memory can occur when remembering is shared in dyads or groups. In contrast, cognitive psychology experiments demonstrate that social influences on memory disrupt and inhibit individual recall. However, most research in cognitive psychology has focused on groups of strangers…

Theories of pronoun resolution often assume that pronouns' referents reside in the immediate discourse context. However, language users regularly produce and comprehend "unheralded pronouns" that violate that assumption. This article provides a taxonomy of unheralded pronouns that makes reference to speakers' and addressees' common ground. Data…

Text signals include a wide variety of writing devices that emphasize specific content within a text, the organization of a text, or both (Lorch, 1989; Meyer, 1975). Signals presumably evolved as a means for an author to guide readers' processing of a text by making the text structure and important content more salient to the reader. Although…