ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I look at the final category of confused speakers I identified, those who speak a great deal. I want to draw attention to the fact that very active speakers is a category that is available to describe individual ordinary members. As I noted in chapter 4, there are common terms that describe very active speakers ("Can talk the hind leg off a donkey"). I think that this category of person may use turn-taking machinery, in particular, in a distinctive way. Thus, in a multiparty conversation, the very active speaker may be adept at self-selecting as next speaker at a TRP where another has not already been selected or self-selected; may be highly competent at organizing their talk to indicate that they intend to take a long turn through several TRPs; may be able to interpret various points in someone else's turn as a TRP when others would not do so and thereby interrupt; and may pursue such a vigorous policy of self-selection that there will come a point when other parties will not bid for a turn because they do not anticipate carrying the bid through successfully. Similarly, in their use of the machinery of description, very active speakers may be able to use resources that less active speakers do not use so frequently (repetition, dispreferred answers and so on). Many of the characteristics I have outlined apply to the two speakers I examine in this chapter. But there are also other features of their talk that do not occur with very active normal speakers.
