ABSTRACT
Spoken interaction is a joint, here-and-now social activity which is governed by two main principles: • speakers take turns • speakers cooperate W hen studying transcripts of genuine conversation one is struck by the general atmosphere of cooperativeness and harmony. This does not mean, of course, that the listener always waits for the speaker to finish before taking over. N or does it mean that speakers never disagree, object, or contradict each other. Moreover, interaction is possible without proper turntaking, namely in cases where there is (temporarily) a dominant speaker and the other party’s contribution is reduced to so-called ‘backchannels’ (realized by items like m, yes, oh, I see, really) as a sign of attention.
