Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T16:47:50.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Clicks and percussives in English conversation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2013

Richard Ogden
Richard Ogden*
Affiliation:
Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Clicks are known to occur in English conversation, and have traditionally been assumed to convey affective meaning, generally negative. This is indeed the lay interpretation of clicks. In this paper, we build on the work of Wright (2011a, b), who shows that clicks are also used in the management of sequences of talk. Firstly, we consider similarities and differences in the production of clicks and percussives. We consider some distributional properties of clicks in one variety of English. Drawing on a wide range of conversational data from Britain and the USA, we show some of the functions of clicks and percussives in conversation, which include stance-taking and sequence management (projection of a turn constructional unit and word-search), and handling aspects of timing between turns. We also consider some of the visual behaviours that may accompany clicks. The meaning or function of clicks and percussives, it is argued, must be considered in a fuller interactional context.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 43 , Issue 3: Non-pulmonic sounds in European languages , December 2013 , pp. 299 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © International Phonetic Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abercrombie, David. 1967. Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Auer, Peter, Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth & Müller, Frank. 1999. Language in time: The rhythm and tempo of spoken interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, Martin. 1989. Phonetics for speech pathology. London: Taylor and Francis. [Reissued 1990, London: Whurr.]Google Scholar
Button, Graham. 1987. Moving out of closings. In Button, Graham & Lee, J. R. (eds.), Talk and social organisation, 101–151. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catford, J. C. 2001. A practical introduction to phonetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, John & Yallop, Colin. 1990. An introduction to phonetics and phonology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 1993 English speech rhythm: Form and function in everyday interaction. Amsterdam & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, David. 1987. The Cambridge encyclopaedia of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cummins, Fred & Port, Robert. 1998. Rhythmic constraints on stress timing in English. Journal of Phonetics 26 (2), 145–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drew, Paul. 1998. Complaints about transgressions and misconduct. Research on Language & Social Interaction 31 (3), 295–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, Cecilia E. & Thompson, Sandra A.. 1996. Interactional units in conversation analysis: Syntactic, intonational and pragmatic resources for the management of turns. In Ochs, Elinor, Schegloff, Emanuel A. & Thompson, Sandra A. (eds.), Interaction and grammar (Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 13), 134–184. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gil, David. 2011. Para-linguistic usages of clicks. In Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.), The world atlas of language structures online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library.Google Scholar
Gimson, A. C. 1970. An introduction to the pronunciation of English, 2nd edn. Bristol: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 1981. Conversational organization: Interaction between speakers and hearers. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 1986. Gestures as a resource for the organization of mutual orientation. Semiotica 62 (1–2), 29–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos. 2004. The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPA [International Phonetic Association]. 1999. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 1984. On the organization of laughter in talk about troubles. In Atkinson, J. Maxwell & Heritage, John (eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis, 346–369. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kohler, Klaus J. 2007. “Speech–smile”, “speech–laugh”, “laughter” and their sequencing in dialogic interaction. Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Phonetics of Laughter, Saarbrücken, 21–26.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter. 1982. A course in phonetics, 2nd edn.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Maddieson, Ian. 1996. The sounds of the world's languages. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Traill, Anthony. 1994. Clicks and their accompaniments. Journal of Phonetics 22, 33–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laver, John. 1994. Principles of phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Gene H. 2004. Collaborative turn sequences. In Lerner, Gene H. (ed.), Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation, 225–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Local, John & Walker, Gareth. 2008. Stance and affect in conversation: On the interplay of sequential and phonetic resources. Text & Talk – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse Communication Studies 28 (6), 723–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norrick, Neal R. 2012. Listening practices in English conversation: The responses responses elicit. Journal of Pragmatics 44 (5), 566–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogden, Richard. 2010. Prosodic constructions in making complaints. In Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar, Reber, Elisabeth & Selting, Margret (eds.), Prosody in interaction, 81–104. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogden, Richard. 2012a. The phonetics of talk in interaction – introduction to the Special Issue. In Ogden, Richard (ed.), The phonetics of talk-in-interaction, special issue of Language and Speech 55 (1), 3–11.Google ScholarPubMed
Ogden, Richard. 2012b. Making sense of outliers. Phonetica 69 (1–2), 48–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pike, Kenneth. 1943. Phonetics: A critical analysis of phonetic theory and a technic for the practical description of sounds. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pohjola, Anna. 2011. Maiskaukset keskustelussa [Clicks in conversation]. BA dissertation, Finnish Language, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Potter, Jonathan & Hepburn, Alexa. 2010. Putting aspiration into words: “Laugh particles”, managing descriptive trouble and modulating action. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (6), 1543–1555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reber, Elisabeth. 2012. Affectivity in interaction: Sound objects in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Schegloff, Emanuel A. & Jefferson, Gail. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50, 696–735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. & Lerner, Gene H.. 2009. Beginning to respond: Well-prefaced responses to wh-questions. Research on Language and Social Interaction 42 (2), 91–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. & Sacks, Harvey. 1973. Opening up closings. Semiotica VIII (4), 289–327.Google Scholar
Scobbie, Jim M., Schaeffler, Sonja & Mennen, Ineke. 2011. Audible aspects of speech preparation. 17th International Congress of the Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVII), Hong Kong, 1782–1785.Google Scholar
Selting, Margret, Auer, Peter, Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar, Bergmann, Jörg, Bergmann, Pia, Birkner, Karin, Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, Deppermann, Arnulf, Gilles, Peter, Günthner, Susanne, Hartung, Martin, Kern, Friederike, Mertzlufft, Christine, Meyer, Christian, Morek, Miriam, Oberzaucher, Frank, Peters, Jörg, Quasthoff, Uta, Schütte, Wilfried, Stukenbrock, Anja & Uhmann, Susanne. 2009. Gesprächanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2). Gesprächsforschung – Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 10, 353–402.Google Scholar
Ward, Nigel. 2006. Non-lexical conversational sounds in American English. Pragmatics and Cognition 14 (1), 113–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, Bill & MacFarlane, Sarah. 1998. Prosody as an interactional resource: Turn-projection and overlap. In Swerts, Marc & Hirschberg, Julia (ed.), Prosody and conversion, special issue of Language and Speech 41 (3–4), 265–294Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Sue & Kitzinger, Celia. 2006. Surprise as an interactional achievement: Reaction tokens in conversation. Social Psychology Quarterly 69 (2), 150–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Melissa. 2005. Studies of the phonetics–interaction interface: Clicks and interactional structures in English conversation. Ph.D. thesis, University of York.Google Scholar
Wright, Melissa. 2007. Clicks as markers of new sequences in English conversation. 16th International Congress of the Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS XVI), Saarbrücken, 1069–1072.Google Scholar
Wright, Melissa. 2011a. On clicks in English talk-in-interaction. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 41 (2), 207–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Melissa. 2011b. The phonetics–interaction interface in the initiation of closings in everyday English telephone calls. Journal of Pragmatics 43 (4), 1080–1099.CrossRefGoogle Scholar