Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 33:2 (2023) ► pp.285–312

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Overlaps in collaboration adjustments

A cross-genre study of female university students’ interactions in American English and Japanese

ORCiD logo with link | Showa Women’s University
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 14 November 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21009.tak
Abstract
This study examines collaborative utterance overlaps in American English and Japanese interactions between the same participants in two genres, conversation and problem-solving tasks, from the perspective of metacommunication. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that participants’ use of overlap varies in frequency and function by genre. In conversation tasks, speakers of both languages used overlaps to maintain coherence and keep the story on track. In problem-solving tasks, American English overlaps conveyed agreement with or acceptance of the proposed idea, whereas Japanese overlaps in this genre conveyed common understanding. Participants attended to situational adjustment, and the development of collaboration in interactions differed by context and genre depending on the purpose of the conversation and the amount of information shared by participants. These results suggest the importance of teaching students how to use overlaps in both American English and Japanese interactions to enhance their understanding and appreciation of the cultural nuances of collaboration.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Definition of genre
    • 1.2Literature review
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Quantitative analysis
  • 4.Qualitative analysis
    • 4.1The conversation genre
    • 4.2The problem-solving task genre
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (65)
References
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1986. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (trans. Vern McGee). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bateson, Gregory. 1972. “A Theory of Play and Fantasy.” In Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, ed. by Gregory Bateson, 177–193. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beattie, Geoffrey W. 1981. “Interruption in Conversational Interaction, and Its Relation to the Sex and Status of the Interactants.” Linguistics 19 (1–2): 15–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1982. “Turn-Taking and Interruption in Political Interviews: Margaret Thatcher and Jim Callaghan Compared and Contrasted.” Semiotica 39 (1–2): 93–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas. 1994. “An Analytical Framework for Register Studies.” In Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register, ed. by Douglas Biber, and Edward Finegan, 31–56. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Gillian, and George Yule. 1983. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bull, Matthew, and Matthew Aylett. 1998. “An Analysis of the Timing of Turn-Taking in a Corpus of Goal-Oriented Dialogue” In ICSLP: The 5th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing 1998, 1175–1178. Sydney: ISCA. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butterfield, Jeffrie. 2015. “Conversation Analysis and the Debate on Social and Sequential Context.” Kanagawa University Studies in Humanities 1861: 97–109.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doi, Takeo. 1986. The Anatomy of Dependence (trans. John Bester). Tokyo: Kodansha International.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W. 2014. “Towards a Dialogic Syntax.” Cognitive Linguistics 25 (3): 359–410. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Stephan Schuetze-Coburn, Susanna Cumming, and Danae Paolino. 1992. Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistic Volume 4: Discourse Transcription. Santa Barbara, CA: Department of Linguistics University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. “Outline of Discourse Transcription.” In Talking Data: Transcription and Coding Methods for Discourse Research, ed. by Jane Edwards, and Martin Lampert, 45–89. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eggins, Suzanne. 1994. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Pinter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Endo, Tomoko, and Daisuke Yokomori. 2015. “Nihongo Nichijoo Kaiwa ni okeru Taan Tochuu de no Hatsuwa no Kasanari [Utterance Overlap in the Middle of the Turn in Japanese Daily Conversations].” In Shakai-Gengo Kagakukai Dai 36 Kai Taikai Happyoo Ronbunshuu [Proceedings of the 36th Biannual Conference of the Japanese Association of Sociolinguistic Sciences (JASS)], ed. by Japanese Association of Sociolinguistic Sciences, 192–194. Kyoto: JASS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick J. 2013. Relationship Thinking: Agency, Enchrony, and Human Sociality. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedrich, Paul. 1989. “Language, Ideology, and Political Economy.” American Anthropologist 91 (2): 295–312. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fujii, Yoko. 2012. “Differences of Situating Self in the Place/Ba of Interaction Between the Japanese and American English Speakers.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (5): 636–662. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fujii, Yoko, and Myung-Hee Kim. 2014. “Kadaitassei Danwa ni okeru Soogokooi no Gengo Bunka Hikaku – Nihongo, Kankokugo, Eigo no Hikaku Bunseki [A Cross-Linguistic and Cultural Study of Interaction in Problem-Solving Tasks – Comparison Between Japanese, Korean and English].” In Kaihooteki Goyooron he no Choosen – Bunka, Intaa-Akushon, Gengo [Towards Emancipatory Pragmatics: Culture, Interaction and Language], ed. by Sachiko Ide, and Yoko Fujii, 57–90. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Edward T. 1976. Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto. 2013. “Turn Allocation and Turn Sharing.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell, and Tanya Stivers, 167–190. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horiguchi, Sumiko. 1997. Nihongo Kyooiku to Kaiwa Bunseki [Japanese Education and Conversation Analysis]. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ide, Sachiko. 2014. “Kaihooteki Goyooron to Misutaa Oo Coopasu no Igi – Bunka, Intaa-Akushon, Gengo no Kaimei no tame ni [Emancipatory Pragmatics and Significance of the Mr. O Corpus – For the Breakthrough of Culture, Interaction, and Language].” In Kaihooteki Goyooron he no Choosen – Bunka, Intaa-Akushon, Gengo [Towards Emancipatory Pragmatics: Culture, Interaction and Language], ed. by Sachiko Ide, and Yoko Fujii, 1–31. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 1978. “Sequential Aspects of Storytelling in Conversation.” In Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, ed. by Jim Schenkein, 219–248. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kosaki, Junko, and Lala Takeda. 2018. “Pragmatic Rules to Enhance Students’ Intercultural Competence: A Study Based on a Functional Analysis of Overlaps in Task-Based Dialogues.” Daigaku Eigo Kyooiku Gakkai Chuugoku-Shikoku Shibu Kenkyuu Kiyoo [JACET Chugoku-Shikoku Chapter Research Bulletin] 151: 37–54.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kushida, Shuuya. 2005. “Kaiwa ni okeru Sanka no Soshikika no Kenkyuu: Nihongo Kaiwa ni okeru ‘Hanashite’ to ‘Kyo-Seiinsei’ no Sanshutsu Tetsuduki. [Study of the Participation Organization in the Conversation: The Procedure of Producing ‘Speaker’ and ‘Co-Membership’ in Japanese Conversation].” PhD diss. Kyoto University.
Kushida, Shuuya, Toshiyuki Sadanobu, and Yasuharu Den (eds.) 2005. Shiriizu Bun to Hatsuwa Dai Ikkan: Katsudoo to shite no Bun to Hatsuwa [Sentence and Utterance, vol. 1: Sentence and Utterance as Activity]. Tokyo: Hitsuji.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lerner, Gene H. 1991. “On the Syntax of Sentences-in-Progress.” Language in Society 20 (3): 441–458. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002. “Turn-Sharing: The Choral Co-Production of Talk-in-Interaction.” In The Language of Turn and Sequence, ed. by Cecilia E. Ford, Barbara A. Fox, and Sandra A. Thompson, 225–256. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen. 2015. “Turn-Taking and the Pragmatic Origins of Language.” Plenary Lecture Given at the 14th International Pragmatics Conference, 26 July. Belgium: University of Antwerp.
Li, Han Z. 2001. “Cooperative and Intrusive Interruptions in Inter- and Intracultural Dyadic Discourse.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 20 (3): 259–284. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lucy, John A. 1993. “Reflexive Language and the Human Disciplines.” In Reflexive Language: Reported Speech and Metapragmatics, ed. by John Lucy, 9–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1923. “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages.” In The Meaning of Meaning, Supplement 11, ed. by Charles Ogden, and Ivor Richards, 1989, 296–336. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maynard, Douglas W. 2006. “Ethnography and Conversation Analysis: What Is the Context of an Utterance?” In Emergent Methods in Social Research, ed. by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, and Patricia Leavy, 55–94. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maynard, Senko. 2008. Maruchi-Janruron – Kan-Janrusei to Imi no Souzoo [An Exploration into Multi-Genre Discourse: Inter-Genre Significance and the Creation of Meaning]. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mizutani, Nobuko. 1993. “‘Kyoowa’ kara ‘Taiwa’ he [From ‘Co-Construction’ to ‘Interaction’].” Nihongo-Gaku [Japanese Linguistics] 12 (4): 4–9.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murata, Kumiko. 1994. “Intrusive or Co-Operative? A Cross-Cultural Study of Interruption.” Journal of Pragmatics 21 (4): 385–400. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murata, Yasumi. 2015. “Goyoo-Shihyoo to Sono Eigo Kyooiku he no Ooyoo [Pragmatic Features and Their Application to English Education].” In Nichi-Eigo Danwa Sutairu no Taishoo Kenkyuu – Eigo Komyunikeeshon he no Ooyoo [Comparative Study of Japanese and English Discourse Styles – Application to English Education of Communication], ed. by Sanae Tsuda, Yasumi Murata, Mami Otani, Yuuko Iwata, Yuka Shigemitsu, and Yooko Otsuka, 277–291. Tokyo: Hitsuji.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Keeffe, Anne, and Svenja Adolphs. 2008. “Response Tokens in British and Irish Discourse: Corpus, Context and Variational Pragmatics.” In Variational Pragmatics, ed. by Klaus Schneider, and Anne Barron, 69–98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oertel, Catharine, Marcin Wlodarczak, Alexey Tarasov, Nick Campbell, and Petra Wagner. 2012. “Context Cues for Classification of Competitive and Collaborative Overlaps.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2012, ed. by Qiuwu Ma, Hongwei Ding, and Daniel Hirst, 22–25. Shanghai: Tongji University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Otsuka, Yooko. 2015. “Nichi-Eigo no Shotaimen San’nin Kaiwa ni okeru Aiduchi [Backchannels in Three-People Conversation in Japanese and English First Encounter Conversations].” In Nichi-Eigo Danwa Sutairu no Taishoo Kenkyuu – Eigo Komyunikeeshon he no Ooyoo [Comparative Study of Japanese and English Discourse Styles – Application to English Education of Communication], ed. by Sanae Tsuda, Yasumi Murata, Mami Otani, Yuuko Iwata, Yuka Shigemitsu, and Yooko Otsuka, 169–191. Tokyo: Hitsuji.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rose, David. 2012. “Genre in the Sydney School.” In The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. by James Gee, and Mike Handford, 209–225. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 50 (4): 696–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1982. “Discourse as an Interactional Achievement: Some Uses of ‘Uh Huh’ and Other Things That Come Between Sentences.” In Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk, ed. by Deborah Tannen, 71–93. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992. “Repair After Next Turn: The Last Structurally Provided Defense of Intersubjectivity in Conversation.” American Journal of Sociology 97 (5): 1295–1345. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000. “Overlapping Talk and the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language in Society 29 (1): 1–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. “Accounts of Conduct in Interaction: Interruption, Overlap and Turn-Taking.” In Handbook of Sociological Theory, ed. by Jonathan Turner, 287–322. New York: Plenum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sidnell, Jack. 2010. Conversation Analysis: An Introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael. 1993. “Metapragmatic Discourse and Metapragmatic Function.” In Reflexive Language: Reported Speech and Metapragmatics, ed. by John Lucy, 33–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sugawara, Kazuyoshi. 1996. “Hitotsu no Koe de Kataru Koto – Shintai to Kotoba no ‘Doojisei’ wo Megutte [To Speak in One Voice – In Discussion of ‘Sameness’ in Body and Language].” In Komyunikeeshon to shite no Shintai [Body as a Communication], ed. by Kazuyoshi Sugawara, and Masaichi Nomura, 246–287. Tokyo: Taishukan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Interactive Significance of Simultaneous Discourse or Overlap in Everyday Conversations Among ǀGui Former Foragers.” Journal of Pragmatics 44 (5): 577–618. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swales, John. 1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taboada, Maite. 2011. “Stages in an Online Review Genre.” Text and Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse and Communication Studies 31 (2): 247–269. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Takeda, Lala. 2016. “Choofuku Hatsuwa kara Sooshutsusareru Kyoochoosei – Shinso ga Kotonatta Nihongo Soogokooi no I-Janrukan Hikaku kara no Ichikoosatsu [Collaboration Created Through Overlaps – A Study of Japanese Interactions of Different Genres and Levels of Intimacy].” Shakai-Gengo Kagaku [The Japanese Journal of Language in Society] 19 (1): 87–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Exploring Implicit and Explicit Teaching Methods in EFL Education: A Cross-Genre Analysis of Topic Management Through Overlaps.” In A Pragmatic Approach to English Language Teaching and Production, ed. by Lala Takeda, and Megumi Okugiri, 143–168. Tokyo: Kazama Shobo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. 1990. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: William Morrow.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1994. Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trondheim, Lewis. 2003. Mister O. Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Uchida, Rara. 2002. “A Comparative Study of Turn-Taking in English and Japanese: When and How Do Speakers Express Their Correction to or Agreement with the Other’s Utterances?” Nihon Joshi Daigaku Daigakuin Bungaku Kenkyuuka Kiyoo [Journal of the Graduate School of Humanities, Japan Women’s University] 81: 55–68.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vatanen, Anna. 2014. “Responding in Overlap: Agency, Epistemicity and Social Action in Conversation.” PhD diss. The University of Helsinki.
Wang, Dengfeng, and Hong Cui. 2006. “Relations with Personality and Cross-Situational Consistency of Behavior.” Acta Psychologica Sinica 381: 543–552.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Yu-Fang, and Pi-Hua Tsai. 2007. “Textual and Contextual Contrast Connection: A Study of Chinese Contrastive Markers Across Different Text Types.” Journal of Pragmatics 39 (10): 1775–1815. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yuan, Jiahong, Mark Liberman, and Christopher Cieri. 2007. “Towards an Integrated Understanding of Speech Overlaps in Conversation” In Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 16 (ICPhS XVI), ed. by Jürgen Trouvain, and William J. Barry, 1337–1340. Saarbrücken: Saarbrücken University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue