Cover not available

In:Lexical Priming: Applications and advances
Edited by Michael Pace-Sigge and Katie J. Patterson
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 79] 2017
► pp. 93–117

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Can lexical priming be detected in conversation turn-taking strategies?

 | University of Eastern Finland
Published online: 14 August 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.79.04pac
Turn-taking strategies in spoken communication have been widely researched and discussed in recent literature (see, e.g. McCarthy, 1998; Myers 2009; Archer et al. 2012). Moving on from the non prosodic, non-lexical pointers (cf. Yngve 1970; Duncan Jr. 1972), corpus-based research has focussed on lexical items (see McCarthy 1998; Tao 2003; Myers 2009; Evison 2012).
Following the tenets of psychological priming that form the basis of Hoey’s lexical priming theory (2005), some kind of trigger item should be in evidence, showing a listener that a turn is given up. Consequently, recognisable turn-final and turn-initial lexical items – as well as evidence of speaker alignment – should be in evidence. This chapter will describe (a) some salient signals used that become apparent when monologues are directly compared with dialogues; and (b) highly frequent (sets of) words found employed in conversational exchanges. Consequently, an argument will be made that language users appear to be primed in their turn-taking word choices to follow a structured, recognisable pattern, thus facilitating fluency in their conversation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1The pragmatics of turn taking
    • 2.2Hoey’s lexical priming
  • 3.Data and corpus analysis
    • 3.1Previous investigations in the light of the lexical priming theory
    • 3.2Corpora and method
  • 4.Comparing monologues with dialogues
    • 4.1Keywords
    • 4.2Keywords in positional context
    • 4.3Preferred and dispreferred items for speakers and respondents in conversations
      • 4.3.1Turn-initial items
      • 4.3.2Turn-final items
      • 4.3.3Alignment between speaker’s turns
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Author query
References (34)
References
Archer, D., Aijmer, K. & Wichmann, A. 2012. Pragmatics. And Advanced Resource Book. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carter, R. 2004. Grammar and spoken English. Applying English Grammar: Functional and Corpus Approaches, 25–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carter, R. & McCarthy, M. 1988. Vocabulary and Language Teaching. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheng, W. 2012. Exploring Corpus Linguistics. Language in Action. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duncan Jr., S. 1972. Some signals and rules for taking speaking turns in conversations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 23(2): 283–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1974. On the structure of speaker-auditor interaction during speaking turns. Language in Society 3(2): 161–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. Conversational strategies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 364: 144–151. Issue The Clever Hans Phenomenon: Communication with Horses, Whales, Apes, and People . <[URL]> (5 October 2015). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evison, J. 2012. A corpus linguistic analysis of turn-openings in spoken academic discourse: Understanding discursive specialisation. English Profile Journal 3(4). <[URL] (5 October 2015).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gabrielatos, C., Torgersen, E., Hoffmann, S. & Fox, S. 2010. A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of indefinite article forms in London English. Journal of English Linguistics 38(4): 297–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardner, R. 2001. When Listeners Talk: Response Tokens and Listener Stance [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 92]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gómez González, M. 2011. Lexical cohesion in multiparty conversations. Language Sciences 33: 167–179. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. 2004. The spoken language corpus: A foundation for grammatical theory. In Advances in Corpus Linguistics, K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (eds). Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howes, C., Healy, P. & Purver, M. 2010. Tracking lexical and syntactic alignment in conversation. In Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2010), Portland, Oregon. 〈[URL]〉 (9 October 2015).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoey, M. 2005. Lexical Priming. A New Theory of Words and Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Words and their neighbours. In The Oxford Handbook of the Word, John R. Taylor (ed.). Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knowles, G. 1987. Patterns of Spoken English. And Introduction to English Phonetics. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCarthy, M. 1998. Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002b. Good listenership made plain. British and American non-minimal response tokens in everyday conversation. In Using Corpora to Explore Linguistic Variation [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 9], R. Reppen, S.M. Fitzmaurice, & D. Biber (eds), 49–71. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Talking back: “Small” interactional response tokens in everyday conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction 36(1): 33–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Spoken fluency. English Profile Journal 1(1): e4. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehler, A., Lücking, A. & Weiß, P. 2010. A network model of interpersonal alignment in dialog. Entropy 2010(12): 1440–1483. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Myers, G. 2009. Structures of conversation. In English Language. Description, Variation and Context, J. Culpeper, F. Katamba, P. Kerswill, R. Wodak, & T. McEnery (eds). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M. & Carter, R. 2007. From Corpus to Classroom. Language Use and Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pace-Sigge, M. 2013. Lexical Priming in Spoken English. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. The Function and Use of TO and OF in Multi-Word-Units. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A. & Jefferson, G. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organisation of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50: 696–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stent, A. 2011. Shared experiences, shared representations, and the implications for applied natural language processing. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference, 210– 215. 〈[URL]〉 (9 October 2015).
Tannen, D. 1989. Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tao, H. 2003. Turn initiators in spoken English: A corpus-based approach to interaction and grammar. Language and Computers 46: 187–207. Special issue Corpus Analysis: Language Structure and Language Use, P. Leistyna & C.F. Meyer (eds).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thórisson, K.R. 2002. Natural turn-taking needs no manual: Computational theory and model, from perception to action. In Multimodality in Language and Speech Systems, B. Granström, D. House, & I. Karlsson (eds), 173–207. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trofimovich, P. 2005. Spoken-word processing in native and second languages: An investigation of auditory word priming. Applied Psycholinguistic 26: 479–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yngve, V. 1970. On getting a word in edgewise. In Papers from the 6th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society , April 16–18, Robert I. Binnick (ed.). Chicago IL: CLS.
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Wang, Luojia
2022. Contrasting the primings between English and Chinese: To advance Hoey's theory of lexical priming from the perspective of culture psychology. Frontiers in Psychology 13 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue