Discourse Approach to Turn-taking

3.2

Data and Findings

3.2.1

Data 1

Table 3.1 is made based on the table in the Appendix. It shows the relation between

the utterance form and the tone choice of the speaker’s utterance that signal turn-

eliciting or turn-holding.

Table 3.1: Speaker’s utterance that elicits a response

Tone choice

Proclaiming tone

Referring tone

Form

Falling

Rise-fall

Fall-rise

Rising

Level tone

Total

number

Question

33

14

2

49

Yes-no

2

2

1

5

wh-

30

2

1

33

tag

1

10

11

Statement

*1

72

8

14

7

101

Command

*2

4

1

2

7

Speaker’s

utterance

that elicits

turn-

taking

Back-channel

3

2

5

Question

1

1

Yes-no

wh-

tag

1

1

Statement

*1

18

2

5

25

Command

*2

1

1

Speaker’s

utterance

that

signals

turn-

holding

(back-

channel

responses)

Back-channel

1

1

Total number

132

0

11

38

9

190

*1

: ‘Statement’ refers to words, phrases, or declarative sentences.

*2

: ‘Command’ refers to a sentence starting with an imperative form of a verb.

*3

: When there are more than two utterances that signal turn-eliciting or turn-holding, the

tone of the last tone unit of the final utterance is dealt with here.

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Table 3.2 is based on Table 3.1. It shows the frequency of tones that signal turn-

eliciting or turn-holding.

Table 3.2: Frequency of tones

Tone choice

Proclaiming tone

Referring tone

Falling

Rise-fall

Fall-rise

Rising

Level tone Total number

Turn-taking

112

0

9

32

9

162

Turn-holding

20

0

2

6

0

28

Total no.

132

0

11

38

9

190

Rate (%)

69.47

0.00

5.79

20.00

4.74

100

3.2.2

Findings

The utterances that signal turn-eliciting and turn-holding are mostly statement-form

utterances. The question-form utterances including yes-no, wh-, and tag questions,

command-form utterances, and back-channels, in almost all cases, elicit turn-taking,

but hardly ever signal turn-holding. The question-form utterances that elicit turn-

taking have either falling or rising tone; however, a fall-rise (non-dominant) tone is

not selected. With yes-no and wh- questions, both tones (a falling tone and a rising

tone) are selected. Regarding the tone choice in turn-eliciting and turn-holding, about

70% of the utterances have a falling tone. Utterances with a rising tone rather than a

fall-rise tone signal turn-taking and turn-holding. Utterances with a rise-fall tone do

not elicit turn-taking nor signal turn-holding, and level-tone utterances never signal

turn-holding.

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