Introducing English Linguistics

just wanted
to look
<$B> <#> <[> Mhm 
<$A> <#> And I said okay <,,> we’re closed <,,> <#> Out <#> <,,> so I was
moving them like making them go <{><[> out
<$B> <#> <[> Mhm 
<$A> <#> and  they were <,> trying to be cute and <,> say sweet
things and <,,> <#> To stay in <,>
(SBCSAE)
These instances of overlaps are referred to as back channels: they are ver-
bal affirmations that B is offering to A and serve to demonstrate to A that
B is listening and that she is sympathetic to the story that A is telling. The
overlaps are not an attempt by B to take the floor from A.
Of course, the linguistic characteristics of speaker turns covered in this
section only touch upon the linguistic structure inherent in turns. For
instance, in addition to having an overall structure, speaker turns tend to
begin and end with certain structures. In an analysis of two corpora of
spoken English, Tao (2003: 190–1) found that a mere twenty different
forms began 60 percent of the turns he studied. Two of the constructions
beginning turns in the excerpt above – and and mhm – ranked fourth and
fifteenth, respectively, on Tao’s list. The frequent occurrence of the forms
stems largely from the function that these forms play in conversation:
mhm as a back channel and and as a marker of addition (a use of and
that will be described in greater detail in the section below on unity of
texture).