Seminar 3 Repair
Aims for Topic 3: Repair
Seminar: How do we fix errors or make revisions to our own talk? How do others point out a problem? Are there any problems in the listener fixing the problem?
Workshop: Can you find examples of repair in conversation? What are the implications of doing repair ‘properly’?
A: Oh Sibbie's sistuh had a baby boy.
B: Who?
A: Sibbie's sister.
B: Oh really
Enfield, N.J. (2017) How we talk: The inner workings of conversation. New York: Basic Books. (p.146)
We see at every turn, whether the projected action was the right one.
Schegloff, E.A (1987) Recycled turn beginnings: A precise repair mechanism in conversation’s turn-taking organisation. In G. Button & J.R.E. Lee (Eds.) Talk and social organisation (pp. 70-85). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
The following extracts are from this topic's essential reading
Kitzinger, C. (2012) Repair. In J. Sidnell, J. & T. Stivers, T. (eds.) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 229-256). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Self repair
Activity
In your breakout groups, identify what is being repaired in each pair of examples. Ask yourselves:
What is the troublesource or problem that this repair resolves?
What are the differences between each pair of examples.
(The extracts below are taken from this topic's essential reading: Kitzinger, C. (2012) Repair. In J. Sidnell, J. & T. Stivers, T. (eds.) The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (pp. 229-256). Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell.)
Group discussion: What are the differences between the three pairs of examples?
Other-initiated repair
Open class repair initiators (Drew, 1997): ‘sorry?’ ‘pardon?’ ‘huh?’ ‘what?’
Activity
In your breakout groups, for each example of other-initiated repair below, answer the following question: What is the troublesource? (ie what is the problem the person initiating the repair is seeking to resolve?
Then discuss: What is the difference between these examples of other-initiated repair?
All examples are taken from Kendrick, K.H. (2015). "Other-initiated repair in English" (Links to an external site.), Open Linguistics, 1(1) 164–190.
Group discussion: Preference for self-repair (ie other-initiated other repair the last resort!)
Summary
Here is a useful summary/definition of repair provided by Bolden (p. 143):
Bolden, G.B. (2018). "Speaking ‘out of turn': Epistemics in action in other-initiated repair", Discourse Studies, 20(1), 142–162.
Question from the reporter:
"With the NHS (0.3) should the NHS be on the table?"
In this topic we learned about repair and how speakers fix troublesources in interaction. We now know that:
there is a preference for repair to be done as soon as possible (ie within turn or self-repair, or in the very next turn for other-initiated repair)
There is a preference or self-repair, then other initiated self-repair, that speakers have the opportunity to revise], clarify or correct the troublesource.
overall this mechanism of managing meaning in interaction enables progressivity - ie we can keep going assuming that all is well unless flagged (no news is good news!)
