Clicks and percussives in English conversation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Clicks and percussives in English conversation

AU - Ogden, Richard

PY - 2013/12

Y1 - 2013/12

N2 - Clicks are known to occur in English conversation, and have traditionally been assumed to convey a!ective meaning, generally negative. This is indeed the lay interpretation of clicks. In this paper, we build on the work of Wright (2011a, b), who shows that clicks are also used in the management of sequences of talk. Firstly, we consider similarities and di!erences in the production of clicks and percussives. We consider some distributional properties of clicks in one variety of English. Drawing on a wide range of conversational data from Britain and the USA, we show some of the functions of clicks and percussives in conversation, which include stance-taking and sequence management (projection of a turn constructional unit and word-search), and handling aspects of timing between turns. We also consider some of the visual behaviours that may accompany clicks. The meaning or function of clicks and percussives, it is argued, must be considered in a fuller interactional context.

AB - Clicks are known to occur in English conversation, and have traditionally been assumed to convey a!ective meaning, generally negative. This is indeed the lay interpretation of clicks. In this paper, we build on the work of Wright (2011a, b), who shows that clicks are also used in the management of sequences of talk. Firstly, we consider similarities and di!erences in the production of clicks and percussives. We consider some distributional properties of clicks in one variety of English. Drawing on a wide range of conversational data from Britain and the USA, we show some of the functions of clicks and percussives in conversation, which include stance-taking and sequence management (projection of a turn constructional unit and word-search), and handling aspects of timing between turns. We also consider some of the visual behaviours that may accompany clicks. The meaning or function of clicks and percussives, it is argued, must be considered in a fuller interactional context.

KW - clicks

KW - non-pulmonic

KW - English

KW - conversation

KW - conversation analysis

KW - phonetics

U2 - 10.1017/S0025100313000224

DO - 10.1017/S0025100313000224

M3 - Article

SN - 0025-1003

VL - 43

SP - 299

EP - 320

JO - Journal of the International Phonetic Association

JF - Journal of the International Phonetic Association

IS - 3

ER -