Organizing a remote state of incipient talk: Push-to-talk mobile radio interaction

This study investigates the organization of conversational interaction via push-to-talk mobile radios. Operating like long-range walkie-talkies, the mobile radios mediate a remote state of incipient talk; at the push of a button, speakers can initiate, engage, disengage, and reengage turn-by-turn ta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language in society 2006-06, Vol.35 (3), p.393-418
Main Authors: VINKHUYZEN, MARGARET H. SZYMANSKI AND ERIK, WOODRUFF, PAUL M. AOKI AND ALLISON
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beeps
Coconuts
Communication
continuing state of incipient talk
Conversation
Conversation analysis
Interpersonal communication
Laughter
Linguistics
mobile radio communication
Mobile radios
Radio
reengaging and disengaging talk
Sacks, Harvey
Silence
Social interaction
Summonses
Technological change
Technology
Telephones
Walkie talkies
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Summary:This study investigates the organization of conversational interaction via push-to-talk mobile radios. Operating like long-range walkie-talkies, the mobile radios mediate a remote state of incipient talk; at the push of a button, speakers can initiate, engage, disengage, and reengage turn-by-turn talk. Eight friends used the mobile radios for one week; 50 of their conversational exchanges were analyzed using conversation analytic methods. The findings describe the contour of their conversational exchanges: how turn-by-turn talk is engaged, sustained, and disengaged. Similar to a continuing state of incipient talk in copresence, opening and closing sequences are rare. Instead, speakers engage turn-by-turn talk by immediately launching the purpose of the call. Speakers disengage turn-by-turn talk by orienting to the relevance of a lapse at sequence completion. Once engaged, the mobile radio system imposes silence between speakers' turns at talk, giving them a resource for managing a remote conversation amid ongoing copresent activities.We are grateful to Mimi and her friends for making it possible to collect this data. We also thank Jim Thornton, Marilyn Whalen, Paul Drew, Bob Moore and Luke Plurkowski for their helpful insights.
ISSN:0047-4045
1469-8013
DOI:10.1017/S0047404506060180