Abstract
This study examined the ordering of acknowledgment tokens (brief utterances such as ‘mm hm’ and ‘uh huh’) produced by recipients during extended telephone conversations. The question was asked: When tokens appear in a series, is there a recognizable pattern to their arrangement? Twenty‐five series of acknowledgment tokens were analyzed and tabulated, and a mean ordinal value was computed for each token. Results showed that ‘mm hm’ and ‘uh huh’ tended to appear somewhat earlier in a series, and ‘oh’, ‘okay’ and short assessments such as ‘lovely’ tended to appear very near the end of a series. The data suggested that recipients produced a variety of tokens, in an observable pattern, as they moved from listener to speaker roles.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call