An action-specific examination of the role of answerers’ gaze orientation in managing transition relevance

Abstract

ABSTRACT We use conversation analysis to both qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate that, in a specific action context, an answerer’s gaze orientation at the end of their answer’s first verbal turn-constructional unit (TCU) is one cooperating element of a multi-resource gestalt for managing the answer-turn’s transition relevance. Specifically, gazing at (vs. away from) a questioner claims that the initial TCU is (or is not yet) transition-relevant. Findings suggest that an additional resource is prior context in the form of the amount of delay (in milliseconds) of an answer relative to its question. Other potential resources, such as the TCU’s type conformity generally and its specific status as a “Yes”- or “No”-type answer, were not associated with transition relevance. Data are 274 polar, question–answer sequences—representing the very delimited social action of relatively genuine information-seeking—drawn from videotapes of completely unstructured, face-to-face interactions between dyads of native English-speaking, adult close friends.