Conversational turn-taking in a Caribbean English Creole

Abstract

Conversations in Caribbean Creole English have been described as ‘contrapuntal’ and ‘anarchic’ (Reisman, 1974a). Such descriptions contrast with that put forth by Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson for American English conversations. Repeated inspection of tape-recorded conversations from a Caribbean English Creole speaking community reveals a fundamental orderliness in the organization of turn-taking and other practices of talk-in-interaction. It is suggested that the orderliness of conversation (and of talk-in-interaction generally) is grounded in a species-specific adaptation to the contingencies of human social intercourse. The perspective of conversation analysis allows one to empirically reassess the place of ‘culture’ and the scope of diversity within human social and interactional practice.