On the Organization of Repair in Multiperson Conversation: The Case of “Other”-Selection in Other-Initiated Repair Sequences

Abstract

This article examines a previously undocumented way in which the presence of more than two interlocutors matters for the organization of repair (Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977): when the repair initiation is addressed to—and thereby selects as the next speaker—somebody other than the speaker of the trouble-source turn (“other”-selection, for short). The speaker of the trouble-source turn is ordinarily the one who is selected to repair it (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974). Under what circumstances, then, is “other”-selection used? The analysis shows that, while rare, “other”-selection in other-initiation of repair is a systematically deployed practice. In selecting somebody other than the speaker of the trouble-source turn to provide a repair solution, the repair initiator orients to two broad considerations (sometimes concurrently): progressivity and social epistemics. The article examines how these considerations play out in a variety of contexts and considers implications of “other”-selection for our understanding of the repair organization.